Book__i££-^- 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 

THE PRINCESS 
 
gagH% 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 li 
 
 v 
 
 > 
 
 Or* 
 
 ^>- ..-V ■ • M 
 
 ^ p ^ 
 
 
 v V 
 
 1 
 
( 
 
 
 £ 
 
 )\ 
 
 \ 
 
 \^ 
 
 \ • 
 
 T 
 
 
 M 
 
 THE 
 
 PRINCESS 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED. LORD TENNYSON 
 
 WITH DRAWINGS BY 
 
 HOWARD CHANDLER CHRISTY 
 
 * \ 
 
 S> -J 
 
 THE BOBBSMERR1LL COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 N 
 
 i (( 
 
Copyright, H'l ! 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 
 
 n' 
 
 594? 
 
PROLOGUE 
 

 ^s3 
 
 fg 
 
 ; 
 
 .,•* 
 
 
 s* 
 
 s» 
 
 • 
 
 
 .- . ^ 
 
 
 
 
 : 
 

 »~ 
 
 
 3r 
 
 
 !& ^ 
 
 PROLOGUE 
 
 Sir \V\i.rnt Vivian all a summer's day 
 Gave his broad lawns until the set of sun 
 I'p to tin people; thither flock'd at noon 
 His tenants, wife and child, and thither half 
 The neighboring borough with their Institute. 
 Of "Inch he was the patron. I was there 
 From college, visiting the son,— tin son 
 A Walter too. — with others of our -• t. 
 Five others; we wen seven at Vivian-place. 
 
 And me that morning Walter show'd the 
 
 llOU-c, 
 
 Greek, set with busts. From vases in tlu hall 
 Flowers of all heavens, and lovelier than their 
 
 names, 
 Grew side bj side; and on the pavement lav 
 Carved stones of tin Abbey-ruin in the park. 
 Huge Ammonites, and the h"r>t bones of Time; 
 And on the tables every clime and aire 
 Jumbled together; celts and calumets, 
 Claymore and snow-shoe, toys in lava, fans 
 Of sandal, amber, ancient ros 
 
 Laborious orient ivory sphere in sphere, 
 The cursed .Malayan crease, and battle-clubs 
 From the isles of palm: and higher on the 
 
 wall-. 
 Betwixt the monstrous horns of ilk and deer, 
 Hi- own fori fathers" arms and armor liun^r. 
 
 And "this." he -aid. *was Hugh's at Agin- 
 court : 
 And that was old Sir Ralph's at Ascalon. 
 A good knight he! we keep a chronicle 
 
 With all about him," — which he brought, 
 
 and I 
 Dived in a hoard of tales that dealt with 
 
 knights 
 Half-legend, half-historic, count- and kinijs 
 Who laid about them at their wills and died; 
 And mi\t with these a lady, one that arm'd 
 Her own fair head, and sallying thro' 
 
 the gat< . 
 Had beat her foes with slaughter from her 
 
 "alls. 
 
THE PRIN CESS 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 : 
 
 
 » 
 
 •(> miracle « > t" women,' said the book, 
 '() noble heart who, being strait-besieged 
 By this wild king to force her to his wish, 
 Nor bent, nor broke, nor shunn'd a soldier's 
 
 death, 
 But now when all was lost or seem'd as lost — 
 Her stature mop' than mortal in the burst 
 Of sunrise, her arm lifted, eyes on fire — 
 Brake with a blast of trumpets from the gate, 
 And. falling on them like a thunderbolt, 
 She trampled sonic beneath her horses' heels, 
 And .some were whelm'd with missiles of the 
 
 wall, 
 And some were pusll'd with lances from the 
 
 rock, 
 And part were drown'd within the whirling 
 
 brook : 
 
 miracle of noble womanhood!' 
 
 So sang the gallant, glorious chronicle: 
 And. I all rapt in this, "Come out,' he said. 
 'To the Abbey ; there is Aunt Elizabeth 
 And sister Lilia with the rest.' We went — 
 
 1 kept the book and had my finger in it — 
 Down thro' the park. Strange was the sight 
 
 to me; 
 For all the sloping pasture nuimiur'd, sown 
 With happy faces and with holiday. 
 There moved the multitude, a thousand heads; 
 The patient leaders of their Institute 
 Taught them with facts. One rear'd a font 
 
 of rtone 
 And drew, from butts of water on the slope, 
 The fountain of the moment, playing, now 
 A twisted snake, and now a rain of pearls, 
 Or steep-up spout whereon the gilded hall 
 Danced like a wisp: and somewhat lower down 
 A man with knobs and wires and vials fired 
 A cannon! Echo answer' d in her sleep 
 From hollow fields: and here were telescopes 
 For azure views ; and there a group of girls 
 In circle waited, whom the electric shock 
 Dislink'd with shrieks and laughter; round 
 
 the lake 
 
 A little clock-work steamer paddling plied 
 And shook the lilies: perch'd about the knolls 
 A do/en angry models jetted steam; 
 A petty railway ran; a fire balloon 
 Rose gem-like up before the dusky groves 
 And dropt a fairy parachute and past; 
 And there thro' twenty post-, of telegraph 
 They flash'd a saucy message to and fro 
 Between the mimic stations: so that sport 
 Went hand in band with science: otherwhere 
 Pure sport : a herd of boys with clamor howl'd 
 And stump'd the wicket : babies roll'd about 
 Like tumbled fruit in grass: and men and 
 
 maids 
 Arranged a country dance, and flew thro' 
 
 light 
 And shadow, while the twangling violin 
 Struck up with Soldier-laddie, and overhead 
 The broad ambrosial aisles of lofty lime 
 Made noise with Iwes and breeze from end to 
 
 end. 
 Strange was the sight and smacking of the 
 
 time; 
 And long we gazed, but satiated at length 
 Came to the ruins. High-arch'd and ivy- 
 
 claspt, 
 Of finest Gothic lighter than a fire, 
 Thro' one wide chasm of time and frost they 
 
 gave 
 The park, the crowd, the house: but all within 
 The sward was trim ;us any garden lawn. 
 And here we lit on Aunt Elizabeth, 
 And Lilia with the rest, and lady friends 
 From neighbor scat> : and there was Ralph 
 
 himself. 
 A broken statue propt against the wall. 
 As gay as any. Lilia, wild with sport. 
 Half child, half woman as she was. had wound 
 A scarf of orange round the stony helm, 
 And robed the shoulders in a rosy silk. 
 That made the old warrior from his ivied nook 
 Glow like a sunbeam. Near his tomb a feast 
 Shone, silver-set: about it lay the guests, 
 And there we join'd them: then the maiden 
 
 aunt 
 
A MEDLEY 
 
 Took this fair day for text, and from it 
 
 preach'd 
 An universal culture for the crowd. 
 And all tilings great. Hut we, un worthier, 
 
 told 
 
 Of college: he had climb'd across the spik. s, 
 And he had squeezed himself betwixt the bars, 
 And he had breathed the Proctor's dogs; and 
 
 one 
 Discussed his tutor, rough to common men. 
 Hut honeying at the whisper of a lord: 
 Ami one the .Master, as a rogue in grain 
 \ iM with sanctimonious theory. 
 
 Hut while they talk*d. above their heads I 
 
 >a\v 
 
 The feudal warrior lady-clad; which brought 
 My book to mind, and opening this I read 
 Of old Sir Kalph a page or two thai rang 
 With tilt and tourney; then the tale of her 
 That drove her foes with slaughter from her 
 
 walls, 
 And much I praised her nohleiiess, and 
 
 'Where,' 
 A-k'd Walter, patting Lilia's head- sh< lay 
 Beside him — 'lives there such a woman now?' 
 
 Quick answerM I. ilia: 'There are thousands 
 
 now 
 Such women : hut convention beats them down ; 
 It i- but bringing up; no more than that. 
 You 11K11 have done it — how I hate you all! 
 Ah, were I something great! I wish I were 
 Some might} poetess, I would shame 
 
 von then. 
 That love to keep us children. ( ). I wish 
 That I were somi ureal princess, I would build 
 Far off from men a college like a man".-. 
 And I would teach them all that men are 
 
 taught : 
 We are twice a- quick !* And here shi shook 
 
 aside 
 The hand that play'd the patron with her 
 
 curls. 
 
 And "in 1 -aid smiling: 'Pretty were the 
 
 sight 
 If our old hall- could change their sex, and 
 
 flaunt 
 With prude- for proctors, dowagers for deans, 
 And sweet girl graduati - in th< ir golden hair. 
 I think they should not wear our rusty gowns, 1 . 
 
 Hut mo\c as rich as Emperor- ths, or Ralph 
 
 Who shine- -o in the corner; yet I fear. 
 If there were many I. ilia- in the brood, 
 However deep you might embower tin nest, 
 Some boy would spy it.' 
 
 At this upon the sward 
 She tapt her tiny silken-sandall'd foot: 
 •That*- your light way; but I would make it 
 
 death 
 For any male thing hut to peep at us.' 
 
 Petulant she spoke, and at herself she 
 laugh'd : 
 A rosebud set with little wilful thorns. 
 And sweet as English air could make her. she! 
 Hut Walter hail'd a score of names upon her, 
 And 'pettv Ogress,' and 'ungrateful Puss,' 
 Anil -won he long*d at college, only long'd, 
 All else wa- well, for she-society. 
 They boated and they cricketed: they talk'd 
 At wine, in chili-, of art. of politics; 
 They lost their weeks; they vext the soul- of 
 
 dean- : 
 Tin \ rude: they helled: made a hundred 
 
 frii nds, 
 And caught the blossom of the flying terms. 
 Hut miss'd the mignonette of Vivian-place, 
 
 The little hearth flower I. ilia. Thus he spok< . 
 Part banter, part affection. 
 
 'True' she said. 
 'We doubt not that. O. yes, you miss'd us 
 
 much ! 
 1*11 stake my ruby ring upon it you did.' 
 
 She held it out : and a- a parrot turns 
 I'p thro' gill wire.- a crafty loving eye, 
 And takes a lady's finger with all care. 
 
THE PRIN CESS 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 Ami bites it for true heart and not for harm, 
 So he with I. ilia's. Daintily --lu- shriek'd 
 Ami wrung it. "Doubt my word again!' he 
 
 said. 
 'Come, Listen! here is proof thai you were 
 
 miss'd : 
 We seven stay'd at Christmas up to read; 
 And there we took one tutor as to read. 
 The hard-grain'd Muses of the cube and 
 
 square 
 Were out of season; never man, I think. 
 So moulder'd in a sinecure as lie; 
 For while our cloisters echo'd frosty feet, 
 And our long walks were stript as hare as 
 
 brooms, 
 We did but talk you over, pledge you all 
 In wassail ; often, like as many girls — 
 Sick for the hollies and the yews of home — 
 As many little trifling Lilias — play'd 
 Charades and riddles as at Christinas here, 
 And what's my thought and when and where 
 
 and how, 
 And often told a tale from mouth to mouth 
 As here at Christmas. 9 
 
 She remember'd that ; 
 A pleasant game, she thought. She liked it 
 
 more 
 Than magic music, forfeits, all the rest. 
 But these — what kind of tales did men tell 
 
 men. 
 She wonderM, by themselves? 
 
 A half disdain 
 Perch'd on the pouted blossom of her lip-; 
 And Walter nodded at me: '//<■ began. 
 The rest would follow, each in turn: and so 
 We forged a sevenfold story. Kind? what 
 
 kind? 
 Chimeras, crotchets, Christmas solecisms; 
 Seven-headed monsters only made to kill 
 Time by the fire in winter.' 
 
 'Kill him now. 
 The tyrant ! Kill him in the summer too,' 
 Said I. ilia; 'Why not now?" the maiden aunt. 
 'Why not a summer's as a winter's tale? 
 
 A tale for summer as befits the time, 
 
 And something it should be to suit the place, 
 
 Heroic, for a hero lies beneath, 
 
 Grave, solemn !' 
 
 Waller warp'd his mouth at this 
 To something so mock-solemn, that I laugh'd, 
 And I, ilia woke with sudden-shrilling mirth 
 An echo like a ghostly woodpecker 
 
 Hid in the ruins: till the maiden aunt — 
 A little sense of wrong had touch'd 
 
 her face 
 With color— turn'd to me with 'As you will; 
 Heroic if you will, or what you will. 
 Or be yourself your hero if you will.' 
 
 'Take Lilia, then, for heroine." clamor'd he. 
 'And make her some great princess, six feet 
 
 high. 
 Grand, epic, homicidal: and be you 
 The prince to win her!' 
 
 'Then follow me, the prince,' 
 I answered, 'each be hero in his turn! 
 Seven and yet one, like shadows in a dream. — 
 Heroic seems our princess as required — 
 But something made to suit with time and 
 
 place, 
 A Gothic ruin and a Grecian house. 
 A talk of college and of ladies' rights, 
 A feudal knight in silken masquerade. 
 And. yonder, shrieks and strange experiments 
 For which the good Sir Ralph had burnt them 
 
 all— 
 This were a medley! we should have him back 
 Who told the "Winter's Tale" to do it for us. 
 Xo matter; we will say whatever comes. 
 And let the ladies sing us. if they will. 
 From time to time, some ballad or a song 
 To give us breathing-space.' 
 
 So I began. 
 And the rest follow'd : and the women sang 
 Between the rougher voices of the men. 
 Like linnets in the pauses of the wind: 
 And here I give the storv and the songs. 
 
PART ONE 
 
/ v^ ^MuillThttilffr OlfSJaNc \ [V 
 

 PART 
 
 A Prince I was, blue-eyed, and fair in face, 
 Of temper amorous as the first of May, 
 With lengths of yellow ringlet, like a girl, 
 
 For nil my cradle shone the Northern -.tar. 
 
 There lived an ancienl legend in our house. 
 Some sorcerer, whom a far-off grandsire burnl 
 Because he cast no shadow, had foretold, 
 Dying, that none of all our blood should know 
 The shadow from the substance, and that one 
 
 Should come to fight with shadows and to 
 
 fall; 
 For so, my mother said, the story ran. 
 And, truly, waking dreams were, more or less, 
 An old and strangi affection of the house. 
 Myself too had weird seizures, Heaven knows 
 
 what! 
 On a sudden in the midst of men and day, 
 And while I walk'd and talk'd as heretofore, 
 I seem'd to move among a world of ghosts, 
 
 And feel myself the shadow of a dream. 
 Our great court-Galen poised hi- gilt-head 
 cane. 
 
 ONE 
 
 And paw'd his heard, and imilhr'd 'catah ps\.' 
 My mother pitying made a thousand prayers. 
 My mother was as mild as ::u_\ saint, 
 Half-canonized by all that look'd on her. 
 So gracious was her tact and tenderness; 
 But my good father thought a king a 
 
 king- 
 He cared not for the affection of the house; 
 lie held his sceptre like a pendant's wand 
 To lash offence, end with long arms and hands 
 Reach'd out and pick'd offenders from the 
 
 mass 
 For judgment. 
 
 Now it chanced that I had bi 
 
 While life "a-- yet in hud and blade, InlrothM 
 To one, a neighboring Princess. She to me 
 Was prow wedded with a bootless calf 
 At eight years old: and --till from time to time 
 Came murmurs of her beauty from the South. 
 And of her brethren, youths of puissance; 
 And still I wore her picture by my heart, 
 And one dark tress; and all around them 
 both 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 Sweet thoughts would swarm as bees about 
 their queen. 
 
 But when the days drew nigh that I should 
 
 wed, 
 My father .sent ambassadors with furs 
 And jewels, gifts, to fetch her. These brought 
 
 back 
 A present, a great labor of the loom ; 
 And therewithal an answer vague as wind. 
 Besides, they saw the king; he took the gifts; 
 He said there was a compact ; that was true ; 
 But then she had a will; was he to blame? 
 And maiden fancies ; loved to live alone 
 Among her women ; certain, would not wed. 
 
 That morning in the presence room I stood 
 With Cyril and with Florian, my two friends: 
 The first a gentleman of broken means — 
 His father's fault — but given to starts and 
 
 bursts 
 Of revel; and the last, my other heart, 
 And almost my half-self, for still we moved 
 Together, twinn'd as horse's ear and eye. 
 
 Now, while they spake, I saw my father's 
 
 face 
 Grow long and troubled like a rising moon, 
 Inflamed with wrath. He started on his feet, 
 Tore the king's letter, snow'd it down, and 
 
 rent 
 The wonder of the loom thro' warp and woof 
 From skirt to skirt ; and at the last he sware 
 That he would send a hundred thousand men, 
 And bring her in a whirlwind; then he chew'd 
 The thrice-turn'd cud of wrath, and cook'd 
 
 his spleen, 
 Communing with his captains of the war. 
 
 At last I spoke: 'My father, let me go. 
 It cannot be but some gross error lies 
 In this report, this answer of a king 
 Whom all men rate as kind and hospitable; 
 Or, maybe, I myself, my bride once seen, 
 
 Whate'er my grief to find her less than fame, 
 May rue the bargain made.' And Florian 
 
 said : 
 'I have a sister at the foreign court, 
 Who moves about the Princess; she, you 
 
 know. 
 Who wedded with a nobleman from thence. 
 He, dying lately, left her, as I hear, 
 The lady of three castles in that land; 
 Thro' her this matter might be sifted clean.' 
 And Cyril, whisper'd : "Take me with you too.' 
 Then laughing, 'What if these weird seizures 
 
 come 
 Upon you in those lands, and no one near 
 To point you out the shadow from the truth! 
 Take me; I'll serve you better in a strait; 
 I grate on rusty hinges here.' But 'No !' 
 Roar'd the rough king, 'you shall not ; we 
 
 ourself 
 Will crush her pretty maiden fancies dead 
 In iron gauntlets ; break the council up.' 
 
 But when the council broke, I rose and past 
 Thro' the wild woods that hung about the 
 
 town ; 
 Found a still place, and pluck'd her likeness 
 
 out ; 
 Laid it on flowers, and watch'd it lying 
 
 bathed 
 In the green gleam of dewy-tassell'd trees. 
 What were those fancies? wherefore break her 
 
 troth? 
 Proud look'd the lips ; but while I meditated 
 A wind arose and rush'd upon the South, 
 And shook the songs, the whispers, and the 
 
 shrieks 
 Of the wild woods together, and a Voice 
 Went with it, "Follow, follow, thou shalt win.' 
 
 Then, ere the silver sickle of that month 
 Became her golden shield. I stole from court 
 With Cyril and with Florian, unperceived, 
 Cat-footed thro' the town and half in dread 
 To hear mv father's clamor at our backs 
 
afc: 
 
A MEDLEY 
 
 With 'Ho!' from some bay-window shake the 
 
 night; 
 Hut all was quiet. From the bastion'd walls 
 Like threaded spiders, one by one, we diropt, 
 Ami flying reach'd the frontier; then we crost 
 To a livelier land; and so by liltli and grange, 
 And vims, and blowing bosks of wilderness, 
 We gain'd the mother-city thick with towers, 
 And in the imperial palace found the kinj^. 
 
 His name was (Jama: crack'd and si 
 
 his 
 
 Hut bland the smile that like a wrinkling wind 
 On glass; water drove his cheek in lines; 
 A little drv old man, without a star. 
 Not like a king. Three days he feasted us. 
 And on the fourth I spake of wliv we came, 
 And in}' betroth'd. 'You do us. Prince,' lie 
 
 said. 
 
 Airing a snowy hand and signet gem, 
 'All honor. We remember love ourself 
 In our sweel youth. There did a compact 
 
 pass 
 Long summers back, a kind of ceremony — 
 I think tlu year in which our olives fail'd. 
 I would you had her. I'rince. with all my 
 
 heart. 
 With my full heart; hut there were widows 
 
 here. 
 
 Two uido»s. Lady Psyche, Lady Blanche; 
 
 They fed her theories, in and out of plan 
 Maintaining that with equal husbandry 
 The woman Wen an equal to the man. 
 
 They harp'd on this; with this our banquets 
 
 rang; 
 Our dances broke and buzz'd in knots of talk; 
 Nothing lint this; m\ very ears "ere hot 
 To heai- them. Knowledge, so my daughter 
 
 held. 
 
 Was all in all ; they had hut been, she thought. 
 As children; they must lose the child, assume 
 The woman. Then, sir, awful odes she wrote, 
 Too awful, sure, for what they treated of. 
 Hut all she is and does i> awful: odes 
 
 About this losing of the child; and rhymes 
 And dismal lyrics, prophesying chain 
 Beyond all reason. These the women sang; 
 And they that know such things — I sought 
 
 hut peace; 
 No cntic I — would call tin in masterpieces. 
 TIm v master'd me. At last sin begg'd a boon, 
 A certain summer palace which I have 
 Hard by \k\[v father's frontier. I said no, 
 Yet being an easy man, gave it : and thi n . 
 All wild to found an University 
 For maidens, on the spur she fled; and more 
 We knew not,-- only this: they see no men, %». ..„ 
 
 Not evi n her brother Arac, nor the twins 
 Her brethren, tho' they love her, look upon j/ 
 
 her 
 As on a kind of paragon; and I— 
 Pardon me saving it wire much loth to breed 
 Dispute betwixt myself and mine; but since 
 And I confess with right y on think me hound 
 In some sort, I can give you letters to her; 
 And yet, to speak the truth, I rate your 
 
 chance 
 Almost at naked nothing.' 
 
 Thus the king; 
 And I. tho' nettled that he seem'd to slur 
 
 With garrulous case and oily courtesies 
 Our formal compact, yet. not less- all frets 
 Hut dialing nu on tire to rind my bridi 
 Went forth again with hoth my friends. 
 
 We rode 
 Many a long league hack to the North. 
 
 At last 
 From hills that look'd across a land ni' hopi 
 We drop! w ith evening on .1 rustic town 
 Sit in a gleaming river's cresceni curve, 
 Clos, at the boundary of the liberties; 
 Then, enter'd an old hostel, call'd mine host 
 'l'o council, plied him with his richest wines, 
 And show'd tin late writ letters of the king. 
 
 II. with a long low sibilation, stared 
 As blank as death in marble; then exclaim'd, 
 Averring it was clear against all rules 
 
 ,,^&\\ 
 
 tf 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 
 
 ■ m 
 
 For any man to go; hut as his brain 
 Began to mellow, 'If the ki nj4,." he said, 
 'Had given us letters, was he bound to speak? 
 The king would hear him out;' and at tin 
 
 last 
 Tlic summer of the vine in all his veins — 
 'No dcubl that we might make it worth his 
 
 while. 
 
 She oner had past that way; he heard her 
 
 speak : 
 She scared him; life! he never saw the like; 
 Sin look'd as grand as doomsday and as 
 
 -rave ! 
 And he, he reverenced his liege lady there; 
 lie always made a point to post with mares; 
 His daughter and his housemaid were the 
 
 ho\ s ; 
 The land, he understood. Cor miles about 
 Was till'd by women; all the swine were sows, 
 Aial all the dogs' — 
 
 Hut while he jested thus, 
 A thought flash'd thro* me which I clothed in 
 
 act. 
 Remembering how we three presented Maid. 
 Or Nymph, or Goddess, at high tide of feast. 
 In masque or pageant at my father's court. 
 We sent mine host [a purchase female gear; 
 He brought it. and 1. .nself. a sight to shake 
 Tin' midriff of despair with laughter, holp 
 To lace us up. till each in maiden plumes 
 We rustled : him we gave a costly bribe 
 To guerdon sdence, mounted our good steeds. 
 And boldly ventured on the liberties. 
 
 We follow \1 up the river as we rode, 
 And rode till midnight, when the college lights 
 Began to glister firefly-like in copse 
 And linden alley; then we past an arch, 
 Whereon a woman-statue rose with wings 
 From four-wing'd horses dark against the 
 
 stars. 
 And some inscription ran along the front. 
 Hut deep in shadow. Further on we gain'd 
 A little street half garden and half house, 
 
 Hut scarce could hear each, other speak for 
 
 noise 
 Of clocks and chimes, like silver hammers 
 
 falling 
 On silver anvils, and the splash and stir 
 Of fountains spouted up and showering down 
 111 meshes of the jasmine and the rose: 
 And all about us peal'd the nightingale, 
 Rapt in her song and careless of the snare. 
 
 There stood a bust of Pallas for a sign, 
 By two sphere lamps blazon'd like Heaven and 
 Earth 
 
 With constellation and with continent. 
 Above an entry. Riding in. we call'd; 
 A plump-arniM ostleress and a stable wench 
 Came running al the call, and help'd us down. 
 Then step! a buxom hostess forth, and sail'd, 
 Pull-blown, before us into rooms which gave 
 Upon a pillar'd porch, the liases lost 
 In laurel. Her we ask'd of that and this. 
 And who were tutors. 'Lady Blanche,' she 
 
 said, 
 •And Lady Psyche.' 'Which was prettiest. 
 Hist natured?' 'Lady Psyche.' 'Hers are 
 
 we,' 
 One voice, we cried; and I sat down and wrote 
 In such a hand as when a Held of corn 
 Hows all its ears before the roaring Fast: 
 
 'Three ladies of the Northern empire pray 
 Your Highness would enroll them with your 
 
 own, 
 As Lady Psyche's pupils.' 
 
 This I seal'd; 
 The seal was Cupid bent above a scroll. 
 And o'er his head Iranian \ enus hung, 
 And raised the blinding bandage from his 
 
 eves. 
 I gave the letter to he sent with dawn; 
 And then to bed. where half in doze I seem'd 
 To float about a glimmering night, and watch 
 A full sea glazed with muffled moonlight swell 
 On some dark shore just seen that it was rich. 
 
SONG 
 
 As thro* Hip land at eve we went, 
 And pluck'd the ripen'd ears, 
 
As thro' the land at eve we went, 
 
 Ami pluck'd the ripen'd ears. 
 We fell out, my wife and I. 
 0, we fell out, I know not why. 
 
 And kiss'd again with tears. 
 And blessings on the falling out 
 
 That all the move endears, 
 Whan we fall out with those we love 
 
 And kiss again with tears! 
 For when we came where lies the child 
 
 We lost in other years, 
 There above the little grave, 
 O, there above the little grave, 
 
 We kiss'd again with tears. 
 

 H«»" 
 
P A R_T TWO 
 
■I • • 1- 
 
 
'ii 
 
 
 B 
 
 i a 
 
 
 1 i 
 
 IV. 
 
 V 
 
 5 
 
 V 
 
 
 1'! 
 
 ;NMV 
 
 PART TWO 
 
 At break of day the College Portress came; 
 
 Sin broughl us academic silks, in hue 
 
 The lilac, with a .silkm hood to each, 
 
 And zoned with gold; and now when thesi 
 
 were on, 
 And we as rich as moths from dusk cocoons, 
 She curtseying her obeisance, let us know 
 The Princess [da waited. Out we paced, 
 I first, and following thro' the porch that 
 
 sang 
 All round with laurel, issued in a court 
 Compact (it lucid marbles, boss'd with lengths 
 Of elassi,- frieze, with ample awnings gay 
 Betwixt the pillars, and with great urns of 
 
 flowi rs. 
 The Muses and the Graces, group'd in threes, 
 Enring'd a billowing fountain in the midst, 
 And here and then on lattice edges lay 
 Or hook or lute; but hastily we past. 
 And up a flight of .stairs into the hall. 
 
 There at a hoard by tome and paper ^at. 
 With two tame leopards couch'd beside her 
 
 thr 
 
 All beauty compass'd in a female form, 
 The Princess; liker to the inhabitant 
 Of some clear planet close upon the sun. 
 Than our man's earth: such eyes were in her 
 
 head, 
 And so much graci and power, breathing 
 
 down 
 From over her arch'd brows, with everj turn 
 Lived thro' her to the tips of her long hands. 
 And to hi i fi et. She rose her hi ight, and 
 
 said : 
 
 'We give you welcome; not without redound 
 Of use and glory to yourselves yi come, 
 The first-fruits of the stranger; after) 
 And that full voice which circles round the 
 gravi . 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 it 
 
 
 i 
 
 Will rank you nobly, mingled up with me. 
 What! arc tin ladies of your land so tall?' 
 'We of the court." said Cyril. 'From the 
 
 court," 
 She answered, "then ye know the Prince?' and 
 
 lie: 
 
 'The climax of his age! as tho' there were 
 - 
 iXKi^T *''"-' rose in !l 'l the world, your Highness that. 
 
 He worships your ideal.' She replied: 
 
 'We scarcely thought in our own hall to hear 
 
 This barren verbiage, current among men, 
 
 Light coin, the tinsel clink of compliment. 
 
 Your flight from out your bookless wilds 
 
 would seem 
 As arguing love of knowledge and of power; 
 Your language proves you still the child. 
 
 Indeed, 
 We dream not of him ; when we set our hand 
 To this great work, we purposed with ourself 
 Never to wed. You likewise will do well, 
 Ladies, in entering here, to cast and fling 
 The tricks which make us toys of men, that so 
 Some future time, if so indeed you will. 
 You may with those self-styled our lords ally 
 Your fortunes, justlier balanced, scale with 
 
 scale." 
 
 At those high words, we, conscious of our- 
 selves, 
 Perused the matting; then an officer 
 Rose up, and read the statutes, such as these: 
 Not for three years to correspond with home; 
 Not for three years to cross the liberties ; 
 Not for three years to speak with any men ; 
 And many more, which hastily subscribed. 
 We enter'd on the boards. And 'Now,' she 
 
 cried, 
 'Ye are green wood, see ye warp not. Look, 
 
 our hall! 
 Our statues ! — not of those that men desire, 
 Sleek Odalisques, or oracles of mode, 
 Nor stunted squaws of West or East ; but she 
 That taught the Sabine how to rule, and she 
 The foundress of the Babylonian wall, 
 
 The Carian Artemisia strong in war, 
 The Rhodope that built the pyramid, 
 Clelia, Cornelia, with the Pahnyrene 
 
 That fought Aurelian, and the Roman brows 
 Of Agrippina. Dwell with these, and lose 
 Convention, since to look on noble forms 
 .Makes noble thro' the sensuous organism 
 That which is higher. O, lift your natures up; 
 Embrace our aims; work out your freedom. 
 
 Girls, 
 Knowledge is now no more a fountain seal'd ! 
 Drink deep, until the habits of the slave, 
 The sins of emptiness, gossip and spite, 
 And slander, die. Better not be at all 
 Than not he noble. Leave us; you may go. 
 To-day the Lady Psyche will harangue 
 The fresh arrivals of the week before; 
 For they press in from all the provinces, 
 And fill the hive." 
 
 She spoke, and bowing waved 
 Dismissal; back again we crost the court 
 To Lady Psyche's. As we enter'd in, 
 There sat along the forms, like morning doves 
 That sun their milky bosoms on the thatch, 
 A patient range of pupils; she herself 
 Erect behind a desk of satin-wood, 
 A quick brunette, well-moulded, falcon-eyed, 
 And on the hither side, or so she look'd. 
 Of twenty summers. At her left a child, 
 In shining draperies, headed like a star, 
 Her maiden babe, a double April old, 
 Aglai'a slept. We sat: the lady glanced; 
 Then Florian, but no livelier than the dame 
 That whisper'd 'Asses' ears' among the sedge, 
 'My sister." 'Comely, too, by all that's fair,' 
 Said Cyril. 'O, hush, hush!' and she began. 
 
 'This world was once a fluid haze of light, 
 Till toward the centre set the starry tides, 
 And eddied into suns, that wheeling cast 
 The planets; then the monster, then the man; 
 Tattoo'd or woaded, winter-clad in skins. 
 Raw from the prime, and crushing down his 
 mate. 
 
A MEDLEY 
 
 As yet we find in barbarous isles, and here 
 Among the lowest.' 
 
 Tllcrelip. II she took 
 
 A bird's-eye view of all the ungracious past; 
 Glanced at the legendary Amazon 
 As emblematic of a oobler age; 
 Appraised the Lycian custom, spoke of those 
 That lay at wine with Lar and Lucumo; 
 Ran down the Persian, Grecian, Roman lines 
 Of empire, and the woman's state in each, 
 How far from just; till warming with her 
 
 theme 
 She fulmined out her scorn of laws Salique 
 
 And little-footed China, touch'd on .Mahomet 
 With much contempt, and came to chivalry, 
 When some respect, however slight, was paid 
 To woman, superstition all awry. 
 However, then commenced the dawn: a beam 
 Had slanted forward, falling in a land 
 Of promise: fruit would follow. Deep, indeed, 
 Their debt of thanks to her who first had 
 
 dared 
 To leap tlie rotten pales of prejudice, 
 Disyoke their necks from custom, and assert 
 None lordlier than themselves hut that which 
 
 made 
 Woman and man. She had founded; they 
 
 must build. 
 Here might they learn whatever men were 
 
 taught. 
 
 Let them not fear, some said their luad- were 
 
 less ; 
 Some men's wire small, not tin v the least of 
 
 men : 
 For often fineness compensated size. 
 Besides the brain was like the hand, and grew 
 With using; thence the man's, if more was 
 
 more. 
 lie took advantage of his strength to he 
 First in lh. field: some ages had been l"st : 
 Hut woman ripen'd earlier, and her life 
 Was longer; and albeit their glorious nanus 
 Wen fewer, SCatter'd stars, yet since in truth 
 The highest is tin- measure of tie man, 
 
 And not the Kaffir, Hottentot, .Malay. 
 
 Nor tlio.se horn handed breakers of the glebe, 
 
 Hut Homer. Plato, Verulam, even so 
 
 With woman: and in arts of government 
 Elizabeth and others, arts of war 
 The peasant Joan and others, arts of graci 
 Sappho and others vied with any man: 
 And. last not least, she who had left her place, 
 And bow'd her state to them, that they might 
 
 grow 
 To use and power on this oasis, lapt 
 In the arms of leisure, .sacred from the blight 
 Of ancient influence and scorn. 
 
 At last 
 She rose upon a wind of prophecy 
 Dilating on the future: 'everywhen 
 Two heads in council, two beside the hearth, 
 Two in the tangled business of the world. 
 Two in the liberal offices id' life. 
 
 Two plummets dropt from one to sound the 
 abyss 
 
 Of science and the secrets of the mind: 
 Musician, painter, sculptor, critic, mori : 
 And everywhere the broad and bounteous 
 
 Earth 
 Should hear a double growth of thus, rare 
 
 souls, 
 
 PoetS, whose thoughts enrich the blood of the 
 world." 
 
 She ended here, and hcckouM us: tin rest 
 
 Parted; and. glowing full faced welcome, she 
 
 Began to address us. and was moving on 
 In oral ulation. till as when a boat 
 Tacks and tin slacken*.! sail flaps, all her voice 
 Faltering anil fluttering in her throat, she 
 cried. 
 
 'My brother!" 'Well, my sister.' *<>." she 
 
 said. 
 'What do Mill Inn.- and in this dr. SS? and 
 
 this, ? 
 
 Why, who an- this,' a wolf within the fold! 
 
 A pack of wolves ! th, Lord be gracious to 
 
 flfe 
 
 Si 
 
 '• 
 
 *-; 
 
 
 I v, 
 
 
 
' t V 
 
THE PRIN CESS 
 
 ■ 
 
 A plot, a plot, a plot, to ruin all !' 
 
 'No plot, no plot,' lie answered. 'Wretched 
 
 boy, 
 How saw you not the inscription on the gate, 
 Let xo max enteb ix on pain of death?' 
 'And it' I had,' he answer'd, "Who could think 
 The softer Adams of your Academe, 
 () sister, Sirens tho' they be, were such 
 As ehanled (in the blanching bones of men?' 
 'Hut you will find it otherwise," she said. 
 'You .jest: ill jesting with edge-tools! my vow 
 Hinds me to speak, and () that iron will. 
 That axelike edge unVinable, our Head. 
 The Princess!' 'Well then. Psyche, take my 
 
 life. 
 And nail me like a weasel on a grange 
 For warning; bury me beside the gate, 
 And cut this epitaph above my bones: 
 Here lies a brother by n sister slain, 
 All for the common good of womankind, .' 
 'Let me die too," said Cyril, 'having seen 
 And heard the Lady Psyche.' 
 
 I struck in : 
 'Albeit so niask'd. madam, I love the truth: 
 Receive it, and in me behold the Prince 
 Your countryman, affianced years ago 
 To the Lady Ida. Here, for here she was. 
 And thus — what other way was left? — I 
 
 came.' 
 '() sir, O Prince. I have no country, none : 
 If any, this; but none. Whate'er I was 
 Disrooted, what I am is grafted here. 
 Affianced, sir? love-whispers may not breathe 
 Within this vestal limit, and how should I. 
 Who am not mine, say, live? The thunderbolt 
 Hangs silent : but prepare. I speg.k, it falls.' 
 'Yet pause," I said: 'for that inscription there, 
 I think no more of deadly lurks therein. 
 Than in a clapper clapping in a garth. 
 To scar-' the fowl from fruit: if more there 
 
 be. 
 If more and acted on, what follows? war: 
 Your own work niarr'd; for this your 
 
 Academe, 
 
 Whichever side be victor, in the halloo 
 
 Will topple to the trumpet down, and pass 
 With all fair theories only made to gild 
 A stonnless summer.' 'Let the Princess judge 
 Of that." she said: 'farewell, sir — and to you. 
 
 I shudder at the sequel, but I go.' 
 
 'Are you that Lady Psyche,' I rejoin'd, 
 'The fifth in line from that old Florian. 
 Yet hangs his portrait in my father's hall— 
 The gaunt old baron witli bis beetle brow 
 Sun-shaded in the heat of dusty fights— 
 As he bestrode my grandsire, when he fell. 
 And all else fled? we point to it, and we say. 
 The loyal warmth of Florian is not cold. 
 But branches current yet in kindred veins.' 
 'Are you that Psyche,' Florian added: 'she 
 With whom I sang about the morning hills, 
 Flung ball, flew kite, and raced the purple fly. 
 And snared the squirrel of the glen? are you 
 That Psyche, wont to bind my throbbing 
 
 brow. 
 To smooth my pillow, mix the foaming 
 
 draught 
 Of fever, tell me pleasant tales, and read 
 My sickness down to happy dreams? are you 
 That brother-sister Psyche, both in one? 
 You were that Psyche, but what arc 
 
 you now?' 
 'You are that Psyche,' Cyril said, 'for whom 
 I would be that forever which I seem, 
 Woman, if I might sit beside your feet, 
 And glean your scattcr'd sapience.' 
 
 Then once more, 
 'Are you that Lady Psyche." I began, 
 'That on her bridal morn before she past 
 From all her old companions, when the king 
 Kiss'd her pale cheek, declared that ancient 
 
 tics 
 Would still be dear beyond the southern hills; 
 That were there any of our people there 
 In want or peril, there was one to hear 
 And help them? look! for such are these and 
 
A M EDLEY 
 
 'Aw you that Psyche,' Florian ask'd, 'to 
 
 whom. 
 In gentler days, your arrow-wounded fawn 
 Came flying while you sat beside the well? 
 The creature laid his muzzle <m your lap 
 And sobb'd) and you sobb'd with it, and the 
 
 blood 
 Was sprinkled on your kirtle, and you wept. 
 That was fawn's blood, not brother's, yet you 
 
 wept. 
 (), by the bright head of my little niece, 
 You were that Psyche, and what are you 
 
 now ?' 
 'You were that Psyche,' Cyril said again, 
 'The mother of the sweetest little maid 
 Thai ever crow'd for kisses.' 
 
 '( )ut upon it !' 
 She answer'd, 'peace! and why should I not 
 
 play 
 The Spartan Mother with emotion, he 
 The Lucius Junius Brutus of my kind.-' 
 Him you call great; he for the common weal, 
 The fading politics of mortal Home, 
 As I might slay this child, if good 
 
 need were. 
 Slew both hi- sons; and I, shall I, on whom 
 The secular emancipation turns 
 Of halt' this world, he swerved from ri <j;Iit to 
 
 save 
 A prince, a brother.' a little will I yield. 
 Rest BO) perchance, for us, and well for you. 
 (), hard when love and duty clash! I fear 
 My conscience will not count me fleckless; 
 
 yet — 
 Hear my conditions: promise — otherwise 
 You perish — as you came, to .slip away 
 To-day, to-morrow, soon. It -hall he -aid, 
 These women were too barbarous, would not 
 
 learn ; 
 They fled, who might have shamed us. 
 
 Promise, all.' 
 
 What could we else, we promised each: and 
 she, 
 
 Like some wild creature newly-caged, com- 
 menced 
 A to-and-fro, so pacing till she paused 
 H\ Florian; holding out her lily arms 
 Took both his hands, and smiling faintly 
 
 -aid : 
 'I knew you at the first; tlio" you have grown 
 You scarce have alter'd. I am -ad and glad 
 To see Mai, Florian. / give thee to death, 
 
 My brother! it was duty spoke, not I. 
 My needful seeming harshness, pardon it. 
 Our mother, is she well?' 
 
 With that -he kiss'd 
 Hi- forehead, then, a moment after, clung 
 About him, and betwixt then, blossom'd up 
 From out a common vein of memory 
 Sweet household talk, and phrases of the 
 
 hearth, 
 And far allusion, till the gracious dews 
 Be&ran to glisten and to fall; and wlule 
 They stood, so rapt, we gazing, came a voice, 
 
 *I brought a message In re from Lady 
 
 Blanche.' 
 Hack started she, and turning round We saw 
 
 Tlie Lady Blanche's daughter where she stood, 
 Melissa, with her hand upon the lock, 
 A rosy blonde, and in a college gown, 
 That clad her like an April daffodilly — 
 Her mother's color — with her lips apart, 
 And all her thoughts as fair within her eyes, 
 As bottom agates seen to wave and float 
 In crystal currents of clear morning seas. 
 
 So stootl thai same fair creature at the 
 door. 
 Then Lady Psyche, 'Ah — Melissa — you ! 
 
 You heard US?' and Melissa, 'O, pardon mi ! 
 I heard. I could not help it. did not wish; 
 Hut. dearesl lady, praj you fear me not, 
 Nor think I bear that heart within m\ breast, 
 To give three gallant gentlemen to death.' 
 
 'I trust you.' .-aid the other, 'for we !«" 
 Wire always friend-, none closer, elm and 
 vine; 
 
 . 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 s> .1^ 
 
 
 
 Itut vil your mother's jealous temperament — 
 Lei not your prudence, dearest, drowse, or 
 
 prove 
 The Danaid of a leaky vase, for fear 
 This whole foundation ruin, and I lose 
 My honor, these their lives.' 'Ah, fear me 
 
 oot,' 
 Replied Melissa; 'no I would no! It'll, 
 No, nut for all Aspasia's cleverness, 
 No, not In answer, madam, .'ill those hard 
 
 things 
 Thai Sluli.'i came to ask of Solomon. 
 'Be il so,' llu' other, 'thai we still may lead 
 The new lighl up, and culminate in peace, 
 For Solomon may come to Sheba yet.' 
 Said Cyril, 'Madam, he the wisesi man 
 Feasted the woman wisesl then, in halls 
 Of Lebanonian cedar; nor should you 
 Tho', madam, you should answer, we would 
 
 ask — 
 Less welcome find among us, if you came 
 Among us, debtors for our lives to you, 
 MvmU for something more. 1 He said not 
 
 what, 
 Bui 'Thanks,' she answer'd, 'go; we have 
 
 been too long 
 Together; keep your hoods about the face; 
 They do so thai affeci abstraction here. 
 Speak lillli'; mis noi with the rest; and hold 
 Your promise. All, I trust, may yei be well.' 
 
 ^\'f turn'd to go, bui Cyril took the child, 
 And held her round the knees against his 
 
 waist, 
 And blew the swollen cheek of a trumpeter, 
 While Psyche watch'd them, smiling, and the 
 
 child 
 Push'd her flai hand agoinsi his face and 
 
 laugh'd; 
 And thus our conference closed. 
 
 And then we strolled 
 For half the day thro" stately theatres 
 Bench'd crescent-wise. In each we sat. we 
 
 hoard 
 
 The grave professor. On the lecture ■date 
 The circle rounded under female hands 
 Willi flawless demonstration; follow'd then 
 A classic lecture, rich in sentiment, 
 Willi scraps of thunderous epic lilted out 
 By violei hooded Doctors, elegies 
 Ami quoted odes, and jewels five-words-long 
 Thai mi the stretch'd forefinger of all Time 
 Sparkle forever. Then we dipt in all 
 'That treats of whatsoever is, the state, 
 The total chronicles of man. the mind. 
 The morals, something of the frame, the rock, 
 The star, the bird, the fish, the shell, the 
 
 flower, 
 Electric, chemic laws, and all the rest, 
 And whatsoever can be taught and known; 
 Till liki' three horses thai have broken fence, 
 And glutted all night long breast-deep in 
 
 corn, 
 We issued gorged with knowledge, and I 
 
 spoke : 
 'Why, Mrs. they tin all this as well as we.' 
 
 'They hunt old trails,' said Cyril, 'very well; 
 Bui «hen did woman ever vet invent?' 
 'Ungracious!' answer'd Florian; 'have you 
 
 Kamt 
 No more from Psyche's lecture, vou that 
 
 talk'd 
 
 The trash that made me siek, anil almost sad?' 
 '(), trash," he said, 'but with a kernel in it! 
 Should I not call her wise who made me 
 
 w ise? 
 
 And learnt? I learnt more from her in n 
 
 flash 
 'Than if my brainpan were an empty hull. 
 And every .Muse lumhlid a science in. 
 A thousand hearts lie fallow in these halls. 
 And round these halls a thousand baby loves 
 Fly twanging headless arrows at the hearts, 
 Whence follows many a vacanl pang; 
 
 bui 0, 
 
 With me, sir, enter'd in the bigger hoy, 
 'The head of all lie golden shafted firm, 
 The long-limb'd lad that had a Psvche too; 
 
A M ED LEY 
 
 He cli t'l me thro' the stomacher. Ami now 
 What think you of it. Florian? da I chase 
 The substance or t lie* shadow P will it hold? 
 I have no sorcerer's malison on me, 
 No ghostly hauntings like his Highness. I 
 Flatter myself that always everywhere 
 I know the substance when I see it. Well, 
 Are castles shadows.' Three of them? 
 
 Is she 
 The sweet proprietress a shadow? It' not, 
 Shall those three castles patch my tatter'd 
 
 coat ? 
 For dear arc those three castles to my wants, 
 And deai' is sister Psyche to my heart. 
 And two dear things are one of double worth; 
 And much I might have said, hut that my 
 
 zone 
 Unmann'd me. Then the Doctors! O, to hear 
 The Doctors! O, to watch the thirsty plants 
 Imbibing! once or twice I thought to roar. 
 To break my chain, to shake my mane; hut 
 
 thou, 
 Modulate me, soul of mincing mimicry! 
 Make liquid treble of that bassoon, my throat : 
 
 Abase those eves that ever loved to meet 
 Star-sisters answering under crescent hrows ; 
 Abate the stride which speaks o\' man, and 
 
 loose 
 A Hying charm of blushes o'er this cheek, 
 Where they like swallows coming out of time 
 Will wonder why they came. But bark the 
 
 bell 
 For dinner, let us go!' 
 
 And in we stream'd 
 Among the columns, pacing staid and still 
 ll\ twos and threes, till all from end to end 
 
 With beauties every shade of brown and fair 
 
 In colors gayer than the morning mist. 
 The lung hall glitter'd like a bed of flowers. 
 How might a man not wander from his wits 
 Pierced thro' with eyes, but that I kept mine 
 
 own 
 Intent on her, who rapt in glorious dreams, 
 'Phe second-sight of sum, Astraean age. 
 
 Sat compass'd with professors; they, the 
 
 while, 
 Discuss'd a doubt and tost it to and fro. 
 A clamor thieken'd, niixt with inmost terms 
 Of art and science: Lady Blanche alone 
 Of faded form and haughtiest lineaments. 
 With all her autumn tresses falsely l)rown, 
 
 Shot sidelong daggers at us, a tiger-cat 
 In act to spring. 
 
 At last a solemn grace 
 Concluded, and we sought the gardens. There 
 One walk'd reciting by herself, and one 
 In this hand held a volume as to read. 
 And smoothed a petted peacock down with 
 that. 
 
 Sonic to a low song oar'd a shallop by, 
 Or under arches of the marble bridge 
 Hung, shadow'd from the heat; some hid and 
 
 sought 
 In the orange thickets; others tost a hall 
 Above the fountain-jets, and hack again 
 With laughter: others lay about the lawns. 
 Of the older sort, and liuirmur'd that their 
 
 .May 
 Was passing- what was learning unto them? 
 They wish'd to marry: they could rule a 
 
 house; 
 Men hated learned women. But we three 
 Sat muffled like the Fates: and often came 
 Melissa hitting all we saw with shafts 
 Of gentle satire, kin to charity. 
 That harm'd not. Then day droopt ; the 
 
 chapel lulu 
 Call'd us: wc left the walks: we mixt with 
 
 those 
 Six hundred maidens clad in purest white. 
 
 Before two streams of light from wall to wall. 
 While the great organ almost hurst his pip'-. 
 Groaning for power, and rolling thro* the 
 
 court 
 A long melodious thunder to the sound 
 
 Of solemn psalms and silver litanies. 
 
 The work of Ida. to call down from heaven 
 
 A blessing on her labors for the world. 
 
 
 

 . 
 
 ■ .14 ' i * 
 
 
 
 
 
 — h 
 
 V 
 
SONG 
 
 S«i ■ t and I"" . Bwe< t and low, 
 Wind nt' tin wi stem 
 
Sweet and low, sweet and low. 
 
 Wind of the western sea, 
 Low, low, breathe and blow, 
 
 Wind of the western sea ! 
 Over the rolling waters go, 
 Come from the dying moon, and blow, 
 
 Blow him again to me; 
 While my little one, while my pretty one 
 sleeps. 
 
 Sleep and rest, sleep and rest, 
 
 Father will come to thee soon ; 
 Rest, rest, on mother's breast, 
 
 Father will come to thee soon ; 
 Father will come to his babe in the nest, 
 Silver sails all out of the west 
 
 Under the silver moon ; 
 Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, 
 sleep. 
 
P A RT T H REE 
 

 , ?...:$!■ % 
 
 ■. 
 
 pf I 
 
 r -: 
 
 
 - 
 
 ; m*v 
 
 ' ^ I 
 
 
 - \ ■ 
 
 
 
 
 Jz~^*- 
 
 - 
 
'55 
 
 
 
 d 
 
 >-■•■ y 
 
 Moen in the white wake of the morning star 
 ( lame furrowing all the orient into gold. 
 We rose, and each by other drest with care 
 Descended to the court that lay three parts 
 In shadow, but the .Muses' heads were touch'd 
 Above the darkness from their native East. 
 
 There while we stood beside the fount, and 
 watch'd 
 Or seem'd to watch the dancing bubble, ap- 
 
 proach'd 
 Melissa, tinged with wan from lack of sleep, 
 Or grief, and glowing round her dewj eyes 
 
 The circled I li.- of a niglll of teal's ; 
 
 And 'Fly,' she cried. •() fly, while yet you 
 
 may ! 
 My mother know-.* And when I ask'd her 
 
 •how; 
 
 •My fault,' she wept, 'my fault! and yet not 
 
 mine ; 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 
 m 
 
 "ft 
 
 ■ 
 
 . ■ 
 
 "*- 
 
 --. 
 
 P A RT T H REE 
 
 Yet mine in part. 0, hear me. pardon me! 
 My mother, 't is her wont from [right to night 
 To rail at Lady Psyche and her side. 
 She says the Princess should have been the 
 
 Head, 
 Hi i'm If and Lady Psyche the two amis, 
 And so it was agreed when first thej came; 
 Hut Lady Psyche was the righl hand now, 
 And she the left, or not or seldom used: 
 Hers more than half the student-, all the love. 
 And so last night -he fell to canvass you, 
 Her countrywomen! she did not envy her. 
 ■"Who ever >a» such wild barbarians? 
 Girls? more like nun'" and at these words 
 
 the .-nake. 
 
 My secret, seem'd to stir within my breast; 
 And ( •. sirs, could I help it, but my cheek 
 Began to burn and burn, and her lynx 
 
 To li\ and make me hotter, till -he laugh'd: 
 '•() marvellously modest maiden, you! 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 
 * 
 
 - 
 
 Men! girls, like men! why, it' they had been 
 
 nun 
 You nuil not set your thoughts in rubric thus 
 For wholesale comment." Pardon, I am 
 
 shamed 
 That I must needs repeat for my excuse 
 What looks .so little graceful: '•men" — for 
 
 still 
 My mother went revolving on the word — 
 "Anil so they are. — very like men indeed — 
 And with that woman - I for hours!" 
 Then came these dreadful words out one by 
 
 one. 
 "Why — these — tirr — men :" I shudderM : 
 
 "and you know it :" 
 "O, a-k me nothing," I said. "And she knows 
 
 too, 
 And she conceals it." So my mother clutch'd 
 The truth at once, but with no word from me; 
 Ami now thus earlv risen she goes to inform 
 The Princess. Lady Psyche will be crush'd; 
 Hut you may yet be saved, and therefore tly : 
 But heed me with your pardon ere you go.' 
 
 'What pardon, sweet Melissa, for a blush:' 
 Said Cyril; 'Pale one. blush again; than wear 
 Those lilies, better blush our lives away. 
 Yet let us breathe for one hour more in 
 
 heaven." 
 He added, 'lest some classic angel speak 
 In scorn of us. "They mounted, Ganymedes, 
 To tumble. Vulcan*, on the second morn." 
 But I will melt this marble into wax 
 To yield us farther furlough ;' and he went. 
 
 Melissa shook her doubtful curls, and 
 thought 
 11 si irci would prosper. 'Tell us,' Plorian 
 ask'd, 
 
 'How grew this feud betwixt the right and 
 
 ft.' 
 'O. long ago.' she said, "betwixt these two 
 D sion smoulders hidden; "t is my mother. 
 Too jealous, often fretful a.s the wind 
 
 l\nt in a crevice: much I bear with her. 
 I never knew my father, but she says — 
 
 tied help her! — she was wedded to a fool; 
 And still she rail'd against the state of things. 
 She had the care o( Lady Ida*- youth, 
 And from the Queen's decease she brought her 
 
 up. 
 But when your >i>ter came -he won the heart 
 Of Ida: thev were still together, strew — 
 For so they -aid themselves — inosculated; 
 Consonant chords that shiver to one note; 
 One mind in all things. Yet my mother still 
 Affirms your Psyche thieved her theories, 
 Ami angled with them for her pupil's love; 
 She calls her plagiarist. I know not what. 
 But I must go; 1 dare not tarry," and light, 
 As flies the shallow oi' a bird, she tied. 
 
 Then murmur'd Florian, gazing after her: 
 "An open-hearted maiden, true and pure. 
 If I could love, why this were she. How pretty 
 Her blushing was, and how she blush'd 
 
 again. 
 As if to close with Cyril's random wish! 
 Not like your Princess eramm'd with erring 
 
 pride. 
 Nor like poor Psyche whom she drags in tow.' 
 
 "The crane.* I said, "may chatter of the 
 
 crane. 
 The dove may murmur o( the dove, but I 
 An eagle clang an eagle to the sphere. 
 My princess, O my prim-ess! true she errs. 
 But in her own strand way; Ixiiiir herself 
 Three times more noble than three score of 
 
 men. 
 She sees her-ilf in every woman else. 
 And so she wears her error like a crown 
 T blind the truth and me. For her. and 
 Hebes are they to hand ambrosia, mix 
 The nectar: but — ah. she — whene'er she 
 
 moves 
 The Samian Here rises, and she speaks 
 A Memmon smitten with the morning sun.' 
 
A M ED LEY 
 
 Sn Baying from the court we paced, and 
 
 gain'd 
 The terrace ranged .- 1 1 1 > n ^ the northern front, 
 Ami leaning there on those balusters, high 
 Above the empurpled champaign, drank the 
 
 gale 
 Thai blown about the foliage underneath. 
 And sated with the innumerable rose, 
 Heat balm upon our eyelids. Hither came 
 Cyril, and yawning, '() hard task, 9 he cried: 
 'Nil fighting shadows lure. I forced a way 
 Thro' solid opposition crabb'd and gnarl'd. 
 Bi llir to clear prime forests, heave and thump 
 A league of street in summer solstice down. 
 Than hammer at this reverend gentlewoman. 
 I knock'd and, bidden, entered; found her 
 
 there 
 At point to move, and settled in her eyes 
 The green malignant light o( coming storm. 
 Sir, I was courteous, every phrase well-oil'd, 
 As man's could be; yet maiden-meek I pray'd 
 Concealment. She demanded who we were, 
 And why we came? 1 fabled nothing fair. 
 Hut. your example pilot, told her all. 
 
 I*J) went the hush'd amaze ^i' hand and eve. 
 
 Hut when I dwelt upon your old affiance, 
 Sin answered sharply that I talk'd astray. 
 I urged the tierce inscription on the gate, 
 And our three lives. Tnu — we had limed 
 
 ourselves 
 With opi 11 eyes, and we must take the chance. 
 Hut such extremes, I told her, well might harm 
 Tin' woman's cause. "Not more than now," 
 
 she .said, 
 "So puddled as it is with favoritism." 
 I tried the mother's heart. Shame might be- 
 fall 
 Melissa, knowing, saying not she knew; 
 Hi r answer was. "Leave me to deal with that." 
 
 I spoke of war to come and manv deaths, 
 
 And she replied, her duty was to speak, 
 And duty duty, clear of consequi net s. 
 I grew discouraged, -sir: hut since I knew 
 
 No rock so hard hut that a little wave 
 
 .Ma\ heat admission m a thousand years, 
 
 I recommenced: "Decide not ere you pause. 
 
 I find .M'U lure hut in the 1 second place, 
 
 Some say the third- the authenlic foundress 
 
 you. 
 I elf. r boldly : we w ill seal you high si . 
 Wink al our advent; help mj prince to gain 
 
 1 lis right fill bride, and hen I promise you 
 Some palace in our land, where you shall 
 
 rein,. 
 
 The head and heart of all our fair she world, 
 And your great name flow on with broadening 
 t ime 
 
 For ever." Well, she halanced this a little, 
 And told me she would answer us to day. 
 Meantime he mute; thus much, nor more I 
 gain'd. 9 
 
 lie ceasinff, came a message from the Head. 
 
 rs o 
 
 'That afternoon the Princess rode to take 
 
 The dip of certain strata to the north. 
 
 Would we go with her? we should find the 
 
 land 
 
 Worth seeing, and the river made a fall 
 
 Out yonder;' then she pointed on to where 
 
 A double hill ran up his furrowy forks 
 
 Beyond the thick-leaved platans of the vale. 
 
 Agreed to. this, the day fled on thro' all 
 
 Its range of duties to the appointed hour. 
 
 Then sinnmon'd to the porch we went. She 
 
 stood 
 Among her maidens, higher by tile head. 
 
 Her hack against a pillar, her fool on one 
 
 Of those tame leopards. Kitten like he roll'd 
 And paw'd about her sandal. I drew mar; 
 T gazed. On a sudden my strange seizure 
 
 came 
 Upon me. tile Weird vision of our house. 
 
 The Princess Ida seem'd a hollow show. 
 Her gay t'urr'd cats a painted fantasy, 
 Her college and In r maidens empty masks, 
 
 And I myself tin shadow of a dream. 
 
 For all tinners were and win not. Yi t I felt 
 
 \1«. '. 
 
 
 ; .\\ 
 
 ■'■ 
 
 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 i * ' 
 
 
 ,-iV' v 
 
 3 ;^i 
 
 I 
 
 My heart beat 1 1 lick with passion and with 
 
 awe ; 
 Then from 1113- breast the involuntary sigh 
 Brake, as she smote me with the light of eyes 
 §} j That lent my knee desire to kneel, and shook 
 My pulses, till to horse we got, and so 
 Went forth in long retinue following up 
 The river as it narrow'd to the hills. 
 
 I rode beside her and to me she said: 
 '() friend, we trust that you esteem'd us not 
 Too harsh to your companion yestermorn ; 
 Unwillingly we spake.' 'No — not to her,' 
 I answer'd, 'but to one of whom we spake 
 Your Highness might have seem'd the thing 
 
 you say.' 
 'Again?' she cried, 'are you ambassadresses 
 From him to me? we give you, being strange, 
 A license; speak, and let the topic die.' 
 
 
 I stammer'd that I knew him — could have 
 
 wish'd— 
 'Our king expects — was there no precontract ? 
 There is no truer-hearted — ah, you seem 
 All he prefigured, and he could not see 
 The bird of passage flying south but long'd 
 To follow. Surely, if your Highness keep 
 Your purport, you will shock him even to 
 
 death, 
 Or baser courses, children of. despair.' 
 
 'Poor boy,' she said, 'can he not read — no 
 
 books ? 
 Quoit, tennis, ball — no games? nor deals in 
 
 that 
 Which men delight in, martial exercise? 
 To nurse a blind ideal like a girl ; 
 Methinks he seems no better than a girl ; 
 As girls were once, as we ourself have been. 
 We had our dreams; perhaps he mixt with 
 
 them. 
 We touch on our dead self, nor shun to do it, 
 Being other — since we learnt our meaning 
 
 here, 
 
 To lift the woman's fallen divinity 
 Upon an even pedestal with man.' 
 
 She paused, and added with a haughtier 
 smile, 
 'And as to precontracts, we move, my friend, 
 At no man's beck, but know ourself and thee, 
 O Vashti, noble A'ashti! Summon'd out 
 She kept her state, and left the drunken king 
 To brawl at Shushan underneath the palms.' 
 
 'Alas, your Highness breathes full East,' 
 
 I said, 
 'On that which leans to you ! I know the 
 
 Prince, 
 I prize his truth. And then how vast a work 
 To assail this gray preeminence of man ! 
 You grant me license; might I use it? think; 
 Ere half be done perchance your life may fail ; 
 Then comes the feebler heiress of your plan, 
 And takes and ruins all ; and thus your pains 
 May only make that footprint upon sand 
 Which old-recurring waves of prejudice 
 Resmooth to nothing. Might I dread that 
 
 you, 
 With only Fame for spouse and your great 
 
 deeds 
 For issue, yet may live in vain, and miss 
 Meanwhile what every woman counts her due, 
 Love, children, happiness?' 
 
 And she exclaim'd, 
 'Peace, you young savage of the Northern 
 
 wild ! 
 What ! tho' your Prince's love were like a 
 
 god's, 
 Have we not made ourself the sacrifice? 
 You are bold indeed; we are not talk'd to thus. 
 Yet will we say for children, would they grew 
 Like field-flowers everywhere ! we like them 
 
 well : 
 But children die ; and let me tell you, girl, 
 Howe'er you babble, great deeds cannot die; 
 They with the sun and moon renew their light 
 For ever, blessing those that look on them. 
 
A MED LEY 
 
 Children — that men may pluck them from our 
 
 In arts. 
 
 Kill vis with pity, break us with ourselves 
 O — children — there is nothing upon earth 
 More miserable than she thai bas a sun 
 And sees him err. Nor would we work for 
 
 fame : 
 Tlio' she perhaps mighl nap the applause of 
 
 ( ii rat. 
 Who learns the one l-or sro whence after- 
 
 hands 
 May move the world, tho' .sin: herself effect 
 Hut little; wherefore up and act, nor shrink 
 For fear our solid aim he dissipated 
 }\y frail successors. Would, indeed, we had 
 
 been, 
 In lieu of many mortal flies, a race 
 Of giants living each a thousand years, 
 That we might see our own work out, and 
 
 watch 
 'I'Ik sandy footprint harden into stone.' 
 
 I answer'd nothing, doubtful in myself 
 If that strange poet-princess with her grand 
 Imaginations might at all he won. 
 And she broke out interpreting my thoughts: 
 
 'No doubt we seem a kind of monster to 
 
 you : 
 We are used to that: for women, up 
 
 till this 
 Cramp'd under worse than South-sea-isle 
 
 taboo, 
 Dwarfs of the gynaeceum, fnil so far 
 In high desire, they know not. cannot guess 
 How much their welfare i- a passion to us. 
 If we could give them surer, quicker proof — 
 ( ). if our i ml w ere less achiei able 
 Hy slow approaches than by singli ad 
 Of immolation, any phase of death. 
 We were as prompt to spring against the 
 
 pike -. 
 Or down lh' fiery gulf as laik of it, 
 
 'I'n compass our dear sisters' liberties.' 
 
 She bow'd a- if to veil a noble tear; 
 And up we came to where tin river sloped 
 To plunge in cataract, shattering on black 
 
 blocks 
 A breadth of thunder. O'er it shook the 
 
 woods, 
 And danced the color, and. below, -tuck out 
 The bones of some vast bulk that livid and 
 
 roar'd 
 Hi fori man was. She gazed awhile and -aid, 
 "A- these rude hones to us, are we to her 
 That will be.' -Dare we dream of that,' I 
 
 ask'd, 
 •Which wrought us, as the workman and his 
 
 work. 
 That practice betters?' "How,' she cried, 
 
 'you love 
 The metaphysics! read and earn our prize, 
 A golden brooch. Beneath an emerald plane 
 Sit- Diotima, teaching him that died 
 Of hemlock- our device, wrought to the life — 
 She rapt upon her subject, he on her; 
 For there are school- for all." 'And yet.' 
 
 I said. 
 'Methinks I have not found among them all 
 One anatomic.'' "Nay, we thought of that.' 
 She answer'd, 'but it pleased us not; in truth 
 We shudder but to dream our maids should 
 
 ape 
 
 Those monstrous males that carve the living 
 
 hound, 
 And cram him with the fragments of the 
 
 ve. 
 Or in the dark dissolving bun. an heart. 
 And holy secrets of this microcosm, 
 Dabbling a shameless hand with shameful 
 
 jest, 
 Encarnalize their spirit-. Yet we know 
 Knowledge i- knowledge, and this matter 
 
 hang.-. 
 Howbeil ourself, foreseeing casualty, 
 
 Nor willing men should come among us, 
 
 learnt. 
 For many weary moon- before we came, 
 
 A*\ 
 
 T 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 Zttf* 
 
 t«5S8i* ,v- 
 
 J \ '■ 
 i | 
 
 iffl ' 
 W § 
 
 Tliis craft of healing. Were you sick, our- 
 
 sclf 
 Would tend upon vou. To your question now, 
 Which touches on tin- workman and his work. 
 Let there be light and there was light ; 't is SO, 
 For was. and is, and will be, are but is, 
 And all creation is one act at once, 
 The birth of light ; but we that are not all, 
 As parts, can see but parts, now this, now 
 
 that, 
 And live, perforce, from thought to thought, 
 
 and make 
 One act a phantom of succession. Thus 
 Our weakness somehow shapes the shadow, 
 
 Time; 
 But in the shadow will we work, and mould 
 The woman to the fuller day.' 
 
 She spake 
 With kindled eyes: we rode a league beyond, 
 And, o'er a bridge of pinewood crossing, came 
 On flowery levels underneath the crag, 
 Full of all beauty. '0, how sweet,' I said, — 
 For I was half-oblivious of my mask, — 
 'To linger here with one that loved us !' 'Yea,' 
 She answer'd, 'or with fair philosophies 
 That lift the fancy ; for indeed these fields 
 Are lovely, lovelier not the Elysian lawns. 
 Where paced the demigods of old, and saw 
 
 The soft white vapor streak the crowned 
 
 towers 
 Built to the Sun.' Then, turning to her maids, 
 'Pitch our pavilion here upon the sward; 
 Lay out the viands.' At the word, they raised 
 A tent of satin, elaborately wrought 
 With fair Comma's triumph; here she stood, 
 Engirt with many a florid maiden-cheek, 
 Tin woman - conqueror ; woman - conquer'd 
 
 there 
 The bearded Victor of ten-thousand hymns, 
 And all the men mourn'd at his side. But we 
 Set forth to climb ; then, climbing, Cyril kept 
 With Psyche, with Melissa Florian, I 
 With mine affianced. Many a little hand 
 Glanced like a touch of sunshine on the rocks, 
 Many a light foot shone like a jewel set 
 In the dark crag. And then we turn'd, we 
 
 wound 
 About the cliffs, the copses, out and in, 
 Hammering and clinking, chattering stony 
 
 names 
 Of shale and hornblende, rag and trap and 
 
 tuff, 
 Amygdaloid and trachyte, till the sun 
 Grew broader toward his death and fell, and 
 
 all 
 The rosy heights came out above the lawns. 
 
 r 
 
 ■ 
 
 m I - , 
 
 . 
 
 _/ 
 
 
S O N G 
 
 'I'ln splendor falls on castli walls 
 A nd snow y summits old in Btorj ; 
 
The splendor falls on castle walls 
 And snowy summits old in story ; 
 
 The long light shakes across the lakes, 
 And the wild cataract leaps in glory. 
 
 Blow, hugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying. 
 
 Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, 
 dying. 
 
 O, hark, 0, hear! how thin and clear, 
 And thinner, clearer, farther going! 
 
 O, sweet and far from cliff" and scar 
 The horns of Elfland faintly blowing! 
 
 Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying, 
 
 Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, 
 dying. 
 
 O loye, they die in yon rich sky, 
 The}' faint on hill or field or riyer ; 
 
 Our echoes roll from soul to soul, 
 And grow for eyer and for eyer. 
 
 Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, 
 
 And answer, echoes, answer, dying, dying, 
 dying. 
 
PART FOUR 
 

PART FOUR 
 
 •'I'iii'.ke sinks the nebulous star wc call the 
 
 sun, 
 If that hypothesis of theirs be sound,' 
 Said Ida; 'let US down and rest;' and wc 
 Down from the lean and wrinkled precipici s, 
 By every coppice-feather' d chasm and cleft, 
 Dropt thro' the ambrosial gloom to where below 
 No bigger than a glowworm shone the tent 
 Lamp-lit from the inner. Once sin lean'd on me, 
 Descending: once or twice she lent her hand, 
 And blissful palpitations in the blood 
 Stirring a sudden transport rose and fell. 
 
 But when we planted level feet, and dipt 
 15. aeath tin Batin dome and enter'd in. 
 There leaning deep in broider'd down we sank 
 Our elbows; on a tripod in the midst 
 A fragrant flame rose, and before us glow'd 
 Fruit, blossom, viand, amber wine, and gold. 
 
 Then she, 'Let some one sing to us: light- 
 lier move 
 
 The minutes fledged with music;" and a maid. 
 Of those beside her, smote her harp and sang, 
 
 'Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean 
 Tears from the depth of some dii ine d< -pair 
 lii-i in the heart, and gather to the eyes, 
 In looking on the happy autumn-fields, 
 And thinking of the days that are no more. 
 
 'Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, 
 That brings our friends up from the undi r 
 
 world. 
 Sad a- the last which reddens over one 
 That sink- with all we love below tin \<rg, : 
 So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. 
 
 'Ah. sad and strange as in dark Milium] 
 dawns 
 The earliest pipe of half-awaken'd birds 
 To dying ears, when unto dying eyes 
 The casement slowly grows a glimmering 
 
 square ; 
 So sad. so strange, the days that are no more. 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 'Dear as remember'd kisses after death, 
 And sweel as those by hopeless fancy feign'd 
 On lips thai are for others; deep as love, 
 Deep as firs! love, and wild with all regret; 
 O Death in Life, the days that are no more!' 
 
 She ended with such passion that the tear 
 She sang of shook and fell, an erring pearl 
 Lost in her bosom; hut with some disdain 
 Answer'd the Princess: 'If indeed there haunt 
 About the moulder'd lodges of the past 
 So sweet a voice and vague, fatal to men, 
 Well needs it we should cram our ears with 
 
 wool 
 And so pace by. But thine are fancies hatch 'd. 
 In silken-folded idleness ; nor is it 
 AViser to weep a true occasion lost, 
 But trim our sails, and let old bygones be, 
 While down the streams that float us each 
 
 and all 
 To the issue, goes, like glittering bergs of 
 
 ice, 
 Throne after throne, and molten on the waste 
 Becomes a cloud ; for all things serve their 
 
 time 
 Toward that great year of equal mights and 
 
 rights. 
 Nor would I fight with iron laws, in the end 
 Found golden. Let the past be past, let be 
 Their cancell'd Babels ; tho' the rough kex 
 
 break 
 The starr'd mosaic, and the beard-blown soafc 
 Hang on the shaft, and the wild fig-tree split 
 Their monstrous idols, care not while we hear 
 A trumpet in the distance pealing news 
 Of better, and Hope, a poising eagle, burns 
 Above the unrisen morrow.' Then to me, 
 'Know you no song of your own land,' she 
 
 said, 
 'Not such as moans about the retrospect, 
 But deals with the other distance and 
 
 the hues 
 Of promise ; not a death's-head at 
 
 the wine?' 
 
 Then I remember'd one myself had made, 
 What time I watch'd the swallow winging 
 
 south 
 From mine own land, part made long since, 
 
 and part 
 Now while I sang, and maiden-like as far 
 As I could ape their treble did I sing. 
 
 'O, Swallow, Swallow, flying, flying south. 
 Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves. 
 And tell her, tell her, what I tell to thee. 
 
 '(), tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest 
 each, 
 That bright and fierce and fickle is the 
 
 South, 
 And dark and true and tender is the North. 
 
 'O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and 
 light 
 Upon her lattice, I would pipe and trill, 
 And cheep and twitter twenty million loves. 
 
 'O, were I thou that she might take me in, 
 And lay me on her bosom, and her heart 
 Would rock the snowy cradle till I died! 
 
 'Why lingereth she to clothe her heart with 
 love, 
 Delaying as the tender ash delays 
 To clothe herself, when all the woods are 
 
 green? 
 
 'O, tell her, Swallow, that thy brood is 
 flown ; 
 Say to her, I do but wanton in the South, 
 But in the North long since my nest is made. 
 
 '0, tell her, brief is life but love is long, 
 And brief the sun of summer in the North, 
 And brief the moon of beauty in the South. 
 
 'O Swallow, flying from the golden woods, 
 Fly to her, and pipe and woo her, and make 
 
 her mine, 
 And tell her, tell her, that I follow thee.' 
 
A M ED LEY 
 
 I ceased, and all the ladies, each at each, 
 Like the Ithacensian suitors in old time, 
 Stared with great eyes, and laugh'd with alien 
 
 lips, 
 And knew not what they meant; for still my 
 
 voice 
 Rang false. But smiling, 'Not for thee,' 
 
 she said, 
 'O Bulbul, any rose of Gulistan 
 Shall hurst her veil: marsh-divers, rather, 
 
 maid, 
 Shall croak thee sister, or the meadow-crake 
 Grate her harsh kindred in the grass— and 
 
 tips 
 A mere love-poem! O, for such, my friend. 
 We hold them slight: they mind us of the 
 
 time 
 When we made bricks in Egypt. Knaves are 
 
 men, 
 That lute and flute fantastic tenderness, 
 And dress the victim to the offering up, 
 And paint the gates of Hell with Paradise, 
 And play the slave to gain the tyranny. 
 Poor soul! I had a maid of honor once: 
 She wept her true eyes blind for such a one, 
 A rogue of canzonets and serenades. 
 I loved her. Peace he with her. She is dead. 
 So they blaspheme the muse! But great is 
 
 song 
 Used to great ends; ourself have often tried 
 Valkyrian hymns, or into rhythm have dash'd 
 The passion of the prophetess; for song 
 I-, duel" unto freedom, force and growth 
 Of spirit, than to junketing and love. 
 Love is it? Would this same mock-love, and 
 
 this 
 Mock-Hymen were laid up like winter hats, 
 Till all men grew to rate us at our worth, 
 Not vassals to he beat, nor pretty babes 
 
 To lie dandled, no, hut living wills, and 
 
 sphered 
 
 Whole in ourselves and owed to none. 
 
 Enough ! 
 Hut now to leaven play with profit, you. 
 
 Know you no song, the true growth of your 
 soil. 
 
 That gives the manners of your country- 
 women '-' 
 
 She spoke and turn'd her sumptuous head 
 
 with eyes 
 Of shining expectation fi\t on mine. 
 Then while I dragg'd my brains for such a 
 
 song. 
 Cyril, with whom the bell-mouth'd glass had 
 
 wrought, 
 Or master'd by the sense of ^]>i>rt . began 
 To troll a cart less, careless ta\ em-catch 
 Of Moll and .Meg, and strange experiences 
 Unmeet for ladies. Florian nodded at him, 
 I frowning: Psyche flush'd and wann'd and 
 
 shook : 
 The lily-like Melissa dropp'd her brows. 
 'Forbear,' the Princess cried: 'Forbear, sir,' I; 
 And heated thro* and thro' with wrath and 
 
 love, 
 I smote him on the breast. He started up; 
 There rose a shriek as of a city sack'd ; 
 Melissa clamor'd, 'Flee the death;' "To 
 
 horse !' 
 Said Ida, "home! to horse!" and fled, as flies 
 A troop of snowy doves athwarl tin dusk 
 When some one batters at the dovecote doors, 
 Disorderly the women. Alone I stood 
 With Florian, cursing Cyril, vexi at heart 
 In the pavilion. There like parting hopes 
 I heard them passing from me: hoof by hoof, 
 And every hoof a knell to my desin s, 
 Clang'd on the bridge; and then another 
 
 shriek, 
 'The Head, the Head, the Frincess. (> the 
 
 Head!' 
 For blind with rage she miss'd the plank, and 
 
 roll'd 
 In the river. Out I sprang from glow to 
 
 gloom : 
 There whirl'd her white robe like a blossom'd 
 
 branch 
 
 V 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 
 Rapt to the horrible fall. A glance I gave, 
 No mure. lmt woman-vested as I was 
 Plunsred, and the flood drew; yet I causthl 
 t 11 her; then 
 
 ** Oaring one arm. and bearing m my left 
 The weight of all the hopes of half the 
 
 world, 
 Strove to buffet to land in vain. A tree 
 Was half-disrooted from his place and 
 
 stoop'd 
 To drench his dark locks in the gurgling 
 
 wave 
 Mid-channel. Right on this we drove and 
 
 caugl I . 
 And grasping down the boughs I gain'd the 
 
 shore. 
 
 N 
 
 There stood her maidens glimmeringly 
 group'd 
 
 In tlu' hollow hank. One reaching forward 
 
 drew 
 M\ burthen from mine arms: they cried. "She 
 
 lives.' 
 They bore her hack into the tent: but I. 
 So much a kind oi' shame within me wrought. 
 Not vet endured to meet her opening eves. 
 Nor found my friends; hut push'd alone on 
 
 foot — 
 For since her horse was lost I left her mine 1 — 
 Across the woods, and less from Indian craft 
 Than beelike instinct hiveward, found at 
 
 length 
 The garden portals. Two great statues. Art 
 And Science. Caryatids, lifted up 
 A weight of emblem, and betwixt were valves 
 Of open-work in which the hunter rued 
 His rash intrusion, manlike, hut his brows 
 Had sprouted, and the branches thereupon 
 Spread out at top. ami grimly spiked the 
 
 gates. 
 
 And. tost on thoughts that changed from 
 
 line to hue. 
 Now poring on the glowworm, now the .-tar. 
 1 paced the terrace, till the Hear had uluel'd 
 Thro" a great arc his seven slow -nib. 
 
 A step 
 Of lightest echo, then a loftier form 
 Thau female, moving thro' the uncertain 
 
 gloom, 
 Disturbed me with the doubt 'if this were she,' 
 Hut it was Florian. "Hist. O. hist!' he said, 
 'They seek us; out so late is out of rules. 
 Moreover, "Seize tie strangers" is the cry. 
 How came you lure:* I told him. 'I.* said he, 
 "I.a-t of tin train, a moral leper, I, 
 To whom none spake, half-sick at heart, re- 
 
 turn'd. 
 Arriving all confused among the rest 
 With hooded brows 1 crept into the hall. 
 And. couch'd behind a Judith, underneath 
 The head o\' Ilolofonu- peep'd and saw. 
 Girl after girl was call'd to trial: each 
 Disclaim'd all knowledge of us: last of all, 
 Melissa : trust me. sir. I pitied her. 
 She. question'd if she knew u.s men. at first 
 Was silent: closer prest, denied it not. 
 And then, demanded if her mother knew. 
 Or Psyche, -he affirm'd not. or denied: 
 From whence the Royal mind, familiar with 
 
 her. 
 Easily gather'd either guilt. She sent 
 For Psyche, hut she was not there: she call'd 
 lor Psyche's child to cast it from the doors; 
 She sent for Blanche to accuse her face to 
 
 face : 
 And I slipt out. But whither will you now? 
 And where are Psyche. Cyril? both are Med: 
 What, if together? that were not so well. 
 Would rather we had never come! I dread 
 His wildncss, and the chance- of the dark.' 
 
 A little space w a- left between the horns. 
 Thro' which I clamber'd o'er at top with pain. 
 Dropt on the sward, and up the linden walks. 
 
 'And vat." I said, 'you wrong him more 
 than I 
 That struck him; this i- proper to the clown, 
 
A MEDLEY 
 
 Tho' smock'd, or furr'd and purpled, still 
 
 the down, 
 To harm the thing that trusts him, and to 
 
 shame 
 That which he says he loves. For Cyril, 
 
 ]i<>» e'er 
 lie deal in frolic, as to-night — the song- 
 Might have been worse and sinn'd in grosser 
 
 lips 
 Beyond all pardon — as it is. I hold 
 These flashes on the surface are not he. 
 He has a solid base of temperament : 
 Hut a.s the water-lily starts and slides 
 Upon the level in little puffs of wind, 
 Tim' anehor'd to the bottom, such is he.' 
 
 Scarce had I ceased when from a tamarisk 
 
 near 
 
 Two Proctors leapt upon us, crying, "Name--!' 
 He, standing still, was clutch'd; but I began 
 To thrid the musky-circled mazes, wind 
 And double in and out the boles, and race 
 By all the fountains. Fleet I was of foot; 
 
 Hi fore me shower'd the rose in (lakes; behind 
 I heard the puff'd pursuer; at mine ear 
 Hubliled the nightingale and heeded not, 
 And secret laughter tickled all my soul. 
 At last I hook'd my ankle in a vine 
 That claspt the feet of a Mnemosyne, 
 And falling on my face was caught and 
 know n. 
 
 They haled us to the Princess where she 
 
 sat 
 High in the hall: above her droop'd a lamp, 
 
 And made the single jewel on her brow 
 
 Burn like the mystic fire on a mast-head, 
 Prophel of storm; a handmaid on each side 
 Bow'd toward her, combing out her long black 
 
 haii- 
 Damp from the river: and close behind her 
 
 stood 
 Fight daughters of the plough, stronger than 
 
 men. 
 
 Hugi women blowzed with health, and wind, 
 
 and rain. 
 And labor. Each was like a Druid reek: 
 Or like a spire of land that stands apart 
 Chft from the main, and wail*d about with 
 
 nu W s. 
 
 Then, as wc came, the crowd dividing clove 
 An advent to the throne; and therebeside, 
 
 Half-naked as if caught at ono from b.d 
 And tumbled on the purple fcotcloth, lav 
 Tin lily-shining child: and on the left, 
 Bow'd on her palms and folded up from 
 
 w rong, 
 Her round white shoulder shaken with her 
 
 sobs. 
 
 Milissa knelt: but Lady Blanche ereel 
 Slum! up and spake, an affluent orator: 
 
 *It was not thus, () Princess, in old days; 
 You prized my counsel, lived upon my lips. 
 I led you Hun to all I he Castalies ; 
 I fed you with the milk of \<r\ Muse; 
 
 I loved you like this kneclcr. and you me 
 Your second mother, those win gracious 
 
 times. 
 Then came your new friend: you began to 
 
 change — 
 I saw it and grieved- to slacken and to cool; 
 Till taken with her seeming openness 
 You turn'd your warmer currents all 
 
 to her. 
 
 To me you froze; this was my meed for all. 
 Yet I bore up in part from ancient love, 
 And partly that I hoped to win you back, 
 And partly conscious of ovj own deserts, 
 And partly that you were my civil head, 
 And chiefly you wire born for something 
 
 great, 
 In which I might your fellow-worker be, 
 
 When time should serve; and thus a noble 
 
 si'ln nir 
 
 Grew up from seed we two long sine- had 
 sou n : 
 
 1 . 
 
 ' 
 
 I 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 
 ■ - "J 
 
 ■ 
 
 ' 
 
 In us true growth, in her a Jonah's gourd, 
 I'}) in one night and due to sudden sun. 
 We took tlii> palace; but even from the first 
 You stood iii your own light and darken'd 
 
 mine. 
 What student came but that you planed lier 
 
 path 
 To Lady Psyche, younger, not so wise, 
 A foreigner, and I your countrywoman, 
 I your old friend and tried, she new in all? 
 But still her lists were swell'd and mine wire 
 
 lean : 
 Yet I bore up in hope slie would be known. 
 Then came these wolves: they knew her; they 
 
 endured, 
 Long-closeted with her tbc yestermorn, 
 To tell her what they were, and she to hear. 
 And me none told. Not less to an eye like 
 
 mine, 
 A Iidless watcher of the public weal. 
 Last night, their ma.sk was patent, and my 
 
 foot 
 Was to you. But I thought again ; I fear'd 
 To meet a cold ''We thank you, we shall hear 
 
 of it 
 From Lady Psyche:" you had gone to her, 
 She told, perforce, and winning easy grace. 
 No doubt, for slight delay, remain'd among us 
 In our young nursery still unknown, the stem 
 Less grain than touchwood, while my honest 
 
 heat 
 Were all miscounted as malignant haste 
 To push my rival out of place and power. 
 But public use required she should be known; 
 And since my oath was ta'en for public use, 
 I broke the letter of it to keep the sense. 
 I spoke not then at first, but watch'd them 
 
 well. 
 Saw that they kept apart, no mischief done; 
 And yet this day — tho' you should hate me 
 
 for it— 
 I came to tell you ; found that you had gone. 
 Ridden to the hills, she likewise. Xow, I 
 
 thought. 
 
 That surely she will speak; if not, then I. 
 Did she? These monsters blazon'd what they 
 
 were, 
 According to the coarseness of their kind. 
 For thus I hear: and known at last — my 
 
 work — 
 And full of cowardice and guilty shame — 
 I grant in her some sense of shame — she flies; 
 And I remain on whom to wreak your rage, 
 I. that have lent my life to build up yours, 
 I, that have wasted here health, wealth, and 
 
 time, 
 And talent. I — you know it — I will not boast : 
 Dismiss me, and I prophesy your plan. 
 Divorced from my experience, will be chaff 
 For every gust of chance, and nun will say 
 We did not know the real light, but 
 
 chased 
 The wisp that flickers where no foot can 
 
 tread.' 
 
 She ceased; the Princess answer'd coldlv, 
 'Good : 
 Your oath is broken ; we dismiss you, go. 
 For this lost lamb' — she pointed to the child — 
 'Our mind i.s changed : we take it to ourself.' 
 
 Thereat the lady stretch'd a vulture throat, 
 And shot from crooked lips a haggard smile. 
 'Tlie plan was mine. I built the nest,' she 
 
 said, 
 'To hatch the cuckoo. Rise !' and stoop'd to 
 
 updrag 
 Melissa. She, half on her mother propt, 
 Half-drooping from her, turn'd her face, and 
 
 cast 
 A liquid look on Ida, full of prayer, 
 Which melted Florian's fancy as she hung. 
 A Xiobean daughter, one arm out, 
 Appealing to the bolts of heaven : and while 
 We gazed upon her came a little stir 
 About the doors, and on a .sudden rush'd 
 Among us, out of breath, as one pursued, 
 A woman-post in flying raiment. Fear 
 
A ME D LEY 
 
 Stared in her eyes, and chalk'd her face, and 
 
 wing'd 
 Her transit to the throne, whereby she fell 
 Delivering seal'd dispatches which the Head 
 Took half-amazed, and in her lion's mood 
 Tore open, silent we with blind surmise 
 Regarding, while she read, till over brow 
 And cheek and bosom brake the wrathful 
 
 bloom 
 As of some fire against a stormy cloud. 
 When the wild peasant rights himself, the rick 
 Flames, and Ins anger reddens in the heavens; 
 For anger most it seem'd, while now her 
 
 breast, 
 Beaten with some great passion at her heart, 
 Palpitated, her hand shook, and we heard 
 In the dead hush the papers that she held 
 Rustle. At once the lost lamb at her feel 
 Sent out a hitter bleating for its dam. 
 The plaintive cry jarr'd on her ire; she 
 
 crush'd 
 The scrolls together, made a sudden turn 
 As if to speak, hut, utterance failing her. 
 She whirl'd them on to me, as who should say 
 'Read,' and I read -two letters — one her 
 
 sire's : 
 
 'Fair daughter, when we sent the Prince 
 your way 
 We knew not your ungracious laws, which 
 learnt, 
 
 We, conscious of what temper you are built, 
 Came all in haste to hinder wrong, but fell 
 Into his father's hand, who has this night, 
 You lying close upon his territory. 
 Slipt round and in the dark invested you, 
 And lure he keeps me hostage for his son.' 
 The second was my father's running thus: 
 'You have our son ; touch not a hair of his 
 
 head : 
 Render him up unscathed; give him your 
 
 hand ; 
 Cleave to your contract — tho' indeed we hear 
 You hold the woman is the belter man: 
 
 A rampant heresy, such as if it spread 
 Would make all women kick against their 
 
 lords 
 Thro' all the world, and which might well 
 
 di serve 
 That we tliis- night should pluck your palace 
 
 (low n : 
 And we will do it, unless you send US back 
 Our son, on the instant, whole.' 
 
 So far 1 read ; 
 And then stood up and spoke impetuously : 
 
 'O, not to pry and peer on ycur reservi . 
 But led by golden wishes, and a hope 
 
 The child of regal compact, did I break 
 Your precinct ; not a scorner of youi sex 
 But venerator, zealous it should be 
 All that it might be. Hear me, for I bear, 
 Tho' man, yet human, whatsoe'er your 
 
 wrongs, 
 From the flaxen curl to the gray lock a life 
 Less mini than yours. My nurse would tell 
 
 mi of you : 
 I babbled for you. as babies for the moon. 
 Vague brightness; when a boy, you Btoop'd 
 
 to me 
 From all high places, lived in all fair lights. 
 Came in long breezes rapt from inmost south 
 And blown to inmost north; at e\e and dawn 
 With Ida, Ida, Ida. rang the woods; 
 The leader wild-swan in among the stars 
 Would clang it, and lapt in wreaths of glow- 
 worm light 
 The mellow breaker murmur'd Ida. Now. 
 Because I would have reaeh'd you, hail you 
 
 been 
 Sphered up with Cassiopeia, or the enthroned 
 Persephone in Hades, now at length, 
 Those winters of abeyance all worn out, 
 A man I canu to see you: but, indeed, 
 Not in this frequence can I lend full tongue, 
 () noble Ida. to those thoughts that wait 
 On you, their O ntre. Ll I me say hut this. 
 That many a famous man and woman, town 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 
 And Iandskip, have I heard of s after seen 
 The dwarfs of presage; tho' when known, 
 
 there gri n 
 Another kind of beauty in detail 
 Made them worth knowing ; but in you I found 
 M\ boyish dream involved and dazzled down 
 And master'd, while that after-beauty makes 
 Such head from ad to act, from hour to hour. 
 'Within me, that except you slay me here, 
 According to your bitter statute book, 
 I cannot ceasi to follow you, as they saj 
 Tho seal docs music; who desire you more 
 Than growing boys their manhood; dying 
 
 lips, 
 With many thousand matters left to <lo. 
 The breath of life; (), more than poor men 
 
 wealth, 
 Than sick nun health — yours, yours, not. 
 
 mine- hut halt' 
 Without you; with you. whole; and of those 
 
 hah es 
 You worthiest ; and howe'er you block and bar 
 Your heart with system out from mine. I hold- 
 That it becomes no man to nurse de-pair, 
 Hut in the teeth of clench'd antagonisms 
 To follow up the worthiest till lie die. 
 Yc t that I came not all unauthorized 
 Behold your father's letter.' 
 
 On one knee 
 Kneeling, I gave it. which she caught, and 
 
 dash'd 
 Unopen'd at her feet- A tide of fierce 
 Invective seem'd to wait behind her lips. 
 As waits a river level with the dam 
 Ready to hurst and flood the world with foam; 
 And so -he would have spoken, hut there rose 
 A huhhuh in the court of half the maids 
 Gathered together; from the illumined hall 
 Long lanes o\' splendor slanted o'er a press 
 Of snow v shoulders, thick as herded ewes, 
 And rainbow robes, and gems and oemlike 
 
 eyes. 
 And gold and golden heads. They to and 
 
 fro 
 
 Fluctuated, as flowers in storm, some red. some 
 
 pale. 
 
 All open-mouth'd, all gazing to the light. 
 Some crying there was an army in the land, 
 And some that men were in the very walls, 
 And some thc\ cared not: till a clamor grew 
 As of a new-world Babel, woman-built, 
 And worse-confounded. High above them 
 
 stood 
 
 'I'ln placid marble Muses, looking peace. 
 
 Not pi ace she look'd. the Head; hut ris- 
 ing up 
 Robed in the long night of her deep hair, so 
 To the open window moved, remaining there 
 Fixt like a beacon-tower above the waves 
 Of tempest, when the crimson rolling eye 
 Glares ruin, and the wild birds on the light 
 Dash themselves dead. She stretch'd her arms 
 
 and call'd 
 Aero— the tumult, and the tumult fell. 
 
 "What fear ye, brawlers? am not I your 
 Head? 
 
 On me. inc. me. the storm first breaks; / dare 
 All these male thunderbolts; what is it ye fear? 
 Peace! then are those to avenge us am' they 
 
 come : 
 If net, myself were like enough. O girls. 
 To unfurl the maiden banner of our rights, 
 And clad in iron hurst the ranks of war. 
 Or. falling, protomartyr of our cause, 
 Die; yet I blame you not so much tor fear; 
 Six thousand years of fear have madi you 
 
 that 
 From which I would redeem you. But for 
 
 those 
 That stir this hubbub — you and you — I know 
 Your faces there in the crowd — to-morrow 
 
 morn 
 We hold a great convention: then shall they 
 That love their voices more than duty, learn 
 With whom they deal, dismiss'd in shame to 
 
 live 
 
A M E D LEY 
 
 No wiser than their mothers, household stuff, 
 Live chattels, mincers of each other's fame, 
 Full of weak poison, turnspits for the clown, 
 The drunkard's football, laughing stocks of 
 
 Time, 
 Whose brains arc in their hands and in their 
 
 In els, 
 Hut tit to flaunt, to dress, to dance, In thrum, 
 To tramp, to scream, to burnish, and to scour, 
 For ever slaves al home and fools abroad.' 
 
 She. ending, waved her hands; thereal the 
 crowd 
 Muttering, dissolved; then with a smile, thai 
 
 ik'd 
 A stroki of <rui I sunshine on the cliff, 
 When all the glens are drown'd in azure gloom 
 Of thunder-shower, she floated to us and said: 
 
 "You have dour well and like a gentleman, 
 And like a princi ; you have our thanks for 
 
 all. 
 And you look will too in your woman's dress. 
 Well have you done and like a gentleman. 
 You saved our lifi ; we owe you bitter thanks. 
 Better have died and spill our bones in the 
 
 flood- 
 Then men had said— but now — what hinders 
 
 me 
 To take such bloody vengeance on you 
 
 both?— 
 Yrt since our father- wasps in our good hive, 
 You would I i quenchers of the light to be, 
 Barbarians, grosser than your native bears — 
 t ). would I had his sceptre for one hour! 
 You that have dared to hrcak our hound, and 
 
 gull'd 
 
 Our servants, wrong'd and lied and thwarted 
 
 us — 
 I wed with thee! / hound by precontract 
 Your bride, your bondslave! not tho' all the 
 
 gold 
 
 That veins tin- world wire paek'd to make 
 your crown. 
 
 And every spoken tongue should lord you. 
 
 Sir. 
 
 Your falsi h I and yourseif are hateful to us ; 
 
 I trample on your offers and Oli you. 
 Begom : we will nol look uuon you more. 
 Hi re, push them out at gates.' 
 
 In w iat h she spake. 
 Then those eighl mighty daughters of the 
 
 plough 
 Heni their broad faces toward us and ad- 
 
 dress'd 
 Their motion. Twice I sought to plead my 
 
 cause. 
 Hut on my shoulder hung their heavy hands, 
 The weigh! of destinj ; so from her face 
 They push'd us, down the steps, and thro' 
 
 the court. 
 And with grim laughter thrust us out at 
 
 gates. 
 
 We cross'd the street and gain'd a petty 
 mound 
 Beyond it. whence we saw the lights and heard 
 
 The voices murmuring. While I listen'd, 
 
 came 
 On a sudden the weird seizure and the doubt. 
 I seem'd to move among a world of ghosts; 
 The Princess with her monstrous woman- 
 guard, 
 The jist and earnest working side by side. 
 The cataract and the tumuli and the kings 
 Were shadows; and the long fantastic night 
 With all its doings had and had not been, 
 And all things were and were nol. 
 
 This went by 
 As strangely as it came, and on my spirits 
 
 Settled a gentle cloud of melancholy — 
 Not long; I shook it off: for spite of doubts 
 And sudden ghostly shadow inos I was one 
 To whom the touch of all mischance hut 
 
 came 
 As nijrlit to him that sitting on a hill 
 Sees the midsummer, midnight, Norway sun 
 Set into sunrise: then we moved away. 
 
r.'stV 
 
I N T E RLU D E. 
 
 Thy voice is heard thro' rolling drums 
 Thai beal to battle h here he stands ; 
 Thy face across his fancy comes, 
 
 And gn is I In h.ii 1 1, tn his hands. 
 A moment, while the trumpets Mow, 
 
 I Ic sees liis In- I aboul I li v kin i : 
 
 The next, like fire he m< el s the foe, 
 
 And si rikes him di ad for thine and 1 1 ee. 
 
 So Lilia sang. We though! her half possessed, 
 She struck such warbling fury thro' the words; 
 And. after, feigning pique at uliat she call'd 
 The raillery, or grotesque, or false sublime 
 Like one thai wishes at a dance to change 
 The music clapl her hands and cried for war, 
 Or some grand fighl to kill and make an end. 
 And he that next inherited the tale, 
 Half turning to the broken statue, said, 
 'Sir lialph lias got your colors; if I prove 
 
 Your knight, and fighl your battle, whal for me?' 
 It chanced, her empty glove upon the tomb 
 
 I.a\ by her like a model of her band. 
 Silc took it and she riling it. 'Fight,' she said. 
 'And make us all we would be, greal and good.' 
 He knightlike in bis cap instead of casque. 
 A cap of Tyrol borrow'd from the hall, 
 Arranged the favor, and assumed the Prince. 
 
- 
 
 ■ 
 
 n. 
 
 
 * 
 
 O ' 
 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 \ 
 
 : ^ 
 
 ■^ 
 
 i xi 
 
 ~§ ; L' tomrd U«i dJlMSft 
 
 & 
 
 1* ; V- 
 
PART FIVE 
 
*w 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 i 
 
 v • 
 
 
 
 PART FIVE 
 
 Now, scarce three paces measured from the 
 
 mound, 
 We stumbled on a stationary voice, 
 And "Stand, who goes?' 'Two from the pal- 
 ace,' I. 
 'The second two; they wait.' he said, "pass on: 
 His Highness wakes;' and one that clash'd 
 
 in arms, 
 By glimmering lams and walls of canvas led 
 Threading the soldi, r city, till we heard 
 Tin drowsj folds of our greal ensign shake 
 From blazon'd lions o'er the imperial ten! 
 Whispers of war. 
 
 Entering, t he sudden lighi 
 Dazed me half-blind. I stood and seem'd to 
 
 hear, 
 As in a poplar grove when a lighl wind wakes 
 A lisping of the innumerous leaf and diis. 
 Each hissing in his neighbor's car: and then 
 A strangled titter, out of which then brake 
 
 On all sides, clamoring etiquette to death, 
 
 Unmeasured mirth: while now the tun old 
 kit. os 
 
 Began to wag their baldness up ami down. 
 
 The fresh young captains flash'd their glit- 
 tering teeth. 
 
 The huge bush-bearded barons heaved and 
 blew, 
 
 And slain with laughter roli'd the gilded 
 squire. 
 
 At length my sire, his rough cheelt wet with 
 tears, 
 Panted from weary sides, 'King, you arc free! 
 
 We did hut keep you -ui< Iv for our son, 
 If this he he.- or a draggled mawkin, thou, 
 That te;uK her bristled grunters in the 
 
 sludgi ;' 
 I'm I was drench'd with ooz . and torn with 
 
 briers, 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 $* 
 
 .More crumpled than a poppy from the sheath, 
 And all one raj;-, disprinced from head to heel. 
 Then some one senl beneath his vaulted palm 
 A whisper'd jest to some one near him, "Look, 
 He has been among his shadows.' "Satan taki 
 TIk oid women and their shadows I* — thus the 
 
 king 
 Roar'd — "make yourself a man to fight with 
 
 men. 
 Go : Cyril told us all." 
 
 As boys that slink 
 From ferule and the trespass-chiding eye, 
 Away we stole, and transient in a trice 
 From what was left of faded woman-slough 
 'I'o sheathing splendors and the golden scale 
 Of harness, issued in the sun, that now 
 Leapt from the dewy shoulders of the earth, 
 And hit the Northern hills. Here Cyril met us, 
 A little shy at first, but by and by 
 We twain, with mutual pardon ask'd and 
 
 given 
 For stroke and song, rcsolder'd peace, whereon 
 Follow'd his tale. Amazed he fled away 
 Thro' the dark land, and later in the night 
 Had come on Psyche weeping: 'then we fell 
 Into your father's hand, and there she lies, 
 But will not speak nor stir.' 
 
 He show'd a tent 
 A stone-shot off; we enter'd in, and there 
 Among piled arms and rough accoutrements, 
 Pitiful sight, wrapp'd in a .soldier's cloak, 
 Like some sweet sculpture draped from head 
 
 to foot, 
 And push'd by rude hands from its pedestal, 
 All her fair length upon the ground she lay; 
 And at her head a follower of the camp, 
 A charr'd and wrinkled piece of womanhood, 
 Sat watching like a watcher by the dead. 
 
 Then Florian knelt, and 'Come,' lie whis- 
 tler" d to her, 
 
 'Lift up your head, sweet sister ; lie not thus. 
 
 What have you done but right ? you could not 
 slay 
 
 Me, nor your prince: look up, be comforted. 
 Sunt is it to have done the thing one ought, 
 When fallen in darker ways.' And likewise I: 
 "He comforted; have I not lost her too. 
 In whose leas! act abides the nameless charm 
 That none has else for me?' She heard, she 
 
 moved, 
 She moan'd, a folded voice: and up she sat. 
 And raised the cloak from hrows as pale 
 
 and smooth 
 As those that mourn half-shrouded oxer death 
 In deathless marble. 'Her,' she said, 'my 
 
 friend — 
 Parted from her — betray'd her cause and 
 
 mine — 
 Where .shall I breathe? why kept ye not your 
 
 faith? 
 () base and had! what comfort? none for me!' 
 To whom remorseful Cyril, 'Vet I pray 
 Take comfort; live, dear lady, for your 
 
 child!' 
 At which she lifted up her voice and cried: 
 
 'Ah me, my babe, my blossom, ah, my child, 
 My one sweet child, whom I shall see no more! 
 For now will cruel Ida keep her back ; 
 And either she will die from want of care, 
 Or sicken with ill-usage, when they say 
 The child is hers — for every little fault. 
 The child is hers; and they will heat my girl 
 Remembering her mother — O my flower ! 
 Or they will take her, they will make her hard, 
 And she will pass me by in after-life 
 With .some cold reverence worse than were 
 
 she dead. 
 Ill mother that I was to leave her there, 
 To lag behind, scared by the cry they made, 
 Tlie horror of the shame among them all. 
 But I will go and sit beside the doors, 
 And make a wild petition night and day, 
 Until they hate to hear me like a wind 
 Wailing for ever, till they open to me, 
 And lay my little blossom at my feet. 
 My babe, my sweet Aglai'a, my one child: 
 
A M E D LEY 
 
 And I will hike her up and go my way, 
 And satisfy my soul with kissing her. 
 Ali! what might that m.'in not deserve of me 
 Who gave me back my child?' 'He com- 
 fort id." 
 Said (Aril, 'you shall have it :' hut again 
 She veil'd her brows, and prone she sank, 
 
 and mi. 
 Like tender things that being caught feign 
 
 death, 
 Spoke nut, nor stirr'd. 
 
 By this a murmur ran 
 Thro" all the camp, and inward rand the 
 
 scouts 
 With rumor of Prince Arac hard at hand. 
 We left her by the woman, and without 
 Found the gray kings at parle; and 'Look 
 
 vmi.' cried 
 My father, 'that our compact he fulfill'd. 
 You have spoilt this child: she laughs at 
 
 vnu and man : 
 She wrongs herself, her sex, and me, and 
 
 him. 
 Rut red-faced war has rods of steel and fire; 
 She yields, or war.' 
 
 Then (Jama turu'd to me: 
 'We fear, indeed, you spent a stormy time 
 With our strange girl; and vet they say that 
 
 still 
 
 You love her. Give us, then, your mind at 
 
 large : 
 How say you, war or not?' 
 
 'Not war, if possibli . 
 () king, 9 T said, "lest from the abuse of war, 
 The desecrated shrine, the trampled year, 
 The smouldering homestead, and the housi 
 
 hold flower 
 Torn from the lintel — all the common 
 
 wrong — 
 A smoke go up thro' which I loom to her 
 Three limes a monster. Now she lightens 
 
 scorn 
 At him that mars her plan, hut then would 
 
 hate — 
 
 Ai.d every voice she talk'd with ratify if. 
 And everj face she look'd on justify it — 
 The general foe. -More solubli is this knot 
 R\ gentleness than war. I want her love. 
 What were I nigher this altho' we dash'd 
 Your cities into s!. ;i nls with catapults? — 
 She would mil love or brought her chain'd, 
 
 a s'.'Lle. 
 
 The lifting of whose eyelash is my lord? 
 
 Not ever would sin lovi . hut brooding turn 
 Tin book ot scorn, till all my flitting chance 
 Were caught within the record of her wrongs 
 And crush'd to death: and rather, Sire, than 
 
 this 
 
 I would Ihi old god of war himself w< re dead, 
 Forgotten, rusting on his iron hills, 
 Hot t inn' on some w ild shore with ribs of wreck, 
 Or like an old world mammoth bulk'd in ice, 
 Not to he molten out.' 
 
 And roughly spake 
 My father: 'Tut, you know them not, the 
 
 oirls. 
 Boy, when I hear you prate I almost think 
 That idiot legend credible. Look you, sir! 
 Man is the hunter: woman is his game. 
 
 The sleek and shining creatures of the chase. 
 We hunt them for the beauty of their skins; 
 Thev love Us for it, and we ride them down. 
 Wheedling and siding with them! Out! for 
 
 shame ! 
 Hoy. there's no rose that's half so dear to them 
 As he that does the thing they dare not do. 
 
 Breathing and sounding beauteous battle, 
 comes 
 
 With the air of the trumpet round him, and 
 
 leaps in 
 Among I he women, snares them by the score 
 Flattcr'd and fbistcr'd, wins, tho' dash'd with 
 
 death 
 He reddens what he kisses. Thus 1 won 
 Your mother, a good mother, a good wife. 
 Worth winning; but this firebrand — gentle- 
 ness 
 
 To such as her! if Cyril .spake her true, 
 
 I vy ' 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 To catch ;i dragon in a cherry net, 
 To t r^fi a tigress h ith a gossamer, 
 Were » isdom to it.' 
 
 'Yea, but, Sire,' I crii d, 
 'Wild natures need wise curbs. The soldier? 
 
 No! 
 Whal dares not Ida do thai she should prize 
 The soldier? I beheld her, when she rose 
 The yesternight, and storming in extremes 
 Stood for her cause, and Sung defiance down 
 Gagelike to man. and had not shunn'd the 
 
 death, 
 No, not the soldier's; yel I hold her, king, 
 True woman: but von clash them all in one, 
 Thai have as many differences as we. 
 The violet varies from the Lily as far 
 As oak from elm. One loves the soldier, one 
 The silken priest of peace, one this. one that. 
 And some unworthily; their sinless faith, 
 A maiden moon that sparkles on a sty, 
 Glorifying clown and satyr; whence the) 
 
 Heed 
 
 More breadth of culture. Is not Ida right.' 
 
 They worth it? truer to the law within? 
 
 Severer in the logic of a life? 
 
 Twice as magnetic to sweet influences 
 
 Of earth and heaven: and she of whom you 
 
 speak, 
 My mother, looks as whole as some serene 
 Creation minted in the golden moods 
 Of sovereign artists; not a thought, a touch, 
 But pure as lines of green that streak the 
 
 white 
 Of the first snowdrop's inner leaves; I say. 
 Not like the piebald miscellany, man. 
 Bursts of great heart and slips in sensual 
 
 mire, 
 But whole and one; and take them all-in-all, 
 Were we ourselves hut half as good, as kind. 
 As truthful, much that Ida claims as right 
 Had ne'er been mooted, hut as frankly theirs 
 A- dues of Nature. To our point; not war. 
 Lest I lose all.' 
 
 'Nay, nay, you spake hut sense, 
 
 Said (lama. "We remember love ourself 
 In our sweet youth; we did not rate him then 
 This red hot iron to he .shaped with blows. 
 You talk almost like Ida; she can talk: 
 And there is something in it as you say : 
 But you talk kindlier; w e esteem you for it. — 
 He seems a gracious and a gallant Prince, 
 I would he had our daughter. For the rest, 
 Our own detention, why. the causes weigh'd, 
 Fatherly fears — you used us courteously — 
 We would do much to gratify your Prince — 
 We pardon it : and for your ingress here 
 Upon the skirt and fringe of our fair laud. 
 You did hut come as goblins in the night. 
 Nor in the furrow broke the ploughman's 
 
 head, 
 Nor burnt the grange, nor buss'd the iiulk- 
 
 ing-maid, 
 Nor robb'd the farmer of his howl of cream. 
 But let your Prince — our royal word upon it, 
 He comes hack safe — ride with us to our lines. 
 And speak with Arae. Arac'.s word is thrice 
 As ours with Ida: something may he done — 
 I know not what — and ours shall see us 
 
 friends. 
 You, likewise, our late guest.s, if so you will, 
 Follow us. Who knows? we four may build 
 
 some plan 
 Foursquare to opposition.' 
 
 Here he reach'd 
 White hands of farewell to my sire, who 
 
 grow I'd 
 An answer which, half-muffled in his heard. 
 Let so much out that gave us leave to go. 
 
 Then rode we with the old king across the 
 
 law ns 
 Beneath huge trees, a thousand rings of 
 
 Spring- 
 In every hole, a song on every spray 
 Of birds that piped their Valentines, and woke 
 Desire in me to infuse my tale of love 
 In the old king's ears, who promised help, 
 
 and oo/ed 
 
A M ED LBV 
 
 All o'er with honey'd answer as we rode; 
 And blossom-fragranl slip! the heavy dews 
 
 Gather" d by nioht and peace, with each light 
 
 air 
 On our mail'd heads. Hut othi r thoughts than 
 
 peace 
 Burnt in us, when we saw th< embattled 
 
 squan-, 
 Ami squadrons of the Prince, trampling the 
 
 flowers 
 With clamor : for among them rose a cry 
 As it' to greet the king; they made a halt; 
 The horses yell'd; they clash'd their arm-: 
 
 the drum 
 Heat; merrily-blowing shrill'd the martial 
 
 fife ; 
 And in the blast and bray <it' the long horn 
 And serpent-throated bugle, undulated 
 The banner. Anon to meet us lightly pranced 
 Three captains out : nor ever had I seen 
 Such thews of nun. The midmo-t and the 
 
 highest 
 Wa- Arac: all about his motion clung 
 The shadow of his sister, as the beam 
 Of the East, that play'd upon them, made 
 
 them glance 
 Like those three stars of the airy Giant's 
 
 zone, 
 That glitter burnish'd by the frosty dark; 
 And as the fiery Siriiis alters hue. 
 And bicker- into red and emerald, shone 
 Their morions, wash'd with morning, as they 
 
 came. 
 
 And I that prated peace, when first I heard 
 
 War-music, felt the blind wild-beast of force, 
 
 Whose home is in the sinews of a man. 
 
 Stir in me as to strike. Then took the king 
 
 Hi.- three broad -on-: with now a wandering 
 
 hand 
 And now a poind d finger, told them all. 
 A common light of -miles at our disguise 
 Broke frcm their hp.s. and. ere the windy 
 
 jest 
 
 Had labor'd down within his ample lungs, 
 The genial giant, Arac, roll'd him 
 
 Thrice in the -addle, then burst out in word-: 
 
 'Our land invaded, '-death! and he hi' 
 Your captive, yet my father wills not war! 
 And. 'sdeath! myself, what care I. war or no? 
 Hut tin n tills ([Ui -I inn of your troth remain- ; 
 And there's a downright honest meaning in 
 
 her. 
 She flies too high, she this too high! and yet 
 
 ask'd but -pace and fair-play for her 
 
 scheme : 
 She prest and prest i' on me— I myself, 
 What know I of these things? but. life and 
 
 soul ! 
 
 I thought her half-right talking of her 
 wrongs : 
 
 I say she tlie- too high, 'sdeach! what of that? 
 
 I take her for the flower of u ankind. 
 
 And so I often told her, right or wrong; 
 And, Prince, she can lie sweet to those she 
 
 love-. 
 
 And. right or wrong, I care not : this i- all, 
 I stand upon her side; -In made me swear it — 
 
 'Sdeatl 
 
 il with solemn lite- b\ candle 
 
 light— 
 Swear by Saint something — I forget her 
 
 Name — 
 Her that talk'd down the fifty wisest men: 
 She wa- a princess too: ami so I -wore. 
 Come, tin- i- all: she will not; waive your 
 
 claim. 
 If not. the foughten field, what else, at once 
 Decides it. "-death! against my father's will.' 
 
 I lagg'd in answer, loth to render up 
 My precontract, .and loth by brainless war 
 To cleave the rift of different deeper yet; 
 Till one of those two brother-, half aside 
 And fingering at the hair about hi- lip. 
 To prick us on to combat, 'Like to like! 
 Tin woman'- garment hid the woman'- heart.' 
 A taunt that eleiieh'd hi- purpose like a blow ! 
 
 >>'• 
 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 \ For fiery-short was Cyril's counter-scoff, 
 
 Anil sharp I answered, touch'd upon the point 
 
 ■ j£\ Where idle boys are cowards to their shame, 
 'Decide it here; why not: we are three to 
 three.' 
 
 Then spake the third: 'But three to three? 
 no more? 
 No more, and in our noble sister's cause? 
 More, more, for honor! everj captain waits 
 Hungry for honor, angry tor hi- king. 
 More, more, some fifty on a side, that each 
 May breathe himself, and quick ! by overthrow 
 Of these or those, the question settled die.' 
 
 'Yea,' answer'd I, 'for this wild wreath of 
 
 air. 
 This flake of rainbow flying on the highest 
 Foam of men's deeds — this honor, if ye will. 
 It needs must lie for honor if at all; 
 Since, what decision? if we fail we fail, 
 And if we win we fail : she would not keep 
 Her compact.' ' 'Sdeath! but we will send to 
 
 her.' 
 Said Arac, 'worthy reasons why she should 
 Bide by this issue; let our missive thro', 
 And you shall have her answer by the word.' 
 
 'Boys!' shriek'd the old king, but vainlier 
 
 than a hen 
 To her false daughters in the pool; for none 
 Regarded ; neither seem'd there more to say. 
 Back rode we to my father's camp, and 
 
 found 
 He thrice had sent a herald to the gates, 
 To learn if Ida yet would cede our claim, 
 Or by denial flush her babbling wells 
 With lur own people's life; three times he 
 
 went. 
 The first, he blew and blew, but none appear'd : 
 He batter'd at the doors, none came: the next, 
 An awful voice within had warn'd him thence; 
 The third, and those eight daughters of the 
 
 plough 
 
 Came -.allying thro' the gates, ; nd caught his 
 
 hair, 
 And so belabor' d him on rib and cheek 
 They made him wild. Not less one glance he 
 
 caught 
 Thro' open doors of Ida station'd there 
 Unshaken, clinging to her purpose, firm 
 Tho' compass'd by two armies and the noise 
 Of arms; and standing like a stately pine 
 Set In a cataract on an island-crae, 
 When storm is on the heights, and right and 
 
 left 
 
 Suck'd from the dark heart of the long hills 
 roll 
 
 The torrents, dash'd to the vale: and yet her 
 
 will 
 Bred will in me to overcome it or fall. 
 
 But when I told the king that I was pledged 
 To fight in tourney for my br'de, he clash'd 
 His iron palms together with a cry ; 
 Himself would tilt it out among the lads; 
 But overborne by all hi- bearded lords 
 With reasons drawn from age and state, per- 
 force 
 He yielded, wroth and red, with fierce demur; 
 And many a bold 1 night started up in heat, 
 And sware to combat for my claim till death. 
 
 All on this side the palace ran the field 
 Flat to the garden-wall : and likewise here, 
 Above the garden's glowing blossom-belts, 
 A column'd entry shone and marble stairs. 
 And great bronze valves, emboss'd with 
 
 Tomyris 
 And what she did to Cyrus after fight, 
 But now fast barr'd. So here upon the flat 
 All that long morn the lists were ham- 
 mer' d up. 
 And all that morn the heralds to and fro, 
 With message and defiance, went and came : 
 Last, Ida's answer, in a royal hand. 
 But shaken here and there, and rolling words 
 Oration-like. I kiss'd it anil I read: 
 
A M ED LEY 
 
 'O brother, you have known the pangs we 
 
 felt, 
 What heats of indignation when we heard 
 Of those that iron-cramp'd their women's feel ; 
 Of hinds in which at the altar the poor hride 
 Gives her harsh groom for bridal-gift a 
 
 scourge : 
 Of living hearts thai crack within the fire 
 Where smoulder their dead despots; and of 
 
 those, — 
 Mothers, — that, all prophetic pity, fling 
 Their pretty maids in the running Hood, and 
 
 swoops 
 The vulture, beak and talon, at the hear! 
 .Made for all noble motion. And I saw 
 Thai equal baseness lived in sleeker times 
 With smoother men; the old leaven leaven'd 
 
 all ; 
 Millions of throats would bawl for civil rights, 
 No woman named: therefore I set my lace 
 Against all men. and lived but for mine own. 
 Far off from men I luiilt a fold for them; 
 I stored it full of rich memorial; 
 I fenced it round with gallant institutes, 
 And biting laws to scare the beasts of prey, 
 And prospered, till a rout of saucy boys 
 15 rake on us at our hooks, and niarr'd our 
 
 pcac e, 
 .M -k'd like our maids, blustering 1 know not 
 
 what 
 Of insolence and love, some pretext held 
 Of baby troth, invalid, since my will 
 Scal'd not the bond — the striplings! — for 
 
 tin ir sport ! — 
 I tamed mv leopards; shall I not tame these? 
 Or you? or I? for since you think me touch'd 
 In honor — what ! I would not aughl of 
 
 false— 
 F not our cause pure.' and whereas I know 
 Your prone.--. Ar.ic. and what mother's blood 
 You draw from, fight ! You failing, I abide 
 What end soever; fail you "ill not. Still, 
 Take not his life, he risk'd it for mv own; 
 His mother lives. Yet whatsoe'er you do, 
 
 Fight and fight well; strike and strike home. 
 
 deal- 
 Brother-, the woman's angel guards you, you 
 The sole men to he mingled with our cause, 
 The sole men we shall prize in the aftertime, 
 Your very armor hallow'd, and your statues 
 Kear'd. sung to, when, this gadfly brush'd 
 
 aside. 
 
 We plant a solid foot into the Time, 
 And mould a generation strong to move 
 With claim-on claim from right to right, till 
 
 she 
 
 Whose name is yoked with children's know 
 herself; 
 
 And Knowledge in our own land make her 
 
 free. 
 And. ever following those two-crowned twin-. 
 Commerce and Conquest, shower the fiery 
 
 grain 
 Of freedom- broadcast over all that orbs 
 Between the Northern and the Southern morn.' 
 
 Then came a postscript ela-h'd across the 
 rest: 
 
 "See that there he no traitors in your camp. 
 
 We seem- a nest of traitors none to trust 
 Since our arm- fail'd — this Egypt-plague of 
 
 men ! 
 Almost our maids were better at their homi -. 
 Than thus man girdled here. Indeed I think 
 Our chiefest comfort is the little child 
 Of one unworthy mother, which she left. 
 She shall not have it back; the child shall 
 
 grow 
 To prize the authentic mother of her mind. 
 I took it for an hour in mine own- bed 
 This morning: there the tender orphan hands 
 Felt at my heart, and seem'd to charm from 
 
 thence' 
 The wrath I nursed against the world. 
 
 Farewell.' 
 
 I ceased; he said, 'Stubborn, hut she may 
 
 -it 
 
THE PRIN CESS 
 
 Upon a king's right hand in thunderstorms, 
 And breed up warriors! See now, tho' your- 
 self 
 Be dazzled by the wildfire Love to sloughs 
 Thai swallow common sense, the spindling 
 
 king, 
 This (Jama swamp'd in lazy tolerance. 
 When the man wants weight, the woman takes 
 
 it up, 
 And topples down the scales : hut this is li\l 
 As are the roots of earth and hase of all, — 
 Man for the field and woman for the hearth; 
 Man for Hie sword, anil for the needle she; 
 Man with the head, and woman with the 
 
 heart ; 
 Man to command, and woman to obey; 
 All else confusion. Look you! the gray mare 
 Is ill to live with, when her whinny shrills 
 From tile to scullery, and her small goodmaii 
 Shrinks in his arm-chair while the fires of hell 
 Mix with his hearth. But you — she's yet a 
 
 colt- 
 Take, break her; strongly groom'd and 
 
 strait ly curb'd 
 She might not rank with those detestable 
 That let the bantling scald at home, and 
 
 brawl 
 Their rights or wrongs like potherbs in the 
 
 street. 
 They say she's comely; there's the fairer 
 
 chance. 
 / like her none the less for rating at her! 
 Besides, the woman wed is not as we, 
 But suffers change of frame. A lusty brace 
 Of* twins may weed her of her folly. Boy, 
 The bearing and the training of a child 
 Is woman's wisdom.' 
 
 Thus the hard old king. 
 I took my leave, for it was nearly noon ; 
 I pored upon her letter which I held, 
 And on the little clause, 'take not his life ;' 
 I mused on that wild morning in the woods. 
 And on the 'Follow, follow, thou shalt win :' 
 I thought on all the wrathful king had said. 
 
 And how the strange betrothment was to end. 
 Then I remcmber'd I hat burnt sorcerer's curse 
 That one should fight with shadows and 
 
 should fall: 
 And like a flash the weird affection came. 
 King, camp, and college turr'd to hollow 
 
 show s : 
 I sccm'd to move in old memorial tilts, 
 And doing battle with forgotten ^hnsts. 
 To dream myself the shadow of a dream; 
 And ere I woke it was the point of noon. 
 The lists wire ready. Empaiiopliid and 
 
 plumed 
 We entcr'd in, and waited, fifty there 
 Opposed to fifty, till the trumpet blared 
 At th - barrier like a wild horn in a land 
 Of echoes, and a moment, and once more 
 The trumpet, and again; at which the storm 
 Of galloping hoofs bare on the ridge of 
 
 spears 
 And riders front to front, until they closed 
 In conflict with the crash of shivering points, 
 And thunder. Yet it seem'd a dream. I 
 
 dream'd 
 Of fighting. On his haunches rose the steed, 
 And into fiery splinters leapt the lance, 
 And out of stricken helmets sprang the fire. 
 Part sat like rocks; part reel'd but kept their 
 
 seats ; 
 Part roll'd on the earth and rose again and 
 
 drew; 
 Part stumbled mixt with floundering horses. 
 
 Down 
 Fi'om those two bulks at Arac's side, and 
 
 down 
 From Arac's arm. as from a giant's flail, 
 The large blows rain'd, as here and every- 
 where 
 lie rode the mellay, lord of the ringing lists, 
 And all the plain — brand, mace, and shaft, 
 
 and shield — 
 Shock'd, like an iron-clanging anvil bang'd 
 With hammers: till I thought, can this be he 
 From Gama's dwarfish loins'- if this be so, 
 
A MEDLEY 
 
 The mother makes us most — an<l in my dream 
 I glanced aside, and saw the palace-front 
 Alive with fluttering scarfs and ladies' eyes, 
 And highest, among the statues, statin like, 
 Between a cymbal'd Miriam and a Jael, 
 W'ilh Psyche's babe, was Ida watching us, 
 A single hand of gold about her hair. 
 Like a saint's glory up in heaven; hut she, 
 No saint — inexorable — no tenderness — 
 Too hard, too cruel. Yrt she sees me fight, 
 Yea. let her see me fall. With that 
 
 I drave 
 Among the thickest and bore down a prince, 
 And Cyril One. Yea, let me make my dream 
 All thai I would. Hut that large-moulded 
 
 man. 
 His visage all agrin as at a wake, 
 .Made at me thro' the press, and. staggering 
 
 haek 
 With stroke on stroke the horse and horse- 
 man, came 
 As romc s a pillar of electric cloud, 
 Flaying the roofs and sucking up the drains, 
 And shadowing down the champaign till it 
 strikes 
 
 On a wood, and takes, and breaks, and cracks, 
 
 and splits, 
 And twists tin grain with such a roar that 
 
 Earth 
 Reels, and the herdsmen crv : for everything 
 Gave way before him. Only Florian, he 
 That loved me closer than his own right eye, 
 Thrust in between; but Arac rode him down. 
 And Cyril seeing it. push'd against the Prince, 
 With Psyche's color round his helmet, 
 
 tough, 
 Strong, supple, sin, \* corded, apt at arms; 
 But tougher, heavier, stronger, he that -mote 
 And threw him. Last I spurr'd; 1 felt my 
 
 veins 
 Stretch with fierce heat; a moment hand to 
 
 hand. 
 And sword to sword, and hor.se to horse we 
 
 hung. 
 Till I struck out and shouted; the blade 
 
 glanced, 
 I did but shear a feather, and dream and 
 
 truth 
 Flow'd from me; darkness closed me, and 1 
 
 fell. 
 
 
SONG 
 
 Home they brought her warrior dead; 
 
 She nor - w < 11 in '< I nor uttered cry. 
 
Home they brought her warrior dead ; 
 
 She nor swoon'd nor utter'd cry. 
 All her maidens, watching, said, 
 
 'She must weep or she will die.' 
 
 Then they praised him, soft and low, 
 Call'd him worthy to be loved, 
 
 Truest friend and noblest f op ; 
 
 Yet she neither spoke nor moved. 
 
 Stole a maiden from her place, 
 Lightly to the warrior stept, 
 
 Took the face-cloth from the face; 
 Yet she neither moved nor wept. 
 
 Rose a nurse of ninety j-ears, 
 Set his child upon her knee — 
 
 Like summer tempest came her tears — 
 'Sweet mv child, I live for thee.' 
 
PART SIX 
 

 
 . ; 
 
 6 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 '''.- 
 
 
 
 PART SIX 
 
 My dream had never died or lived again; 
 As in some mystic middle state I lav. 
 Seeing I saw not, hearing not I heard; 
 
 Tlio', if I saw not, vet they told me all 
 So often that I speak as having seen. 
 
 For so it seein'd. or SO they said to me, 
 That all things grew more tragic and more 
 
 strange : 
 That, when our side was vanquish'd and my 
 
 cause 
 l'( r ever lost, there went up a great cry, 
 'The Prince i> slain!' My father heard and 
 
 ran 
 In on the li^ts. and there unlaced my casque 
 And grovell'd on my body, and after him 
 
 Came Psyche, sorrowing lor Aglaia. 
 Hut high upon the palaci Ida stood 
 
 With Psyche's babe in arm; there on the 
 
 roofs 
 Like that great dame of Lapidoth she sang. 
 
 'Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: the 
 seed, 
 The little seed they laugh'd at in the dark. 
 Has risen and cleft tin soil, and grown a hulk 
 of spanless girth, that lavs on ever} side 
 A thousand arms and rushes to the sun. 
 
 'Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: they 
 
 came : 
 The leaves were wei with woman's tears; they 
 
 heard 
 A noise of songs they would not understand; 
 They mark'd it with the red cross to the fall, 
 And would have strown it. and are fallen 
 
 thenisi ilvi -. 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 ■1 f, 
 
 
 
 'Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: they 
 
 came, 
 The woodmen with their axes: In the tree! 
 But we "ill makr it faggots for the hearth. 
 And shape it plank and beam for roof and 
 
 floor, 
 And boats and bridges for the use of men. 
 
 'Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: they 
 
 struck ; 
 With their own blows they hurt themselves, 
 
 nor knew 
 There dwelt an iron nature in the grain; 
 The glittering axe was broken in their arms, 
 Their arms were shatter'd to the shoulder 
 
 blade. 
 
 'Our enemies have fallen, but this shall 
 
 grow 
 A night of summer from the heat, a breadth 
 Of Autumn, dropping fruits of power; and 
 
 roll'd 
 With music in the growing breeze of Time, 
 The tops shall strike from star to star, the 
 
 fangs 
 Shall move the stony bases of the world. 
 
 'And now, maids, behold our sanctuary 
 Is violate, our laws broken ; fear we not 
 To break them more in their behoof, whose 
 
 arms 
 Champion'd our cause and won it with a day 
 Blanch'd in our annals, ami perpetual feast, 
 When dames and heroines of the golden year 
 Shall strip a hundred hollows bare of Spring, 
 To rain an April of ovation round 
 Their statues, borne aloft, the three ; but 
 
 come, 
 We will be liberal, since our rights are won. 
 Let them not lie in the tent.s with coarse man- 
 kind, 
 111 nurses ; but descend, and proffer these 
 The brethren of our blood and cause, that 
 there 
 
 Lie bruised and maim'd, the tender ministries 
 Of female hands and hospitality.' 
 
 She spoke, and with the babe yet in her 
 
 arms. 
 Descending, hurst the great bronze valves, 
 
 and led 
 A hundred maids in train across the park. 
 Sonic cowl'd, and some hare-Leaded, on they 
 
 came. 
 Their feet in flowers, her loveliest. Bv them 
 
 went 
 The enamor'd air sighing, and on their curls 
 From the high tree the blossom wavering fell, 
 And over them the tremulous isles of lighl 
 Slided. they moving under shade: hut Blanche 
 At distance follow "d. So they came : anon 
 Thro' open field into the lists they wound 
 Timorously ; and as the leader of the herd 
 That holds a stately fretwork to the sun. 
 And follow'd up by a hundred airy does. 
 Steps with a tender foot, light as on air. 
 The lovely, lordly creature floated on 
 To where her wounded brethren lay : there 
 
 stay'd, 
 Knelt on one knee, — the child on one, — and 
 
 prest 
 Their hands, and call'd them dear deliverers. 
 And happy warriors, and immortal names, 
 And said, 'You shall not lie in the tents, bul; 
 
 here, 
 And nursed by those for whom you fought, 
 
 and served 
 With female hands and hospitality.' 
 
 Then, whether moved by this, or was it 
 
 chance, 
 She past my way. Up started from my side 
 The old lion, glaring with Lis whelpless eye, 
 Silent: hut when she saw me lying stark, 
 Dishelm'd and mute, and motionlessly pale. 
 Cold even to her, she sigh'd ; and when she 
 
 saw 
 The hao'u'ard father's face and reverend beard 
 
A M E D LEY 
 
 Of grisly twine, all dabbled with the blood 
 Of his own son, shudder'd, a twitch of pain 
 Tortured her mouth, and o'er her forehead 
 
 past 
 A shadow, and her hue changed, and -he -aid: 
 'He saved my life; my brother slew him 
 
 for it/ 
 No more: at which the king in bitter scorn 
 Drew from- my neck the painting and the 
 
 tress, 
 And held them up. She saw them, ami a day 
 Rose from the distance on her memory, 
 'When the good queen, her mcther, shore the 
 
 tress 
 With kisses, ere the days of Lady Blanche. 
 Ami thin once more she look'd at my pale 
 
 fan : 
 Til] understanding all tin foolish work 
 of Fancy, and the bitter close of all. 
 Her iron will was broken in her mind: 
 Her noble heart was molten in her breast ; 
 She bow'd, -I i set the child on the earth; she 
 
 laid 
 A feeling finger on my brows, and presently 
 '< > Sire,' -he -aid. 'he live-; he is not dead! 
 (), let me have him with my brethren lure 
 In our own palace; we will tend on him 
 Like one of these: if SO, by any mean'-. 
 To lighten this great clog oi thanks, that 
 
 make 
 Our progress falter to the woman*- goal.' 
 
 It- body, and reach it.- fatling innocent anus 
 And lazy lingering fingers. She the appeal 
 Brook'd not, but clamoring out "Mine — 
 
 mine — not your- ! 
 It is not your-, but mine; give me tin child!' 
 Ceased all on tremble: piteous was tin cry. 
 So stood the unhappy mother open-mouth'd, 
 And turn'd each face her way. Wan was her 
 
 cheek 
 With hollow watch. In r blooming mantle torn. 
 Red grief and mother's hunger in her eye, 
 And down dead-heavy sank her curl-, and 
 
 half 
 
 The -acrid mother's bo-oni. panting, burst 
 The laCCS toward her babe: but -he nor cared 
 
 Nor knew it. clamoring on, till Ida heard, 
 Look'd up. and li.s'no' slowly from me, stood 
 Erect and silent, striking with her glance 
 The mother, me, the child. Bui he thai lay 
 Beside us, Cyril, batter'd a- he was, 
 Trail'd himself up on one knee; then he drew 
 Her robe to meei his lips, and down she 
 
 look'd 
 At the arm'd man sideways, pitying as it 
 
 -i i m'd, 
 Or self-involved: but when she learnt his face. 
 Remembering hi- ill-omen'd song, an 
 Once more thro' all her height, and o'er him 
 
 grew 
 Tall as a figure lengthen'd on the sand 
 When the tale ebbs in sunshine, and he said; 
 
 * <*■. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 She said; but at the happy word 'he lives!' 
 My father stoop'd, re-father'd o'er my 
 wounds. 
 
 So tho-c two foes above my fallen life, 
 With brow to brow like night and evening 
 
 mixt 
 Their dark and gray, while Psyche ever stole 
 A little nearer, till the babe that by us, 
 Half lap! in glowing gauze and golden brede, 
 
 I.a\ like a new fallen meteor on the ffrass, 
 
 Uncared for, -pied its mother and began 
 A blind ami babbling laughter, and to dance 
 
 '0 fair and strong and terrible! Lioness 
 
 That with your long lock- play the lion's 
 
 mane ! 
 But Love and Nature, these are two more 
 
 terrible 
 And stronger. Sec. your foot i- on our necks, 
 We vanquish'd, you the victor of your will. 
 What would you more.' give her the child! 
 
 remain 
 Orb'd in your isolation; he i.- dead. 
 Or all as dead: henceforth we let you be. 
 Win vmi tin In arts of women; and In ware 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 A. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 mz^ r 
 
 Lest, where von seels the common love of these, 
 The common hate with the revolving wheel 
 
 Should di-an,- you down, and some great 
 
 Nemi sis 
 Break from a darken'd future, crown'd with 
 
 fire, 
 And triad you out for ever. But howsoe'er 
 Fixt in yourself, never in your own anus 
 
 To hold your own, deny not hers to her, 
 Give her the child! (), if, I say, you keep 
 One pulse that heals true woman, it' you loved 
 The breast that fed or arm that dandled you. 
 
 Or own one port of sense not Hint to prayer. 
 Give her the child' or if you scorn to lay it. 
 Yourself, in hands SO lately claspt with yours, 
 Or speak to her, your dearest, her one fault 
 The tenderness, not yours, that could not kill. 
 Give me it ; / will give it her.' 
 
 He said. 
 At first her eye with slow dilation roll'd 
 Dry flame, she listening; after tank and sank 
 And, into mournful twilight mellowing, dwelt 
 Full on the child. She took it: 'Pretty hud! 
 Lily of the vale! half-open'd bell of the 
 
 woods ! 
 Sole comfort of my dark hour, when a world 
 Of traitorous friend and broken system made 
 No purple in the distance, mystery, 
 Pledge of a love not to be mine, farewell ! 
 These men are hard upon us as of old, 
 We too must part ; and yet how fain was I 
 To dream thy cause embraced in mine, to 
 
 think 
 I might be something to thee, when I felt 
 Thv helpless warmth about my barren breast 
 In the dead prime ; but may thy mother prove 
 As true to thee as false, false, false to me! 
 And, if thou needs must bear the yoke, I 
 
 wish it 
 Gentle as freedom' — here she kiss'd it; then — ■ 
 'All good go with thee ! take it, sir,' and so 
 Laid the soft babe in his hard-mailed hands, 
 Who turn'd half-round to Ps3'che as she 
 
 sprang 
 
 To meet it, with an eye that swum in thanks; 
 Then felt it sound and whole from bead to 
 
 foot, 
 And hugg'd and never hugg^ it close 
 
 enough, 
 And in her hunger mouth'd and mumbled it, 
 And hid her bosom with it; after that 
 Put on more calm and added .suppliant ly : 
 
 'We two were friends: I go to mine own 
 
 land 
 For ever. Find some other: as for me 
 I scarce am fit for your great plans: yet spealt 
 
 to me, 
 Say one soft word and let me part forgiven.' 
 
 But Ida spoke not, rapt upon the child. 
 Then Arac: 'Ida — 'sdeath! you blame the 
 
 man ; 
 You wrong yourselves — the woman is so hard 
 Upon the woman. Come, a grace to me! 
 I am your warrior; I and mine have fought 
 Your battle. Kiss her; take her hand, she 
 
 weeps. 
 'Sdeath ! I would sooner fight thrice o'er than 
 
 see it.' 
 
 But Ida spoke not, gazing on the ground, 
 
 And reddening in the furrows of his chin. 
 And moved beyond his custom, Gama said: 
 
 'I've heard that there is iron in the blood. 
 And I believe it. Not one word? not one'-' 
 Whence drew you this steel temper? not 
 
 from me, 
 Not from your mother, now a saint with 
 
 saints. 
 She said you had a heart — I heard her say it — 
 "Our Ida has a heart" — just ere she died— 
 "But see that some one with authority 
 Be near her still ;'' and I — I sought for one — 
 All people said she had authority — 
 The Lady Blanche — much profit! Not one 
 
 word ; 
 
A M E D LEY 
 
 No! tho' your father sues. See how you stand 
 Stiff ;is Lot's wife, and all the good knights 
 
 maim'd, 
 I trust that there is no one hurt to death, 
 For your wild whim. And was it then for 
 
 this, 
 Was it for thi- w<> gave our palace up, 
 Where we withdrew from summer heats and 
 
 state. 
 And had our wine and chess beneath the 
 
 planes, 
 And man j a pleasant hour with her that's 
 
 gone, 
 Ere you were born to vex us? Is it kind.' 
 Speak to her, I saj : is this not --he of whom, 
 When first she came, all flush'd you said 
 
 to me, 
 Now had you got a friend of your own age, 
 Now could you share your thought, now 
 
 should men see 
 Two women faster welded in one love 
 Than pairs of wedlock!' she you walk'd with, 
 
 she 
 
 You talk'd with, whole nights long, up in the 
 
 tower, 
 Of sine and arc. spheroid and azimuth, 
 And right ascension, heaven knows what : and 
 
 now 
 A word, hut one, one little kindly word. 
 Not one to spare her. Out upon you, flint! 
 You love nor her, nor me, nor any ; nay. 
 You shame your mother's judgment too. 
 
 Not one ? 
 
 You will not? Well — no heart have you, or 
 
 such 
 
 As fancies like the vermin in a nut 
 
 Have fretted all to dust and bitterness. 9 
 
 So said the small king moved beyond his wont. 
 
 But Ida stood nor spoke, drain'd of her 
 force 
 By many a varying influence and so long. 
 Down thro' her limbs a drooping languor 
 wept : 
 
 Her head a little bent : and on her mouth 
 A doubtful smile dwelt like a clouded moon 
 In a still water. Then brake out my sire, 
 Lifting his grim In ad from my wounds: 
 
 '0 you, 
 Woman, whom we thought woman even now, 
 
 And were halt' fool'd to lit you tend our son, 
 Because hi' might have wish'd it hut we see 
 Tin accomplice of your madness un forgiven, 
 And think that you might mix his draught 
 
 with death. 
 
 When your skies change again; tin rougher 
 
 hand 
 I- -alii-. On to the tent-: take up the Prince.' 
 
 lie rose, and while each ear was prick'd to 
 
 attend 
 A tempest, thro' the cloud that dimm'd her 
 
 broke 
 A genial warmth and light once ■■ . and 
 
 shone 
 Thro' glittering drops on her sad friend. 
 
 'Come hither, 
 () Psyche,' she cried out, embrace me, come. 
 Quick while I melt; make reconcilement sure 
 With one that cannot keep her mind 
 
 an hour: 
 Come to the hollow heart they -lander so! 
 Kiss and be friends, like children being chid! 
 / -rem no more, / want forgiveness too: 
 I should have had to do with none hut maid-. 
 That have no links with men. Ah false hut 
 
 dear. 
 D.ar traitor, too much loud, why'' — why? — 
 
 yet see 
 Before these kino- wi i mhiaei \ oil yet once 
 
 more 
 With all forgiveness, all oblivion, 
 And t rust, not love, you k --. 
 
 And now. () Sire, 
 Grant me your son, to nurse, to wait upon 
 
 him. 
 Like mine own brother, lor m\ debt to him. 
 This nightmare weight of gratitude, I know it. 
 
THE PRIN CESS 
 
 Taunt me no more; yourself and yours shall 
 
 have 
 Free adit ; we will scatter all our maids 
 Till happier times each to her proper hearth. 
 What use to keep them here — now? grant my 
 
 prayer. 
 Help, father, brother, help; speak to the 
 
 king; 
 Thaw this male nature to some touch of that 
 Which kills me with myself, and drags me 
 
 down 
 From my fixt height to mob me up with all 
 The soft and milky rabble of womankind, 
 Poor weakling even as they are.' 
 
 Passionate tears 
 Follow -'d ; the king replied not; Cyril said: 
 'Your brother, lady, — Florian, — ask for him 
 Of your great Head — for he is wounded too — 
 That you may tend upon him with the 
 
 Prince.' 
 'Ay, so,' said Ida with a bitter smile, 
 'Our laws are broken ; let him enter too. 
 Then Aiolet, she that sang the mournful song, 
 And had a cousin tumbled on the plain, 
 Petition'd too for him. 'Ay, so,' she said, 
 'I stagger in the stream ; I cannot keep 
 My heart an eddy from the brawling hour. 
 We break our laws with ease, but let it be.' 
 'Ay, so?' said Blanche: 'Amazed am I to hear 
 Your Highness ; but your Highness breaks 
 
 with ease 
 The law your Highness did not make ; 'twas I. 
 I had been wedded wife, I knew mankind, 
 And block'd them out ; but these men came to 
 
 woo 
 Your Highness,- — verily I think to win.' 
 
 So she, and turn'd askance a wintry eye; 
 But Ida, with a voice that, like a bell 
 Toll'd by an earthquake in a trembling tower, 
 Rang ruin, answer'd full of grief and scorn ; 
 
 'Fling our doors wide ! all, all, not one, but 
 all, 
 
 Not only he, but by my mother's soul, 
 Whatever man lies wounded, friend or foe, 
 Shall enter, if he will! Let our girls flit. 
 Till the storm die! but had you stood by us. 
 The roar that breaks the Pharos from his 
 
 base 
 Had left us rock. She fain would sting us 
 
 too, 
 But shall not. Pass, and mingle with your 
 
 likes. 
 We brook no further insult, but arc gone.' 
 
 She turn'd ; the very nape of her white neck 
 Was rosed with indignation: but the Prince 
 Her brother came: the king her father 
 
 charm'd 
 Her wounded soul with words ; nor did mine 
 
 own 
 Refuse her proffer, lastly gave his hand. 
 
 Then us they lifted up, dead weights, and 
 
 bare 
 Straight to the doors ; to them the doors gave 
 
 way 
 Groaning, and in the vestal entry shriek'd 
 The virgin marble under iron heels. 
 And on they moved and gain'd the hall and 
 
 there 
 Rested; but great the crush was, and each 
 
 base, 
 To left and right, of those tall columns 
 
 drown'd 
 In silken fluctuation and the swarm 
 Of female whispers. At the further end 
 Was Ida by the throne, the two great cats 
 Close by her, like supporters on a shield, 
 Bow-back'd with fear; but in the centre stood 
 The common men with rolling eyes ; amazed 
 They glared upon the women, and aghast 
 The women stared at these, all silent, save 
 When armor clash'd or jingled, while the 
 
 day. 
 
A MED LEY 
 
 Descending, struck athwart the hall and shot 
 A flying splendor out of brass and steel, 
 That o'er the statues leapt from bead to head, 
 Now fired an angry Pallas on the helm, 
 Now set a wrathful Dian's moon on flame; 
 And now and then an echo started up, 
 And shuddering fled from room to room, and 
 
 died 
 Of fright in far apartments. 
 
 Then the voice 
 Of Ida sounded, issuing ordinance; 
 And me they hore up the hroad stairs, and 
 
 thro' 
 
 Tlie long-laid galleries past a hundred doors 
 To one deep chamber shut from sound, and 
 
 due 
 To languid limbs and sickness, left me in it ; 
 And others otherwhere they laid: and all 
 That afternoon a sound arose of hoof 
 And chariot, many a maiden passing home 
 Till happier times; but some were left 
 
 Of tllOM- 
 
 Held sagest, and the great lords out and in, 
 From those two hosts that lay beside the wall, 
 Walk'd at their will, and everything was 
 changed. 
 
 -HwrrtMMVrvrrM 
 

 .^£_ '111 'I- t-N |^ 
 
SONG 
 
 Ask me no more: the moon ma\ draw tin 
 I'll, cloud m.i\ stoop from heaven and take 
 l In shape, 
 
Ask me no more : the moon may draw the sea ; 
 The cloud may stoop from heaven and take 
 
 the shape, 
 With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape; 
 But O too fond, when have I answer'd thee? 
 Ask me no more. 
 
 Ask me no more: what answer should I give? 
 I love not hollow cheek or faded eye: 
 Yet, O my friend, I will not have thee die! 
 
 Ask me no more, lest I should bid thee live; 
 Ask me no more. 
 
 Ask me no more : thy fate and mine are seal'd ; 
 
 I strove against the stream and all in vain ; 
 
 Let the great river take me to the main. 
 No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield; 
 Ask me no more. 
 
II *>, hi' 
 
■ ; (jnwrCJL'WWfQmsi 
 
P A RT S EVEN 
 
 So was their sanctuary violated, 
 So their fair college turn'd to hospital, 
 At first with all confusion; by and by 
 Sweet order livid again with other laws, 
 A kindlier influence reign'd, and everywhere 
 Low voices with the ministering hand 
 Hung round the sick. The maidens came, 
 
 the\ talk'd, 
 They sang, they read: iill she not lair began 
 To gather light, and she that was became 
 Her former beauty treble; and to and fro 
 With books, with flowers, with ano,i I others. 
 
 Like creatures native unto gracious act, 
 
 And in their own eleai element, they moved. 
 
 Hut sadness on the soul of Ida till. 
 And hatred of her weakness, blent with 
 
 shame. 
 Old studies fail'd; seldom she spoke: hut oft 
 
 Clomb to the roofs, and gazed alone for hours 
 On that disastrous leaguer, swarms of men 
 Darkening her female field. Void was her 
 
 use, 
 And she as one that climbs a jieak to gaze 
 O'er land and main, and sees a great black 
 
 cloud 
 Drag inward from tin deeps, a wall of night, 
 Blot out the slope of sea from verge to shore, 
 And suck tin blinding splendor from the 
 
 sand. 
 And quenching lake by lake and tarn by tarn 
 Expunge the world: so fared she gazing 
 
 there. 
 
 So blacken'd all her world in secret, blank 
 And waste it seem'd and vain: till down she 
 
 came, 
 And found fair peace oner more among the 
 
 sick. 
 
THE P RI N CESS 
 
 And twilight dawn'd; and mom by morn 
 
 the lark 
 Shot up ami shrill'd in flickering gyres, but I 
 Lav silent in the muthVd cage of life. 
 And twilight gloom'd, and broader-grown the 
 
 bowers 
 Drew I he great night into themselves, and 
 
 heaven, 
 Star after -tar, arose and fell; 1ml I, 
 Deeper than those weird doubts could reach 
 
 mi. lay 
 Quito sunder' d from the moving Universe, 
 Nor knew what eve was on me, nor the hand 
 That nursed me, more than infants in their 
 
 sleep. 
 
 Hut Psyche tended Florian; with her oft 
 Melissa came, for Blanche had gone, 
 
 hut left 
 Her child among us, willing she should keep 
 Court-favor. Here and there the small bright 
 
 head, 
 A light of healing, glanced about the couch, 
 Or thro' the parted silks the tender face 
 Peep'd, shining in upon the wounded man 
 With blush and smile, a medicine in them- 
 selves 
 To wile the length from languorous hours, 
 
 and draw 
 The sting from pain; nor seem'd it strange 
 
 that soon 
 He rose up whole, and those fair charities 
 Join'd at her side ; nor stranger seem'd that 
 
 hearts 
 So gentle, so employ'd. should close in love, 
 Than when two dewdrops on the petal shake 
 To the same sweet air, and tremble deeper 
 
 down. 
 And slip at once all-fragrant into one. 
 
 Less prosperously the second suit obtain'd 
 At first with Psyche. Not tho' Blanche had 
 
 sworn 
 That after that dark night among the fields 
 
 She needs must wed him for her own good 
 
 name ; 
 Not tho' he built upon the babe restored; 
 Not tho' she liked him, yielded she, but fear'd 
 To incense the Head once more; till on a day 
 Winn Cyril pleaded, Ida came behind 
 Seen but of Psyche; on her foot she hung 
 A moment, and she heard, at which her face 
 A little flush'd, and she past on: hut each 
 Assumed from thence a half-consent involved 
 In stillness, plighted troth, and were at peace. 
 
 Nor only these ; Love in the sacred halls 
 Held carnival at will, and flying struck 
 With showers of random sweet on maid and 
 
 man. 
 Nor did her father cease to press my claim, 
 Nor did mine own now reconciled; nor yet 
 Did those twin brothers, risen again and 
 
 whole; 
 Nor Arac, satiate with his victory. 
 
 But I lay still, and with me oft she sat. 
 Then came a change; for sometimes I woidd 
 
 catch 
 Her hand in wild delirium, gripe it hard, 
 And fling it like a viper off, and shriek, 
 'You are not Ida :' clasp it once again, 
 And call her Ida, tho' I knew her not, 
 And call her sweet, as if in irony, 
 And call her hard and cold, which seem'd a 
 
 truth; 
 And still she fear'd that I should lose my 
 
 mind, 
 And often she believed that I should die; 
 Till out of long frustration of her care, 
 And pensive tendance in the all-weary noons, 
 And watches in the dead, the dark, when 
 
 clocks 
 Throhb'd thunder thro' the palace floors, or 
 
 call'd 
 On flying Time from all their silver tongues — 
 And out of memories of her kindlier days. 
 And sidelong glances at my father's grief, 
 
A M EDLEY 
 
 And at the happy lovers heart in heart — 
 And out of hauntings of my spoken love, 
 And lonely listenings to my niutter'd dream, 
 And often feeling of the helpless hands, 
 And wordless broodings on the wasted check — 
 From all a closer interest flourish'd up, 
 Tenderness toucli by touch, and last, to these, 
 Love, like an Alpine harebell hung with (ears 
 By some cold morning glacier: frail at first 
 And feeble, all unconscious of itself. 
 But such as gather'd color day by day. 
 
 Last I woke sane, but well-nigh close to 
 
 death 
 For weakness. It was evening; silent light 
 Slept on the painted walls, wherein were 
 
 wrought 
 Two grand designs; for on one side arose 
 The women up in wild revolt, and storm'd 
 At the Oppian law. Titanic shapes, they 
 
 cramm'd 
 The forum, and half-crush'd among the rest 
 A dwarf-like Cato cower'd. On the other side 
 Hortensia spoke against the tax: behind, 
 A train of dames. By axe and eagle sat. 
 With all their foreheads drawn in Unman 
 
 scowls, 
 And half the wolf's-milk curdled in their 
 
 veins, 
 The fierce triumvirs; and before them paused 
 Hortensia, pleading; angry was her face. 
 
 I saw the forms ; I knew not where I was. 
 They did hut look like hollow shows; nor more 
 Sweet Ida. Palm to palm she sat: the dew 
 Dwelt in her eyes, and softer all her shape 
 And rounder .seemM. I moved, I sigh'd: a 
 
 touch 
 Came round my wrist, and tears upon my 
 
 hand. 
 Then all for languor and self-pity ran 
 Mine down my face, and with what life I had, 
 And like a flower that cannot all unfold, 
 So drench'd it is with tempest, to the sun, 
 
 Yet, as it may, turns toward him, I on her 
 Fixt my faint eves, ami utter'd whisperingly : 
 
 'If you he what I think you, some sweet 
 dream, 
 I would hut ask you to fulfil yourself; 
 Hut if you he th.at Ida whom I knew, 
 I ask you nothing: only, if a dream. 
 Sweet dii am. be perfect. I shall die to-night. 
 Stoop down and seem to kiss me ere I die.' 
 
 I could no more, but lav like one in trance, 
 That hears his burial talk'd of by his friends, 
 And cannot speak, nor move, nor make one 
 
 sign, 
 But lies and diiads his d i. She turn'd, 
 
 she paused. 
 
 She stoop'd; and out of languor leapt a cry, 
 Leapt fiery Passion from the brinks of death, 
 And I believed that in the living world 
 My spirit closed with Ida's at the lips: 
 Till back I fell, and from mine arms she rose 
 Glowing all over noble shame; and all 
 Her falser self slip! from her like a robe, 
 And left her woman, lovelier in her mood 
 Than in her mould that other, whin she came 
 From barren deeps to conquer all with love, 
 And down the streaming crystal drojit ; and 
 
 she 
 Far-fleeted by the purple island-sidi s, 
 
 Naked, a double light In air and wave, 
 To meet her Graces, where they deck'd her out 
 For worship without end nor end of' mine, 
 Stateliest, for thee! hut mute she glided forth. 
 Nor glanced behind her. and I sank and slept, 
 Fill'd thro" and thro' with love, a happv sle< p. 
 
 Deep in the night I woke: she, near me, 
 held 
 A \ olume of I he poi is it' her land. 
 There t" herself, all in low tones, she read: 
 
 'Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the 
 white ; 
 
 - 
 
 
 t 
 
THE P RIN CESS 
 
 - 
 
 Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk ; 
 Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font. 
 The fire-fly wakens; waken thou with me. 
 
 "Now droops the milk-white peacock like a 
 ghost, 
 And like a ghost she glimmers on to me. 
 
 'Now lies the Earth all Danae to the stars, 
 And all thy heart lies open unto me. 
 
 'Now slides the silent meteor on. and leaves 
 A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me. 
 
 'Now folds the lily all her sweetness up, 
 And slips into the bosom of the lake. 
 So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip 
 Into my bosom and be lost in me.' 
 
 I heard her turn the page ; she found a 
 small 
 Sweet idyl, and once more, as low, she read : 
 
 "Come down, O maid, from yonder mountain 
 
 height. 
 What pleasure lives in height (the shepherd 
 
 sang), 
 In height and cold, the splendor of the hills? 
 But cease to move so near the heavens, and 
 
 cease 
 To glide a sunbeam by the blasted pine, 
 To sit a star upon the sparkling spire ; 
 And come, for Love is of the valley, come, 
 For Love is of the valley, come thou down 
 And find him ; by the happy threshold, he, 
 Or hand in hand with Plenty in the maize, 
 Or red with spirted purple of the vats, 
 Or foxlike in the vine ; nor cares to walk 
 With Death and Morning on the Silver 
 
 Horns, 
 Nor wilt thou snare him in the white ravine, 
 Nor find him dropt upon the firths of ice, 
 That huddling slant in furrow-cloven falls 
 To roll the torrent out of dusky doors. 
 
 But follow ; let the torrent dance thee down 
 To find him in the valley; let the wild 
 Lean-headed eagles yelp alone, and leave 
 The monstrous ledges there to slope, and spill 
 Their thousand wreaths of dangling water- 
 smoke, 
 That like a broken purpose waste in air. 
 So waste not thou, but come: for all the vales 
 Await thee; azure pillars of the hearth 
 Arise to thee; the children call, and I 
 Tli\ shepherd pipe, and sweet is every sound, 
 Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet ; 
 Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro' the lawn, 
 The moan of doves in immemorial elms, 
 And murmuring of innumerable bees.' 
 
 So she low-toned, while with shut eyes I lay 
 Listening, then look'd. Pale was the perfect 
 
 face ; 
 The bosom with long sighs labor'd ; and meek 
 Seem'd the full lips, and mild the luminous 
 
 eyes, 
 And the voice trembled and the hand. She 
 
 said 
 Brokenly, that she knew it, she had i'ail'd 
 In sweet humility, had fail'd in all ; 
 That all her labor was but as a block 
 Left in the quarry; but she still were loth, 
 She still were loth to yield herself to one 
 That wholly scorn'd to help their equal rights 
 Aaainst the sons of men and barbarous laws. 
 
 o 
 
 She pray'd me not to judge their cause from 
 
 her 
 That wrong'd it, sought far less for truth 
 
 than power 
 In knowledge. Something wild within her 
 
 breast, 
 A greater than all knowledge, beat her down. 
 And she had nursed me there from week to 
 
 week ; 
 Much had she learnt in little time. In part 
 It was ill counsel had misled the girl 
 To vex true hearts; yet was she but a girl — 
 'Ah fool, and made myself a queen of farce! 
 
A M ED LEY 
 
 When comes another such? never, I think, 
 Till the sun drop, dead, from the signs.' 
 
 Her voice 
 Choked, and her forehead sank upon her 
 
 hands, 
 And In r ureal heart thro' all tin faultful past 
 Went sorrowing in a pause I dared not break; 
 Till notice of a change in the dark world 
 Was lispt about the acacias, and a bird. 
 That early woke to feed her little ones. 
 Sent from a dewy breast a cry for light. 
 She moved, and at her feet Hie volume fell. 
 
 'Blame not thyself too much,' I said, 'nor 
 
 blame 
 Too much the sons of men and barbarous 
 
 laws ; 
 These were the rough ways of the world till 
 
 now. 
 Henceforth thou bast a helper, me, that know- 
 Tin woman's cause is man's; they rise or sink 
 Together, dwarf d or godlike, bond or free. 
 For she that out of Lethe scales with man 
 The shining steps of Nature, shares with 
 
 man 
 His nights, bis days, moves with him to one 
 
 goal. 
 Sla\s all the fair young planet in her hands — 
 If she be small, slight-natured. miserable, 
 I low shall men grow? but work no more alone 
 Our place is much; as far as in us lies 
 We two will serve them both in aiding her — 
 Will clear away the parasitic tonus 
 That seem to keep her up but drag her 
 
 down — 
 Will leave tier space to burgeon out of all 
 Within her — let her make herself her own 
 To give or keep, to live and learn and be 
 All that not harms distinctive womanhood. 
 For woman is not undevelopt man. 
 But diverse. Could we make her as the man. 
 Sweet Love were slain; his diarist bond is 
 
 this. 
 
 Not like to like, but like in difference. 
 
 Yet in the' long years liker must they grow; 
 
 The man be more of woman, she of man; 
 
 lie gain in sweetness ami in moral height, 
 
 Nor lose the wrest lino- thews that throw the 
 w orld ; 
 
 She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care, 
 
 Nor lost tin childlike in the larger mind; 
 
 Till at the last sin sit herself to man. 
 
 Like perfect music unto noble words; 
 
 And so tins, twain, upon the skirts of Time, 
 
 Sit side by sidi , full-summ'd in all their 
 powers, 
 
 Dispensing harvest, sowing the to-be, 
 
 Self-reverent each and reverencing each, 
 
 Distinct in individualities, 
 
 Hut like each nt In r even as those who love. 
 
 Then comes tin statelier Eden back to nun; 
 
 Then reign the world's great bridals, chaste 
 and calm ; 
 
 Then springs the crowning race of human- 
 kind. 
 
 .May these things be!' 
 
 Sighing she spoke: "I fear 
 
 They will not.' 
 
 'Dear, but li t u- I \ pe flu in now 
 
 In our own lives, and this proud watchword 
 rest 
 
 ( )f i qua! ; seeing either sex alone 
 Is half itself, and in true marriage \>>~ 
 Nor equal, nor unequal. Each fulfils 
 Defect in each, and always thought in 
 
 thought, 
 Purpose in purpose, will in will, tiny grow, 
 'I'lu single pure ami perfect animal. 
 The two-cell'd heart beating, with one full 
 
 st roke, 
 Life.' 
 
 And again sighing she spoke: 'A dream 
 
 That once was mine! what woman taught 
 you this?' 
 
 'Alone,' I said, 'from earlier than I know. 
 Immersed in rich foreshadowings of tin world, 
 I loved 'be woman. He, that doth not. lives 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 A drowning life, besotted in sweet self, 
 
 Or pines in sad experience worse than death, 
 
 Or keeps his wing'd affections dipt with 
 
 crime. 
 Yet was there one thro' whom I loved her, one 
 Not learned, save in gracious household 
 
 ways, 
 Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants, 
 No angel, hut a dearer being, all dipt 
 In angel instincts, breathing Paradise, 
 Interpreter between the gods and men. 
 Who look'd all native to her place, and yet 
 On tiptoe seem'd to touch upon a sphere 
 Too gross to tread, and all male minds per- 
 force 
 Swav'd to her from their orbits as they 
 
 moved. 
 And girdled her with music. Happy he 
 With such a mother! faith in womankind 
 Heats with his blood, and trust in all things 
 
 high 
 Comes easy to him, and tho' he trip and fall 
 He shall not blind his soul with clay.' 
 
 'But I,' 
 Said Ida, tremulously, 'so all unlike — 
 It seems you love to cheat yourself with 
 
 words : 
 This mother is your model. I have heard 
 Of your strange doubts; they well might be; 
 
 I seem 
 A mockery to my own self. Never, Prince! 
 You cannot love me.' 
 
 ! Nay, but thee,' I said, 
 'From yearlong poring on thy pictured eyes, 
 
 Ere seen I loved, and loved thee seen, and 
 
 saw 
 Thee woman thro' the crust of iron moods 
 That Qiask'd Lhee from men's reverence up, 
 
 and forced 
 Sweet love on prank> of saucy boyhood; now, 
 Given hack to life, to lite indeed, thro' thee. 
 Indeed I love. The new day comes, the light 
 Dearer for night, as dearer thou for faults 
 Lived over. Lift thine eye-.; my doubts are 
 
 dead. 
 My haunting sense of hollow shows; the 
 
 change, 
 This truthful change in thee has kill'd it. 
 
 Dear, 
 Look up, and let thy nature strike on mine, 
 Like yonder morning on the blind halfworld. 
 Approach and fear not; breathe upon my 
 
 brows ; 
 In that fine air I tremble, all the past 
 Melts mist-like into this bright liour, and this 
 Is morn to more, and all the rich to-come 
 Reels, as the golden Autumn woodland reels 
 Athwart the smoke of burning weeds. For- 
 give me. 
 I waste my heart in signs ; let be. My bride. 
 My wife, my life! O, we will walk this world, 
 Yoked in all exercises of noble end. 
 And so thro' those dark gates across the wild 
 That no man knows. Indeed I love thee; 
 
 come, 
 Yield thyself up : my hopes and thine are one. 
 Accomplish thou my manhood and thyself; 
 Lay thy sweet hands in mine and trust to me." 
 
 
CONCLUSION 
 

 
 
 5 
 
 V~^> Mir? 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 1 
 
 . 
 
 
 

 ■v>- 
 
 M 
 
 s 
 
 x 
 
 
 
 5 
 \.-»^ 
 
 ■ 
 
 WBfs* 
 
 
 • 
 
 ? / 
 
 - 
 
 W—fc ; 
 
 WMt* < 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 So closed our tale, of which I give you all 
 Tlie random scheme as wildly as it rose. 
 The words arc mostly mine; for when we 
 
 ceased 
 There came a minute's pause, and Walter 
 
 said, 
 'I wish she had not. yielded!' then to me, 
 'What if you drest it up poetically!' 
 So pray'd the men, the women: I gave assent. 
 Yet how to bind the scattered scheme of seven 
 Together in one sheaf? What style could 
 
 suit? 
 The men required that I should give through- 
 out 
 The sort of mock-heroic gigantesque, 
 With which we banter' d little Lilia fir^t : 
 Tlie women — and perhaps tlie} - felt their 
 
 power, 
 For something in the ballads which they sang, 
 Or in their silent influence as they sat. 
 
 Had ever seem'd to wrestle with burlesque, 
 And drove us, last, to quite a solemn 
 
 close — 
 They hated banter, wish'd for something 
 
 real, 
 A gallant fight, a noble prince — why 
 Nut make her true-heroic — true sublime? 
 Or all, they said, as earnest as the close? 
 Which yel with such a framework scarce 
 
 could be. 
 Then rose a little find betwixt the two, 
 Betwixt the mockers and the realists; 
 And I, betwixt them both, to please them 
 
 both. 
 And yet to give the story a* it rose, 
 I moved as in a strange diagonal, 
 And maybe neither pleased myself nor them. 
 
 But Lilia pleased me. for she took no pari 
 
 In our dispute ; the sequel of the tale 
 
THE PRIN CESS 
 
 
 - 
 
 V, 
 
 Had touch'd her, and she sat. she pluck'd the 
 
 grass, 
 She flung it from her, thinking; but, she fi\t 
 \r A showery glance upon her aunt, and said, 
 
 'You — tell us what we are" — who might have 
 
 told, 
 For sin was cranun'd with theories out of 
 
 h()()ks. 
 
 But that there rose a shout. The gates were 
 
 closi (1 
 At sunset, and the crowd were swarming now. 
 To take their leave, about the garden rails. 
 
 So I and some went out to these; we climb'd 
 The slope to Vivian-place, and turning saw 
 The happy valleys, half in light, and half 
 Far-shadowing from the west, a land of peace; 
 Gray halls alone among their massive groves; 
 Trim hamlets; here and there a rustic tower 
 Half-lost in hclts of hop and breadths of 
 
 wheat : 
 The shimmering glimpses of a stream; the 
 
 seas ; 
 A red sail, or a white; and far beyond, 
 Imagined more than seen, the skirts of 
 
 France. 
 
 'Look there, a garden !' said my college 
 
 friend, 
 The Tory member's elder son, 'and there ! 
 God bless the narrow sea which keeps her off, 
 And keeps our Britain, whole within herself, 
 A nation vet, the rulers and the ruled — 
 Some sense of duty, something of a faith, 
 Some reverence for the laws ourselves have 
 
 made, 
 Some patient force to change them when we 
 
 will, 
 Some civic manhood firm against the crowd — 
 But yonder, whiff! there comes a sudden heat, 
 The gravest citizen seems to lost' his head. 
 The king is scared, the soldier will not fight. 
 The little boys begin to shoot and stab, 
 A kingdom topples over with a shriek 
 
 Like an old woman, and down rolls the world 
 In mock heroics stranger than our own: 
 Revolts, republics, revolutions, most 
 No graver than a schoolboys' barring out : 
 Too comic for the solemn things they are. 
 Too solemn for the comic touches in them. 
 Like our wild Princess with as wise a dream 
 
 As some of theirs — God bless the narrow sea-! 
 I wish they were a whole Atlantic broad.' 
 
 'Have patience,' I replied, 'ourselves are 
 
 full 
 Of social wrong: and maybe wildest dreams 
 Are but the needful preludes of the truth. 
 For me, the genial day, the happy crowd. 
 The sport half-science, fill me with a faith, 
 This fine old world of ours is but a child 
 Yet in the go-cart. Patience! Give it time 
 To learn its limbs: there is a hand that 
 
 guides.' 
 
 In such discourse we gain'd the garden 
 
 rails, 
 And there we saw Sir Walter where he stood, 
 Before a tower of crimson holly-oaks, 
 Among six boys, head under head, and look'd 
 No little lily-handed baronet he, 
 A great broad-shouldered genial Englishman, 
 A lord of fat prize-oxen and of sheep, 
 A raiser of huge melons and of pine. 
 A patron of some thirty charities, 
 A pamphleteer on guano and on gram. 
 A quarter-sessions chairman, able]- none; 
 Fair-hair'd and redder than a windy morn; 
 Now shaking hands with him, new him, of 
 
 those 
 That stood the nearest — now address'd to 
 
 speech — 
 Who spoke few words and pithy, such as 
 
 closed 
 Welcome, farewell, and welcome for the year 
 To follow. A shout rose again, and made 
 The long line of the approaching rookery 
 
 swerve 
 
A M ED LEY 
 
 From the elms, and shook the branches of the 
 
 deer 
 From slope l" slope thro' distant ferns, and 
 
 rang 
 Beyond the bourn of sunset — O, a shout 
 More joyful Mian the city-roar that hails 
 Premier or king ! Why should not thesi great 
 
 sirs 
 Give uj) their parks some dozen times a year 
 To let the people breathe? So thrio thej 
 
 cried, 
 I likewise, and in groups they stream'd away. 
 
 But we went back to the Abbey, and sat on, 
 So much the gathering darkness charm'd; 
 
 we sat 
 
 But spoke not, rapt in nameless reverie, 
 Perchance upon the future man. The walls 
 Blacken'd about us, bats wheel'd, and owls 
 
 whoop'd, 
 And gradually the powers of the night, 
 That range above thi region of the wind, 
 Deepening the courts of twilight broke 
 
 them up 
 Thro' all the silent spaces of the worlds, 
 Beyond all thought into the heaven of 
 
 In a\ c iin. 
 
 Last little I. ilia, rising quietly, 
 Disrobed the glimmering statue of Sir Ralph 
 From those rich silk>. and home well-pleased 
 
 we «i ni. 
 
 THJE l'.ND 
 
 b 
 
 I 
 
 
C, lill 
 
One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
 
 OCT 4 ""