Piet ste Steer read 5 fee neath ie ah eit iat et sts ‘ + se Ao acenimnat < Soa Sa = BS se oe —- teemmnemaeetmretyjailery bpm eed ag st gS OF ere zome, met LS y PARTIAL T LE eee A TCT ee _on nme ae 58 59 60 40 41 62 43 44 45 46 47 4 ag 50 31 52 33 34 55 56 57 — — —— sm THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA ENDOWED BY THE DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETIES 99999999 95g: 9g } 42 43 48 45 45 47 ap $50 51 52 53 54 55 45 014388619 renewed by bringing it to the library. RET. DATE (6 (© ; i = ej a> e a; > “ = ——————— ee TE S ea) a eS Paes Weicee=e FocnesEEE Slee woe =~ ee 2 oe PH » Korey in Ksyfem L SITY OF N.C. AT CHAP This book is due at the LOUIS R. WILSON LIBRARY on the last date stamped under “Date Due.” If not on hold it may be ¢ Js el Pred ok fi : PM By aaa ‘ mer ¢C 1 S°S U.S mV OTHER PORMS , , gw |} lige hf Les Ah ES / | ha St : in % ae j/ => tA f a TF ; >) RED « BY Me Se E. CARPENTER Henry S. Kine & Co. 65 CORNHILL & 12 PATERNOSTER Row, LONDON 1873 ae tas we oy mi e re By TO [ere GA This I give thee: to betoken Love, whereby thy life has bound me. If I speak, the spell ts broken: Szlent love shall still surround thee. NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL THE UNIVERSITY OF | LIBRARY PURCHASED ON THE DR. AND MRS. JOSEPH EZEKIEL POGUE ENDOWMENT FUND ENE cease rs ee eG INGEN iS: —_—o——— PAGE NARCISSUS... : ; : ; es : = eee ‘PERSEPHONE. ; ‘ chee a : ; : ieagt ELFLAND: A FAIRY INTERMEZZO : A ‘ es EARTH’S VOICES . : : : 4 ‘ : os WuHo COMES WITH ME ; ; é y : TA EYs IN A CANOE. : : : : : : ‘ of Ie. THE ARTIST TO HIS LADY . : : é : WEE] VENUS APHRODITE : ; ‘ : F i : FIO SLEEPING VENUS. , : j q : : was A SUMMER Day . : ; a ‘ : ; ieiZy sal Contents. PAGE THE PEAK OF TERROR. : : A : : a 2) THE VEILED IsIs: OR THE NATURE WORSHIPPER . 132 THE Dalsy . : : ; aaa DUE RLIDE |e : : : : ; : oe ane I, THE SPIRIT OF THE MOUNTAIN TORRENT. niAO II. THE Sprrir of MAN : 5 é : . UIA? SUMMER LIGHTNING . : : : 5 : eared IN THE Grass: By A MonapD ; ° : » pa ae WIND AND CLOUD ; . : - : : . 152 SUMMER : : : ; : : 3 : . 154 THE WORLD SPIRIT. ; , ; ; 5 ae: Bs) A Memory. To —. . ; : , , . 2160 A HAWKWEED . ‘ : : . : fe 163 By THE MOUTH OF THE ARNO . : : ‘ . 164 SONG OF LovE . ; : : : ; ‘ . 165 A PORTRAIT. : . ; ak : : . 169 Love’s SPRING . : ‘ . : ; : aay SONG: Love’s FAREWELL . ; : : ; sul 73 SONG : LOVE ONE SUMMER Day. : : : OWE! SONG: THROUGH, THROUGH AND THROUGH : (176 Contents. As ROUND A LIGHTHOUSE. To ——. SLEEP, SWEETLY SLEEP ‘ : : 102. C, ; : : : THE COMPLAINT OF Jos: Cu. III. THE EVERNEW . : : : : A LIFE. F : 4 : : THE SNOWDROP . 3 : ON A CRUCIFIX: IN THE CHURCH OF S. JOHN RAN, ROME THE GREAT PEEPSHOW THE CARPENTER AND THE KING THE LOCOMOTIVE. ; : : : A PROPHECY : ; ; ; ONLY A SMILE THE FELLOWSHIP OF HUMANITY THE FELLOWSHIP OF SUFFERING. THE DIVINE SORROW THE DIVINE LOVE THE ANGEL OF DEATH—AND LIFE . Vill SONNETS : I. AWE, (OBE. IV. XIII. XIV. Contents. GENOA. BEETHOVEN . In Mortem. F. D. MAURICE . WILLIAM SMITH: AUTHOR OF ‘ THORN- DALE,’ ETC. . INSCRIBED ON A GRAVE . DEATH. . SEVERANCE MlOCA RAINTRSOOUL . THE LARGER LIFE ITeSHALL BE WALDSTEIN SONATA. BEETHOVEN / a Nr i eet h r La NPs 4 - i Ree CIS SUS: ONCE when the golden day had dawned and died, Narcissus, lily-cradled by the side Of silver-waved Cephissus, whose soft sheen Day-long divides his meadow-margins green, Was found by woodland nymphs. Hin, for the sake Of his famed river-father—wont to slake Their thirst beside his fountains—and his own Exceeding beauty thus ere boyhood shown, Unto their forest haunts they nimbly took, And nurtured in a leaf-entangled nook. And day by day the boy in form and face Grew fairer, by the myriad waving grace Of slender arms encircled—grew to be More comely than the gods did e’er decree To mortal man before. His beauty was The beauty of a tall flower in the grass B2 4 Narcissus. Where-o’er the golden hours glide one by one, Steeped in sweet slumbers of the golden sun, A dream-fed beauty: in those night-black eyes Lay undiscovered realms of rich surprise, Whereto the broad and overarching brows Were like the entrance of a stately house. And round about the lips a light smile ran That lingered there and would be gone a span, But never far. So fair Endymion showed To lonely-souled Selene when she glowed All night above him in his land of rest, Latmos below the sun-illumined West, And all her thin and silver beauty turned To burnished gold as o’er his cloud-hung bed she yearned. Among the mountain gorges far withdrawn, Unvisited save by the feet of Dawn, Where lofty lone Parnassus lifts his peak Supreme in snow, speckless of stain or streak,— A white and dazzling wonder, to defy | The midnoon splendour of the deep blue sky— There spreads a shelving lake. The valley there Lays out its sunny slopes to light and air © Narcissus. 5 Crowned with eternal forest : fir and pine With silver birch and maple intertwine Dense-clustered boughs, and companies of beech Their suppliant red-tipped fingers heavenward reach. But all about, as if the earth in sport Ran riot of her riches, every sort Of flowering shrub and dainty flower is seen To deck those lawny dells and coverts green. There crimson-tipped anemone, and white Lily and asphodel glitter in the light ; Blue fields of hyacinth, spread lower down, The languid sense in luscious odours drown ; Rose, mountain-rowan and acacia vie Each with the other to enchant the eye Of way-worn shepherds ; thick-sown are the meads With purple-petalled saffron ; and the reeds With spears of yellow iris-bloom are set And modest flowers of blue marsh violet. This at the lower margin ; but the lake Where swift Cephissus enters it doth take More gloomy featuring ; its flood is pent Within a black precipitous rock-rent Of bleak Parnassus. There the livelong day Behind an angle, weather-scarped and grey, 6 Narcissus. Secluded in its blue mist-circled halls A high foam-laden cataract falls and falls ; And from the sunny margin far remote, Sometimes at eventide when every note Of strenuous cicala chirping shrill Is hushed, and loud melodious birds are still, Across the calm lake-surface wind-unstirred A low continuous sweet sound is heard— The music of the silver cataract In rhythmic pulse and soft repeated tact Sleepladen ; for whoever listens long To that delicious far undying song Treads a dream-haunted labyrinthine ground And swiftly falls into forgetfulness profound. Thither one noon Narcissus, dream-content, His wayward slowly wandering footsteps bent. Of love for him lone nymphs ere this had died : Their beauty and their breath—together sighed Upon the breeze for him—ere this had shed A distant cloud-like lustre round his head : Who all the while with half-averted look The pleasant laughter and the dance forsook, Cared not for winning smile, or wistful eye, Narcissus. a Or swift encounter of fair looks whereby A wavering heart is won ; for him no charm Had rosy limb, or slender arching arm, Or passionate device of perplext love, Of any nymph in woodland, lawn, or grove, This side of Mount Parnassus. But it seemed As though some fair forgotten image gleamed, Haunting the crystal caverns of his mind In beauty undiminished, undivined. Then to himself he sang: ‘O pleasant hours Arching the earth like rainbow after showers In sweet perpetual round, roam lightly on, Bring vernal songs, bring summer, bring the sun, Bring fresh and rosy flowers, all that is fair, To fill the fragrant kingdoms of the air: But when with sandals loosed and feet unshod Ye pace the darkened chambers of your God, Bring me—delay not—down the heavenly steep Not troublous Love but sweet and dreamless sleep.’ And through the still hot air his music rang In bell-like tones, high, plaintive, as he sang, Which on the waveless lake from shore to shore Fell like foam-bubbles on a damask floor, 8 Nareissus. Floating and bounding onward till they died Upon the distant crag-encircled tide : Where they awoke an answering echo sweet Which fluttered back and perished at Narcissus’ feet. For all amid the crags remote from view, Enfolded in a fairy curtain blue, Just where the rock “neath overhanging boughs Steepfalling to the water’s edge allows No footspace for a goat or fallow deer, But all its grooves and angles and its sheer Black shining faces are with dew besprent Of falling waters in loud tournament, There is a niche. Hart’s-tongue and maidenhair There hide their frondage from the troubled air ; The slender harebell rimed with dewy flakes Nods to and fro ; and evermore there breaks Upon its rocky sides a sea of sound That roars with loud reverberation round. For like a pearly ocean-moulded shell Deepwinding inwards is that rockhewn cell, Wherein all day the listener may hear The murmurs of the outer world made clear Narcissus. ©) In ceaseless iteration. Here her home The maiden Echo made. Her bath the foam Of unseen waters, and her bed the rock Raincurtained and fernbraided ; for her frock She wove the changeful iris hues, and set A silver girdle with an amber fret. Pale was she: by the dewy mist and air Made like a water-spirit light and rare ; Pale blue her eyes ; her features laughter-lined, Yet white like one who of the lonely wind Had made a playmate ; very cold her mien Yet by a sad and distant smile, star-keen, At times transpierced ; her step assured and swift, As on her task through windswept chasm and rift She plied white feet ; and over all her hair Hung back in cloud-bejewelled tresses fair. Unseen of man she dwelt. No mortal eye Had looked upon her life; yet to descry Her strange and tameless beauty many a one Had left the high warm uplands of the Sun, And passed into those caverns cold as grave, And perished in the fathomless dark wave. IO Narcissus. For all day long with high and mocking note She teased the merry shepherds when they smote Their palms together, through them hooting shrill In jubilant reply from hill to hill. And when they sang, it was her wanton joy Unto their words to render answer Coy ; Tul one at last, from ruddy mien and rude, Would grow lovesick, and leave his wonted food Untouched, and plain upon the passing wind, And pray a shepherd mate his flocks to mind. Then would the nymph his steps astray beguile, And hide his eyes from day’s returning smile. This cold fantastic fickle maid that day Dreambound in unaccustomed slumbers lay Upon her ferny couch. Her breathing came And went, quick, fitful, like a flickering flame. Her face was changed—it seemed her latest freak : A rose had broke the spell upon her cheek. And o’er her limbs a wave-like languor swelled — And on her bosom brake, for she beheld In visionary fancy one unmoved By all her lures and antics—and she loved. Beside the far remote lake-marge he stood And sang; and o’er the level waterflood Narcissus. el His words seemed floating to her single ear— Through obscure shades and sunlit spaces clear, And down the dark rocklimits lone and steep— ‘Not troublous love, but sweet and dreamless sleep.’ And from her slumbers swiftly she uprose, But, ere her waking powers she could dispose, Old fatal use upon her lips did leap, In loud and mocking accents she made answer ‘Sleep.’ Then from the cold clear gloom she turned her face Upward, between those walls—a moment’s space— And saw o’erhead the hot and dazzling sky Sharp-sundered by the forest-fringes high, And for that bright unblemished upper land Longing, and bold because the breezes fanned Her forehead, from her lonely home she crept, And out into the sunlight lightly stept ; Where, from a heathery bee-haunted slope, The valley of her vision and her hope She viewed with actual eye. Yet stayed not here, But downwards to the meadows by the mere Went through the dry sweet grass. But now the Sun His toilsome heavenward ascent had done, 12 Narcissus. And pausing for a while upon the height Flung wide o’er all the earth his arrowy light ; Then westward went, another golden hour Shining with intense undiminished power. Hot was the air; no sound the sultry time Gave but the silvery insistent chime Of shoreward ripples, though the white lake-face Showed not of wandering wind or wave a trace. Betwixt the green and glassy worlds she went— The rock nymph Echo—on her love intent ; Her feet within the wave-washed fringes wet, Her face against the sun’s full splendour set, Nor careful, till most suddenly the heat Shot needles from her shoulders to her feet, And on her head the sunbeams seemed to beat Intolerable rhythm. And as from trance Awaking, to her half-confounded glance The world appeared to reel in senseless swound, While o’er her path the awful Sungod frowned Absolute prohibition. Yet she took No heeding of his fierce forbidding look, But disobedient to the high behest On to her own destruction proudly pressed. ° % Narcissus. se For this fair sprite, whose fit and only home Had been shade-curtained crags and cooling foam, In the intense glare wasted all her strength And thinned into a shadow, till at length Her form grew bodiless, and she became White and translucent like a taper flame Set in the sunlight. So the dew is seen On summer morns to vanish from the green ; So written characters cast on the fire Lose substance but not form ; so when the lyre Is softly struck, and all the strings are still, The sound moves on. So moved her stedfast will. And by the marshes where the moorhen breeds Among bulrushes and red-flowering reeds, And by the sunny overhanging banks Where all day long fieldmice are full of pranks And swift kingfishers dart below and pass Into their tunnelled homes beneath the grass, She fled swiftfooted ; and you might have said A moonlike glamour on the ground was shed, Or that a shimmering light breeze, half spent, , The verdure’s myriad slender spires had bent : Till through a belt of lilacs she did peep And saw Narcissus on a mossy bank asleep. 14 Narcissus. One hand held high above her opened wide A space among the boughs ; against her side The other seemed to stay her heart’s surprise ; And the thick leafy screen about her eyes Made sunroom for her seeing. Whereupon, The instant that her glance upon him shone, Her ears a slumbrous tune to take did seem: She saw the lonely singer of her dream. And so her heart was fashioned unto love. All fear departed, yet she did not move, But for a while beneath the grateful shade In sweet suspense of eye and ear delayed. Some Dryad, whom the wanton Satyrs chase, Well nigh exhausted in the breathless race, Yet holding heart and breath, doubting she sees Or hears some movement in the sheltering trees, This might have been, so eager and intense Her gaze in Love’s preoccupant suspense. Not five footpaces of the sunlit lawn The waveborn youth lay from the maid withdrawn. One hand half-buried in thick-clustered hair Made slumber easy, on his forehead bare The now declining sunbeams softly fell, And peace upon the landscape seemed to dwell. Narcissus. 15 Then from her leafy shade she lightly stept, And, standing o’er him, like a love-adept Sang— O fond singer of an hour, If thy passing note had power Thus to hold me; then thy heart Surely must contain some charm Fit to fend off Love’s alarm, Fit to heal Love’s hateful smart. Yet I perish in Love’s pain, I who once was wont to feign Coldness of my native lake, And for thee, who in thy pride Love’s delight hast e’er denied, Wait imploring till thou wake. O beware, fair singer ; Sleep All about thy limbs doth creep : Keep afar her cunning art ; For she loves thee and will use All her lures, until thou lose Even unto her thy heart. And with a sudden start, as though he heard Among the lilacs a love-laden bird Rehearsing human tones, Narcissus woke Wide eyed —and saw not aught ; the ripples broke 16 Narcissus. Out of a sea of light upon the shore, And every sight and sound was as before. For so the Gods (and who can tell their mind, Equal, unequal, seeing they can bind Mortals, but over them is no control Till Fate o’ertake them at the final goal) Or justly for her penalty declared The pain she oft for others had prepared, Or for their own devices, or of spite— Perchance being jealous of their proper hght— Had willed this end for Echo, that she waned Till but the shadow of herself remained, Which young Narcissus saw not; for he rose And unregarding passed the fair nymph close, And went unto the water’s edge, and stood Watching the other world within the flood. Then Echo turned away, and in her grief, Seeing the end too surely, sought relief In darkness and the shadow of a grove, Whereto she told her first last only love, And all night long beneath the flying Moon Made melancholy plaining. But so soon Narcissus. As morning came—and with it dawn of hope— With her distressful fancies did she cope, And went to seek Narcissus. So six days — She teased him in and out the woodland ways, And now would scatter roses for his bed, Relenting, now would mimic all he said, Saying Echo, Echo, in her lightest tone ; And oft at midnoon, in a hollow stone, Brought icy water from a crystal well, Or lilies from some moist and shady dell. For all he knew her not, but turned aside, And evermore regarded but the glassy tide. Then on the seventh day she saw the Fate Throw wide for her its final gloomy gate ; And turning on itself her life down went Through all the sharp degrees of pain’s descent To Death: for Anger and great grief had sped The end of passion, and her heart was dead. So throwing out her arms upon the gale She cried unto the Gods with grievous wail, And cursed the careless lord of her desire, And said : ‘ Let the same unremitting fire C 18 Narcissus. Devour thy heart and mine: for I must die.’ And with a sharp and ominous loud sigh Backward upon the breezes from the bank She fled, and into the blue distance sank. And on Narcissus fell the fair nymph’s ban ; For while within the waters he did scan Some dreamworld wonder, in that lake-born land Dimly discerning his own image stand, He knew it not ; but deemed that some fair maid Upon the nether meadow-marge delayed, And in love-cravings for that unattained Fanciful beauty, his own beauty waned And wasted with desire unsatisfied ; Whereof at length himself had surely died, But that the Gods took pity in that hour And so transformed him to the fashion of a flower. And now each vernal season, when the Sun His vertical high course begins to run, When midday Zephyrs dream beside the mill, And the lake from an overhanging hill Looks like the entrance of another land, Upon its sunny bank is seen to stand Narcissus. 19 A fragrant flower whose white and golden eye Peers at its own pale image mournfully, And, long ere Philomel forsakes her sighs, Pines on its slender stem and falls and dies. And, as the changes of the world go by, About that land ofttimes is heard a cry Like thin and bitter laughter, wheresoe’er Among her lonely crags and caverns bare, Now bodiless and dwindled to a sound, Heart-broken Echo mocks the starry night profound. + be nA be 1 Mae | es i oe he on oe Lig : it Ye ‘ ' eo B) 4: Van ee ae hh , ane te Vea ies ‘4 a feo PEON EF. On high Olympus, where the great Gods hold Council and converse all the days of gold, The air, inviolate of mortal breath, Is very still, more still than aught but death, Save life—such radiant life as Gods enjoy. For all delights that mortals dream of cloy The feeble human sense to weariness, Which faints, like some frail insect in a mess Compact of honey and all luscious things ; But from the God ethereal there springs A power so keen, so vivid, and so bright, That like the Sun’s intense pervading light It searches the inert from end to end, And nothing leaves with which it does not blend Into a garment of enjoyment. So They, the Gods, noting all the ebb and flow Agen Persephone. Of this fair world, feeling with implicate Fingers of sense outstretched the delicate Delight of every light-thrill on the breeze, Or hearing shocks of nations and of seas, As heavenward for help they heave and cry, Know, understand, but are not moved thereby : For passion is part-knowledge, but they know Past all misprision. ‘Therefore doth there go About Olympus’ top such balm of air As mortals, comprehending not, compare To summer mornings of the later June ; Yet is it brighter, warmer, as a tune Played on Apollo’s god-lyre might surpass The same flute-laboured of faun Marsyas. All day in showers the golden-flaked sunshine Floats downward through a liquid crystalline Ocean of air, which, scarcely heaving, breaks In balmy kisses where each forehead shakes To right and left from white ambrosial brows Its waving fringe. No rude intrusions rouse This quiet that the Gods hold for their own, But they can hear like a far distant tone The murmurs and the music of the Earth— Its lamentations and high tones of mirth, Persephone. 25 Loud sylvan choruses and lonely song, Lowings and bleatings of the herded throng, Faint cockcrow and impatient fitful bark Of shepherd hound wherever he may mark | _ A sheep astray, the shoreward sound of seas And shout of broken battle—all of these Half lost in air, save when a lark sometimes, With beating heart and pinions heavenward climbs, And holds immortals from their proper bliss To listen to that earthborn song of his. But when they would be free of Earth and men, Pursuing their own paths past mortal ken, They spread the soft white carpet of the clouds About their feet, which underneath enshrouds Earth’s darkened races from the risen day ; Who deem the sun spoiled of his proper sway, Nor know nor guess he holds his dazzling court High overhead with Gods in god-like sport. For there, sunsmitten, the white spotless plain Spreads far and wide, smooth-billowed like the main, When, minding stormy weather in the still, It breaks, and fringes with a white foam-frill Each island rock. So here the white mist breaks Upwards on purple pinnacles and peaks, 26 Persephone. Marking the limits of the land and sea ; And overhead the azure canopy Is limitless pure light. The happy hours, Each garlanded with crown of stars and flowers, Here tarry from their swift earth-circling flight ; Venus unyokes her doves, and out of sight Zeus puts his bolted fire ; proud Hera yields Her haughty seat, and o’er the silver fields In equal converse all the Gods do go With Loves and Zephyrs and the nectar flow Of God-created laughter, more divine ‘Than nectar and more sweet than Cyprus wine. Yet since all things, each by its opposite, Are known, and light without dark is not light, Nor day without night day, nor things divine Divine, until experience refine Good out of ill endured and life from death— Since this at least our mortal wisdom saith (For what and how the Gods themselves discern We know not)—therefore whosoever turn His footing from the sunlight, close at hand Shall have quick entrance to the sunless land, Persephone. 27 And tread the realms of darkness, absolute, Dread, limitless, deep, undisturbed and mute ; Whose king-is Hades. For when first the plains Of sun and shadow into separate reigns Were broken, he, being born of equal birth With Zeus his brother, took the hollow Earth And caves of Night and Silence for his own, Leaving the light and land of all things shown Unto the other ; while between the twain The neutral twilight-circled dusky plain Was left for men. And each man whosoe’er Moves bordering both worlds and can declare Some part in each: for ’twixt them like a gate His eyelids stand, which, soon as they dilate, Suffer himself to pass their crystal doors Into the upper land wherein he soars Light-charioted like a God—God Zeus to wit : But when those lids are closed, his soul doth sit Contemplative and calm within its own Infinite realm of thought upon the throne Of night—and Hades ; therefore, when men die, Their friends make fast those jewelled doors whereby The soul may never more return, and say That to the realms of Hades it takes way. 28 Persephone. Such is that land, serene-lit like a gem Of purest night set in the diadem Of its own monarch—a black diamond,— In silence beautiful, and sense of fond Large melancholy, restful in its gloom And quiet liberty of spacious room, Yet rousing fancy with its forms foreseen, Forethought, foreboded down each deep ravine And unexplored broad valley : who may know What shapes about that wilderness do go? Since Hades here doth hold all essences And seeds of things, for Zeus at length to bless To manifest fruition ;—folded here Lie slender-branching fern and wheaten ear, All acts of men and famous enterprise— As new lands lie in voyager’s surmise— Waiting the light to shape them. And rich store He has in keeping : gold and silver ore, And jewels Earth-embowelled in deep mines, Which are not jewels, for no sparkle shines Or has shone in them since the primal night, Mountains of porphyry and malachite, Opal and alabaster, and a hoard Of turquoise, jade and cat’s-eye cavern-stored. Persephone. 29 Such is the wealth of Hades—and the mind, Which yet is formless, valueless, till signed And shapen by the sunlight into sight ; Just so within a marble block the might Of fine prophetic fancy doth foreshow The emprisoned form, which no one yet may know Until the sculptor, taking tool in hand, Sets free the statue from its stony band. Now how from these two worlds, like friendly foes, The yearly seasonable change arose Of summer into winter, and why Earth In Spring and Autumn signifies the birth And death of all her children—or their sleep— Was on this wise. For from Olympus’ steep, When parts their cloudy floor, the Gods can see Laid out beneath them in fair spaces free Mountain and valley and far meadowland, Of sunny beauty, like a garden planned In miniature : the forest foliage seems Rich moss, no more, where, following the streams, It dimples down each hillside; and the fields, With many-coloured crops of various yields, 30 Persephone. Lie like a robe which Ceres, passing by, Had flung aside because the sun was high ; And then they trace the girdle of her land, Broad ocean blue with silver-braided strand, That flows about the world and makes it one,— And listen for its song. And when the sun Is near its watery edge, early or late, And rude winds have forgot the day’s debate, They see a thousand incense-columns tall Rise through the sultry air and range and fall In wreaths of incense round Olympus’ head; And all are gladdened since the Gods are glad. In those days girlish summer, rosy-crowned, Circled her flowery sparkling wine-cup round The whole bright year—nor was Demeter sad ; But now, with tears as well as laughter clad, Whole months the mother of our corn and wine Bewails her lost delight, fair Proserpine. ’Twas on a day when all the woods were green And shady in the sun’s meridian sheen— A fitful light breeze swept the cool hillside, And in the nearest valley dropt and died— Persephone. 31 That rich Demeter from her gracious toil, Whereby for man she fills the stubborn soil With energy divine and fruitful grace, Rested awhile. Upon her blooming face, Prodigal of love in smiling motherhood, And on her flaxen hair the arching wood Threw grateful twilight, while with happy gaze She viewed her work—rich fields of golden maize, White wheat and waving oats, meads stocked with kine, Olive and orange groves, and slopes of vine. And at her side her gentle lovely child Caught up the smile of earth and gazed and smiled With rarer grace, more like the wreathen flowers That, twined among her tresses, in sweet showers Fell all about her as she moved her feet. White robes she wore, blue-girdled, as to greet Companionship of sunbeams and the sun, Which round about her form did float and run, As round a ripe peach on a southern wall; Yet maidenly and slender, and in all Her movements swift and modest, with the free Magic of unexpected fire, was she, Persephone, whom some call Proserpine. a2 Persephone. Then, sudden gazing in the face benign Of fond Demeter, as if some quick stroke Of fancy so enforced it, thus she spoke :—. ‘O mother dear, goddess of earthward care, I know a meadow where the flowers are fair With morning and the light upon their leaves; Why linger ’mid the wine-vats and fat sheaves ? Come downward where the flowers are free of care.’ .*They know my voice, and hear me when I call, And, as in some melodious madrigal, Make answer down their choral lines of beauty, Welcome on aeeone waved in loyal duty: Come hearken to that flowery madrigal.’ Then spake the mother of the fruitful earth: ‘O child, beloved and beautiful from birth, I cannot leave these nurslings of my care : The wells would choke, the plodding slow ploughshare Would stumble in the furrow, the ripe seed Forget with tiny outstretched arms to plead For sunshine and enrichment of its dye, And all that mortals seek and I supply Fail in the general famine. But do thou, If thou wilt, go, and, if thou wilt, go now, Persephone. ce Alone; for though I would not thou shouldst leave The circle of my love, I will not grieve Thy heart by prohibition. And the height Commands the valley, and will grant me sight Of all thy flowery gladness.’ So she went, Persephone, and passed the woodland pent And overhanging vines and orchard closes And waving cornlands hedged about with roses, Until a flowery mead received her feet With soft close kiss and answering fragrance sweet. These are the plains of Enna. Summer here Holds her chief court, and dwells without a peer In pensive beauty. Quiet is the land, -And sacred to her presence, unprofaned By mortal tread ; and whether days are clear Or cloudy, on the mit doth appear A moonlike light, where the far sea unseen Fringes the sun-crowned sky with reflex sheen. But now the sultry mead from midnoon blaze Was curtained by a cloud, round which tke rays Rained in a silver shower : their circling made A shining-columned temple of pure shade, Wherein Persephone, in single grace, Stood like a flowery genius of the place, D Persephone. And sang: Children of the shining meadow, Thousand-coloured like the sun, Sun-compact of light and shadow, Beauty-shapen every one ; On the heatflood lightly floating Cherub chins and eyes so coy, In gay thousands, as for noting Summer’s self surprised with joy : Summer in your smiling glances Finds her happy self again, Dances with you in your dances Over mountain-pass and plain ; Lingers with you in the meadow, Wreathes your fragrance round her feet, Far and wide, till light and shadow Tremble in the incense sweet ; Prays your thousands to this trysting Come in-glittering array, Nodding, smiling, still insisting Summer shall not pass away. And as she sang, about her feet the mead Of gold and purple made a flowery brede ; The air, impassioned with a myriad hues, O’er all her snow-white raiment did diffuse Persephone. 35 Love-tinted splendours ; to attain her head A cloudy fragrance climbed, and thence was shed Wave-like at every lightest motion ; where Clusters of hyacinth clung to her hair, Over and past her like a flying veil A rose shed all its petals on the gale, And rustling with delight her footsteps fell Upon the happy fields of asphodel. But not alone Demeter on the height Beheld that day’s rejoicing; for delight Had seized King Hades in his lonely home, What time his vacant eyes, long used to roam About the void with introvertive air, Were dazzled to a keen and pointed stare By that sweet revelation—summer-clad Persephone. The magic vision had One meaning only for him—love: the doubt, The vague mist-phantoms of his mind went out Utterly in that light: he waited not An instant, e’en for casting of a lot, But calling to his aid all earth and air, Wind, fire, and thunder, from their cloudy lair, D2 36 Persephone. Darkness and rain, and lurid red eclipse, With signifying eyes and silent lips He leapt into his chariot, black as night, With nightblack horses harnessed, bade a sprite Fling wide the doors of Hell, and sprang amain To meet Persephone upon the plain. Who, at that sight, fulfilled with sudden dread, Swooned out of all sensation as one dead, And earthward fell, while o’er her flowery crew A grey cold shiver in wide circles flew, As o’er the clouds of sunset, when the sun Faints in eclipse before its course is run. And in that moment with rapacious hand He, Hades, swept her from the trembling land, And for his paramour and consort bore Her to the realms of gloom and silence sore. Oft thus grey Winter in the waning year With roaring winds and retinue of fear Sweeps o’er the world; and ere its icy blast, Black-ominous of death, be overpast, Some child of sunlight, a blue smiling flower, Lies lifeless where the lurid storm-clouds lower ; Persephone. And, frozen earthwards, finds the days no more That happy Summer in her sandals bore, But lingers ice-bound in rude Winter’s prison Till life-redeeming Spring be rearisen. So now Demeter’s mother-heart with fear Beat loudly high; for from her mountain sheer She saw a dismal cloud close densely down Upon Persephone; then rain did drown All sight and sunlight, tiil a sudden crash Rang, as of thunder, with a lurid flash ; Whereafter silence, till a friendless wind Broke from the mountain-summits far behind, And swept the plain, now desolate in dearth Of flower or maid, or any mark of mirth. In that day all the land seemed desolate. Demeter rose ; the smile that sat in state Upon her face, like light upon the sun, Had faded, and instead her eyes had won A wondering far look of lonely grief, Not without scorn, because e’en Zeus, the chief Of Gods, seemed blemished in authority By this bereavement. For both earth and sky 38 Persephone. Grew gloomier ; and where the Goddess stood Dead leaves hissed by her from the withered wood, The shrivelled grass showed brown beneath her feet, And aied, the rainy air was mixed with sleet, And from each tree sweet fruit fell with a thud, While every blossom perished ere the bud. So, like the moon, when on a rainy night It hastens through the clouds with ragged light, Revealing half an outline and no more, She lit a torch, and, of despair pressed sore, By once flower-garlanded familiar ways Hastened along the land; and for amaze Knew nought of what this strange mishap might be, But only that she sought Persephone. And daily Earth declined from its estate ; For now the gracious mother, wont to wait Upon its every need, forgot her care: A nipping frost, favoured by sunless air, Blackened the tender blade ; the woodland deer, Breaking their limits, browsed each slender spear Of forecome wheat and barley, and a blight Ate up the whole year’s bloom; the peasant wight Persephone. | 39 Left off to trim and tie his leafless vine, Turned from the dying crops and air malign Into his cottage shelter, and besought The careless Gods to stay the ruin wrought, Where, all without, the hedgeless fields, forlorn Of any fruit, by wind and rain were torn, And furrowed in strange fashion like a sea. So after many days, spent wearily In hapless wanderings, Demeter heard A voice about the dark, as of a bird Singing ere dawn, and took some hope therefrom ; And when unto the singer she was come, Holding her torch on high, for ’twas dead night, She saw pale Hecate, in raiment white, Peering about the land in search of charms For secret uses, whom, with pleading arms, She cried unto: ‘O skilful Hecate, To whom night is as day, for thou canst see Things hidden from thy brother the broad sun, Thou surely hast beheld, and sought and won Some comfort for me. For a robber fate Of my loved child has left me desolate, And all the land weeps with me while I weep, And wonder what uncompassed kingdoms keep 40 Persephone. Her from me—by what meaus I compass not, And cannot even image into thought.’ To whom spake Hecate: ‘I know, iiderd The land is broken by thy bitter need; I know the nightly dews have ceased to fall, . And Earth is covered by a cloudy pall, Like some huge bier, whereo’er the sombre rain Weeps as a strong man mourning weeps for pain ; I know Earth’s nursling plants are turning grey And shrivelling in premature decay For faintness of sheer grief, yet know I not More than the bare occasion: while I wrought In my own eastern fields, I heard a cry, And saw Persephone, yet long ere I Could shape sight into certainty a cloud Fell round her, with earth-thunder deep and loud, A tongue of fire leapt through it; so she passed. And whether Hades snatched her to his vast Unuttered realms, or aged doting Zeus A careless bolt upon her head did loose, T cannot guess. But go thou—nor be faint— To the all-seeing God: he shall acquaint Thee without fail, for nought from him is hid, Helios, the sun, whose bright and level lid Persephone. 7 Tries all things, searching out the light from dark, And truth from falsehood; doubtless did he mark And will make plain.’ So brave Demeter went Eastward to seek the sungod’s glowing tent, And found him as he tarried on the hills One stroke ere dawn ; and as a rose distils A cloud of fragrance for its own delight, So was he clad self-luminous in light, Gracious to look on. Unto whom she spake ‘Dear God of heaven, who art wont to make The whole earth happy with thy smiling brow, And rich in thine embraces, seeing now The trees are weeping and the land is bare, Hast thou forgotten all thy ancient care, Me thy once loved companion, her my child, Thy child almost, on whom thy face first smiled, Summer-delighting lost Persephone ?’ To whom made answer Helios : ‘ What 1 see, O well-belovéd Goddess, is not mine In act, but in sight only: I incline My eyes about the earth and issues know Which only Zeus ordains ; and wherefore now 42 Persephone. This evil on the land he doth permit I comprehend not, though I mourn for it. Hades, hierarch of darkness, on that day Filched from my kingdoms to his caverns grey Thy beautiful beloved—beloved of him— And sets her now high in his palace dim To be his queen. Go thou to kingly Zeus, And bid him on his thievish brother loose His hottest bolt ; and thou meanwhile take heart, For I, with flashing spear and fiery dart, Will lie in wait by Hades’ gloomy tent Revolving sudden vengeance.’ So she went, Demeter, with bowed head and heart erief-riven, Along the great ascent which leads to heaven. Meanwhile the cloudy caverns of the Earth Re-echoed to unwonted tones of mirth Down all their hollow arches : gnome and sprite Crept from their crannies to behold the light Where, in his palace court, dusk heralds cried The joy of Hades with his shining bride. ror all about her, like a dazzling mist, ‘he breath of summer closely clung, and kissed Persephone. 43 Her tender limbs with tints that shot and crossed From shadowy aisle to aisle, until they lost Themselves among those labyrinthine ways. And darkness first in summer’s tempered rays Discerned itself: the pale and formless shades That glide unconscious through those vacant glades Gazed on each other, and were made aware Of unexpressed desires ; the stagnant air Felt for its limits through the vaulted gloom And trembled like a spirit freed from doom ; The Furies and the Harpy-birds that haunt The caves of Death, whom no foul sight can daunt, Shrank when they mirrored in each other’s mien Their own distortion ; the great deep unseen Fell open inwards : and Hades himself, With the same wonder as his meanest elf, Beheld the hidden glories of his land And gauged his empire. Whereupon he planned To make Persephone his queen, and set Her place beside him on a throne of jet Before his palace portal, for the eye And centre of his conscious sovereignty. For like a court before that palace spreads An open space, where evermore there treads AA Persephone. With silent tremor o’er the sightless fields Hell’s myriad populace : all that earth yields Of man, or beast, or creature whatsoe’er, All that hath been or will be, boded there In bodiless dense movement, speeds its way To find its own ends and the light of day. And, all around, the visionary rocks Break backward in deep lanes whose darkness mocks The baffled eye, whence evermore appear Fresh phantoms, undefined, or vague, or clear, Who join the throng before their monarch’s throne And wait his will or wilful work their own. And whosoe’er through Hades’ palace-gate Will gaze sees only night ; for all its state Turns outward, but within is absolute Bewilderment of vacant space and mute. And if there be, behind the formal front, ; Chambers and halls, or but their semblance on’t— ; Something or nothing—no man knows aright, Save that the cloudborn legions of the night Throng thickest here, and in a livid stream Pass outwards like the pageant of a dream. So, when their bridal hour was overpast, He, Hades, from that palace-portal vast Persephone. Led forth Persephone, and in throned state Set her beside him for his sceptre’s mate. Her chair was carven of a block of jet Twisted to tangled snakes ; for back was set The semblance of a monstrous bat, whose wings Folded and fanned her hike halfliving things ; And his was shapen a Medusa’s head, Whereon himself durst ne’er look, but the dread Visage stared terror on each trembling one Who craved for mercy at that dismal throne. Now when she saw this horror, in her fear She fell force-emptied ; for the wicked leer Of stark Medusa slew her ; and the doom Of Death and Night was hers which of her bloom "Made melancholy ending. ‘Then the love That Hades bore her in the realms above Broke his fierce moody nature ; at her feet He fell and sued forgiveness from the sweet Closed eyes and parted lips, and cried aloud, _ Snatched at his hair, beat breast, and lowly bowed His head to dust. For all, his rugged hand Held, like a seashell on some rocky strand, Her hand yet lifeless. Then with solemn care He placed her palms in one, and ranged her hair 45 46 Persephone. Each way upon her forehead, whence there slipt Full many a flower that once her fingers clipt On Enna’s fields—and from her garment’s fold,— All which he gathered, like unvalued gold, And shed upon her lap. Which duly done, He let his dusky fingers, one by one, Dwell on her taintless brow, as if to trace The pure immortal beauty of her face ; Whence, passing downwards o’er her slender form, His huge arms circling clasped her heart, yet warm, Close to his own, while with deep pleading eyes, Eager in grief, he gazed on his lost prize.— And as a child, to soundest slumber charmed, Sleeps moveless till the mother-soul, alarmed With vague presentiment of ill, stoops o’er His tiny couch, watching the blue veins score The fair white forehead, and the little lips Breathing? or breathless? till at length she slips A finger through his light curls, and so breaks The spell, and chides her false fears as he wakes : So she awoke from death—or from a trance— As though called lifeward by love’s quickening glance ; And saw those night-deep orbs, which in their fire Outshone his diamond-claspt kingly tiar, Persephone. 47 Grown starlike in their depths with steadfast love: A sight which so her troubled mind did move, That with new courage she renewed her might, And filled the heart of Hades with delight ; Who on his secret palace-threshold swore Allegiance to her beauty evermore. And so the gates of night and death were glad For many a day, and sober joyance had : And in Persephone’s pale smile the shades Revived, as flowers do when the sunlight braids Their rainfaint petals with its vigorous beams. And Hades at her side poured all his dreams Into her ear : strange lore he only knew Of light and darkness, and the livid hue Which is not either ; of the death and birth Of all created things ; and how huge Earth, With all its furniture, hath yet no frame Of solid bulk, but is at most a name For that which marks the margin of two lands— The lands of sun and shadow,—how it stands Subject to their alliance, yet of old How fierce antagonism availed to hold These realms apart—his from his brother Zeus’. And then he spake of love, and how its use 48 Persephone. ‘Twixt him and her, once being gained and given (She being daughter of the king of Heaven), Might have rare answer in an order new Of actual things ; but chiefly did he sue Without device of reason, with the skill Of one who sees and hath no other will Thar what he sees. And she, Persephone, Hearing her uncouth suitor urge his plea, - Forsook her fears, and, gazing on him long, For the great love remembered not the wrong ; But suffered his insistance, and in time - Dwelt with him in his melancholy clime, Not discontented, and was made the queen Of all the underworld which is not seen. Nevertheless, her child-heart inly yearned After Demeter’s lonely state, and turned Backward upon the past days till she pined And ever grew of more unquiet mind And paler countenance ; whereat at last Hades took fear, foreboding she might cast Aside allegiance and depart her way. Therefore he brought her in a dish one day Persephone. 49 Pomegranate seeds, that she might eat thereof And know renewal and return of Love. Now in this space Demeter, wandering o’er The desert lands, and daily growing more Wasted with grief and angered with the Gods, ° Came to Olympus, where its grey head nods Peace on the clustered fields about its feet. Her cheeks were furrowed, and her hair with sleet Was knotted, while her garments, loosely hung, In draggled folds about her figure clung : Whereat in heaven some flakes of laughter fell. But she, beholding Zeus, said: ‘Is it well, © Father of the Gods, that ye, who have The earth in keeping, should create a grave ? For such the world is now. The King of death Holds cavern-bound my child, and with her breath All beauty is departed from the land ; Whereat, while tempests score and scorch and brand The blackened world, ye in your high-built towers Laugh at your ease, and lead the careless hours In rounds of revel and dishonest mirth. Give ear, O mighty Zeus, and, for this dearth E 50 | Persephone. Dulls your high glory, grant Earth’s fruit again, Lest ye be nameless in the homes of men.’ Whose angry suit he heeded not at first, But, later, when the wretched land was curst With ruin of high rivers, rot, and blight, For shame and pity of its mournful plight He heard, and rendered answer to her prayer. For Zeus had promised, in the days that were, The child to Hades, by a secret pact Hid from the mother, lest she should distract His politic design thereby to bind His brother subject by the tie of kind ; Which purpose now in part frustrated was ; For when the land fell desolate, because This was a scandal and a crying shame To all Olympus, and pretext of blame To discontented mortals who forsook Their punctual sacrifices and betook Themselves to other gods, he broke his word, And on quick Hermes his commands conferred. So while, enduring still her rayless doom Amid the mute assemblies of the gloom, Persephone. 51 Persephone was made night’s consort, there Fell sudden on the cavern-vaulted air A chill of fear, one moment, then the next, - As when a veil of strongly woven text Is torn asunder, with a sequent roar Of myriad sharp severance Night shore Her pitchy roof, and ina ragged crack Burst open to the light, whose shimmering track Shot o’er a gloom of faces far and wide. And in the sunbeams’ centre there did ride Heaven’s winged messenger, who seemed to bear Magic of colour to the sunless air ; Hor wheresoe’er he looked there leapt a hue, Crimson and gold, and emerald and blue ; And hell itself was glorious ; but he Stretched hand to hand and held Persephone, And ere astounded Hades could deny Swept with her to the land below the sky. And with her came the children of the Earth : All faded shapes of beauty had new birth ; Sweet winds before her went, about her flew Spring’s flowers and, where they fell, took root and grew ; E 2 52 Persephone. And with a clap the earth closed, and King Night Was left a prisoner in lonely plight. ’T was on the plain Eleusis where they met, Mother and child ; and all tearful regret Was wiped away between them, as they sang And held each other, and the high world rang With happy notes ; for far and wide was heard The song of nearing Spring: each wondering bird Whistled, and gazed up sunward, and would cease, And still essayed to sing his heart’s increase. Through sunlit field and orchard, like clear fire, Gay blossoms brake upon each spray and spire, And tipped the wizened boughs, which shone like lamps Sacred to Summer when dark Winter’s damps Are stricken by the sungod’s burning bow. In emerald and white and ruby glow They heralded abroad high festival, And filled the land with incense ; at their call The furrows stood arrayed in ranks of green, The fields grew bright with poppy, flax, and bean, Hedgerows and trees with wild and trailing vine Were gaily garlanded, and for a sign Persephone. Cn Go The lizard sat upon a sunny stone And watched the hours fall earthward one by one. So the Earth-mother lost and found again Her lovely child ; and all the former pain Came back pure joy. ‘The ways of mortals too Were blessed because of her: a gracious dew Fell in rich nights of increase and of calm, Long mellow days loaded the crops with balm And healed the wounds of Winter, and the fruit Broke earthward from each overladen shoot With noisy promise. ‘Thus the summer passed. At last came Autumn, and with high hand cast Earth’s harvest o’er its floor. Whereafter, change ; For, having in the cavern-kingdoms strange Eaten the seeds of life, Persephone, Obedient to love’s unexpressed decree, Each year went earthward to renew her might And bless returning summer with the sight Of Night’s conception. So while winds blew chill, She dwelt with Hades and the land was still. Mie Ei AN De A FAIRY INTERMEZZO. PETER: /. ¢ F : - . A mortal. QUEEN Maps . Puck CANDY . 3 : F : . fairies. ZEPHYR . THISTLEDOWN EcHo . : ‘ . ; . A maiden. en eee NL) ScenE I. A woodland dell. Enter PETER meditatively. A stour of wine is good for many things: It ravishes the heart of ruined kings From dumb despair, redeems the yokel wretch From dreams of scarlet bean and purple vetch, Frees each man from his own fore-destined star, Excites to love—and sleep, if love be far. What matters love? To wile a tedious day ’Tis well devised, but if a man should say ’Tis more than that, why he and I must part. They rave who rage of death and broken heart ; To no inclemencies doth Love incline, And if he did—Heigh ho! a stoup of wine!.. . 58 LEilflanda: How dizzily in dots the sunlight dances! It fills the mazy brain with sleepy fancies. And Philomel is not herself: her song Ts routed by its own rebellious throng. Heavens! what a clamour. Peace! the bird is mad; Such rupture of one’s reasoning ’s too bad. But here’s a space, a bank not over steep, I'll rest a moment, muse, it may be, sleep. (Reclines and presently sleeps.) (Lusle within, and sound of the evening breeze. Down a blue forest glade, and swiftly borne in mid-air like a many-coloured cloud, comes a train of woodland elves. (QUEEN Maps alights in the centre of the mossy hollow.) Q. Mab. In this moss-bespangled place Let us rest a moment’s space. All. ! Let us rest ! Mab. For the sun, descending slow, Now in calm and crimson glow Brightens o’er the boundless west ; | And closing eyes of weary devils Wakes us unto moonlight revels. All, Moonlight revels, revels! Licho. Revels ! Mab. A Fairy Intermezzo. But ere we begin the sport Must we call our elfin court ; For the world would finely go Did we e’er forget to deal Fairy justice on the slow Sense of mortals, and by. playing Pranks upon them make them feel That the world is past their weighing : That the meadow’s not all mowing, Nor the harvest as the hoeing ; That the sheep is more than shearing, And the salmon than the spearing ; That the beast’s not made for basting, Nor the tongue for nought but tasting ; That the hive’s not only honey, Nor the only magic money; That man’s trade means not mistrusting; That fair love lies not in lusting ; And, though grievous ’tis agreeing, Sometimes truth transcendeth seeing ; That there’s something in the air Subtler than they e’er suspect, Which, e’en where they were aware, Were too dainty to detect. 60 All. Ltcho. Mab. Lilfland : Business first, then, and thereafter Jolly leisure and loud laughter. And loud laughter, laughter ! After ! Hail, then! from your airy nooks Underneath this leafy dome, Elfin fairies, lightly come. Leave your laughter-loving looks For a moment, and endue Graver bearing, as it brooks _Loyal-earnest fays to do. - Ceme! from overhead and under- Foot, come swiftly footing it: From the caverns of the thunder, And the lean ant-lion’s pit : Come from where ye lazily With grotesque grimacery Swing in angles of the beech-boughs, Or, like rare and dainty lord Lady-friended on the sward, Each politely unto each bows. Come from every chink and cranny Of grey bark and mossy cover, Where ye teaze the long uncanny A Fawry Intermezzo. 61 Centipedes, and o’er them hover, Filling them with dreadful anguish, And foreboding of a beak ! ' Or from where ye lie and languish Love beneath a leafy tent Of white cyclamen, and seek To commingle in mute glances Fairy founts of wonderment. _Or with little limber lances, Each the bristle of a boar, And shrill horns of trumpet-moss, Through the ancient woodlands hoar Hunt the terrible and cross- Grained stag-beetle till he roar ‘Mercy,’ for his antlers bright Trophies are of valiant fight. Come, then, over fern and bracken, With swift pace: slow not nor slacken: Down the sunbeam’s line of splendour Let your airy figures slender Quickly slide. Let gentle Zephyr Bear you as the winged heifer Bore Piurapaes.| .*. Lephyr (hiding himself). Never! never! 62 LEilfiand : Mab. Come, our court waits ; half a minute, Sees our subjects subject in it. (Llves come trooping in from all sides, and form a jairy ring round their queen.) Mab (seating herself). This toadstool shall the seat of justice be ; And, first, if any of our subjects see Cause of complaint against another... . Candy. Hear, Lady Queen, my huge half-brother, Master Puck, ’s been plaguing me, And in the most outrageous fashion. Puck. Ho! little Candy’s in a passion. Mab. Now, Puck, what’s this, unruly man? Fuck. Let him unfold it ; he began. Candy. O mischief !. Hear me, Lady Queen. | It was two minutes since, I think, That I was wandering on the green, When there a pretty maiden-pink I did espy, And clambering up right joyfully, Upon its flat and level disk, As fairies wont, began to frisk And frolic ; for, as mortals say, Puck. Candy. A voice. All. Echo. Mab, Candy. A fatry Intermezzo. The white dots on that dainty sweet Carpet are prints of elfin feet. Then Master Puck, passing that way, Espied me, and—for, as you know, Just in the midst of every flower Of maiden-pink, where’er it blow, There is a dark and narrow bower Too deep for any sprite to view . . At least for one so small as you! He, Master Puck—of whom I talk— Espying, shook the slender stalk, That, in my horror and great fear, My knees to tremble did begin . . And in he slipped! He sliddered in! In! (General laughter and merriment.) Silence, I pray. Proceed, small elf. There’s not much further to relate. The pretty flower beneath my weight Bent, and I boded in despair That on my head I must be hurled ; But, sticking fast, in sheer mid-air, Quite upside-down I saw the world. 64 Lilfland : All. O ecstatic fancy ! Lcho. Fancy ! Mab. Peace, profitless imps. This tale of his Requires some proof. Call witnesses. ( Witness appears.) What is your name P—We know it well, But for our courtly forms’ sake tell It us once more. Thistledown. ’Tis Thistledown. Mab. What saw you, Master Thistledown ? This. Now by the silver moon I swear, That soon shall cleave the midnight air, I saw a quaint and quirky scene. -As I was gliding o’er the green, Driving in front a filmy sphere Of that white down whose name I bear, Lo! nght afront, a flush of red Upon the moss, and overhead A cry of one in anguish pent. Uplooking, in astonishment I saw the sky one vast pink curtain, And in the midst of it a certain Not wholly unfamiliar feature, Mab. Puck, A Fairy Intermezzo. Scarlet, the boss of that huge shield— Téte sanguine on a purpure field. "T'was Candy, said I, I’m your creature, Slave, servant, minister, and man ; So helped him down, and hither ran. Puck, to this story what say you ? In substance, I confess, ’tis true. 05 Mab (solemnly). Roundfaced scoundrel, with the sly Echo. Mab. Smile and dark familiar eye, Though I know thou’rt not in earnest, Since all things to fun thou turnest, Yet I warn thee such rude play Ill besuits a loyal fay ; Therefore, lest condign displeasure - Visit thee with loss of leisure, Leave these wayward habits scrapish, End these wanton antics apish. Pish ! What more awaits our royal grant ? In all the worlds that fairies haunt, Not only on high moor or fen, But in the stuffy brains of men, Has aught been done amiss this day ? Has any housewife hoped to stay F 66 LElfland: Chimney soot from tumbling in By counsel ta’en of kith or kin ? Has any farmer heaped his pride On princely beast that has not died ? Has speculator made a hit, Sleek-crediting his own sole wit ? Has any villain gone his way Rejoicing that the night was dark, And not learned ere the early lark How much apiece stout handcuffs weigh ? Has any thought he understood The world, and could do what he would, And not been so fashed ere the morn He wished himself had ne’er been born? If any such mishap there be ~ Let it be signified to me. (Enter 1st WisH.) Who is this pallid eager elf ? 1 Wish. My name, great lady, is Love of Pelf. I come of that exhaustless race That in men’s brains doth breed apace More million-fold than ocean’s fishes— The countless tribe of mortal wishes. Mab. I know you well; what is your plaint ? A fairy Intermezzo. 67 1 Wish. Ah, sovereign queen, from this restraint Mab. Release me ; for now ten long years I suffer hateful prisonment Within a miser’s skull, fast pent From all my fellow hopes and fears | In lonely greed of gain. Day-long I chafe: no other fancies throng That dismal vacant tenement, But what from sheer ennui I paint Upon its white unfurnished walls ; And brief the respite that befalls When sleep nods from my master’s nape The signal of my glad escape. We know your tribe: ’tis yours to sting Man from his brutish indolence By fancied pleasures of the sense. You teeming airy sprites, that wing Your way about his dwelling house, By cunning quaint devices rouse Him ever from his former self, And forward on the fancied pelf With eager blind desire he rushes, And finds it clay within his clutches. So slowly learns the boorish clown, F2 68 LEilfland : By pointed sharp experience shown, What is and is not ; and may die As wise, that is to say, well nigh, As we are born. And each fond sprite That’s hatched as Wish in any wight May never end his long career, But like the bee that, flitting here And there, makes trial of each flower, Must flit from man to man till all Have felt the magic of his power, And yet have freed them from his thrall ; Then, having circled mortal toil, He leaves the hated earthly coil And enters into regions airy, Becoming one of us—a fairy. Say, elfin, has this miser then Never yet come to wiser ken. 1 Wish. He scrapes, scrapes, as the sinner sinned, Aimlessly, endlessly, without tire. I showed him wealth of either Ind, He opened wider-mouthed desire. I am his thrice ill-fated slave— Since he is mine—and till the grave Holds him there is no hope for me. Mab. 1 Wish. Mab. 2 Wrsh. A Fairy Intermezzo. 6G This case is past recovery. I'll give you quittance, go and find New lodging in another mind. The wretch will die without my help, Like motherless unweaned whelp. Nought can make such an one live, so ’Tis fair farewell to let him go. (Linter 2nd Wish.) Here comes a brother of your race. True, but the kinship’s hard to trace. I am an essence light as air, Impalpable, men call me Prayer: I dwell among them when the morn Falls on each waking face forlorn, At even, when the breeze is heard In lofty trees, their hearts are stirred By me to high imaginings Of beautiful and holy things, Which hold them as men in a dream, Who, walking, to themselves scarce seem To touch the ground whereon they tread. That spirit whereto mine is wed Is of'a peaceful lonely nun. 7O Mab, Elfland: Her hands are helpful on the ways, Her heart, worldweary, ever prays To pass and be a little one, A star not far from God’s high throne. Grant, gracious lady, this may be. Such power I have not, yet I see The end is not far distant. Stay And watch with her another day. Thy work builds up the world and gives Substance and strength to mortal lives. Who comes there now? Another one? 3 Wish. I crave for justice to be done. Mab. 3 Wrsh. What is your story. I'll relate. Tis of a simple maid, sedate, From homely duties of the farm And household round of quiet charm Rudely decoyed, and sad her fate. For often when the days were warm He came, her lover, and at eve, When quiet sheep their slumbers leave And once again begin to browse, Would find her at the milking pail Among her dun and dappled cows ; All. Mab. 3 Wish. All. Echo. A Fatry Intermezzo. 71 And there upon the fragrant gale Would breathe forth honey-sweetened vows. And she was coy, yet simple too, And loved him with a love so true She could not love him falsely. So No sooner saw he this intent Than he deserted her to go In search of other merriment ; And she, poor wight, left broken-hearted, From all her happy life is parted ; Yet true in her true heart remains, And when I whisper through her pains, Revenge ! bids me behind her back. Ah! might we stretch him on the rack ! She who is wronged forgives, but we Who are not wronged cannot forgive : Such faithlessness while fairies live Un-fairy-punished shall not be. Whither away the wretch went he P Not far from here I saw him pass, And fall asleep amid the grass. Asleep amid the grass ! The ass ! Mab (angrily). What mocking Echo thus discerns 72 Elfland : Sport in our solemn tones, and turns Our every word to ridicule ? Have riddance of the brain-sick fool ! You, Puck, to gild your late disgrace, Hie after her in earnest chase, And bring her breathless to this place To sit on penitential stool. (Zxit Puck, and re-enter after an interval, breathless, with a fair white nymph his prisoner.) Mab. Your punishment is quickly spoke (¢o ECHO). (Zo all.) Within the hollow of an oak, With age and winter gnarled and wizened, This mocking maid shall be imprisoned. Go, some of you, and with a chaunt Disturb the white owl from his haunt , Rake out the dead leaves of last year, And line the den with lichens sere, Then quickly put her in and close The entrance with a wall of moss, And braid it carefully across With tough woodbine and briar rose. There shall she stay befitting time, Forgetful of her wanton chime. (Exeunt Puck and others with reluctant Ecuo. A Fairy [ntermezzo. 73 Now to behold this base-born wight, Where is he? Hist! and bring a light. A glowworm in a lucid bell Of white bindweed will serve us well. Hang it upon a hair, and swing It as the priests the censer fling. (Zhey come upon a body in the grass.) Lo! All. Oh, Oh! Mab. Hush! lest he hear. He moves. Away! All, Away ! (They vanish on the nightwind down a beechen alley. PETER sits up, rubs his eyes, and presently falls asleep again.) 74 Elfland : SCENE II. Zhe same. Midnight. (Zhe rising moon ts seen through the trees.) QuEEN Maz, followed by the other Fairies, one after one, alights out of the night. Hist ! fairies all, the silver queen Of our devotion now is seen With tender glances on the green Of maiden majesty. Befits us then in choral ring All wayward thoughts away to fling, And loudly musically sing Our heartfelt fealty. Chorus. Now when all the world’s asleep, Hear our song. Lady of the lonely steep, Hear us where to thee we keep, In a throng, Midnight morris on the lawn ; A fairy Intermezzo. All the land Whitens in thy silver dawn, But the primal silence still Dwells on meadow, tree, and hill, Scarcely fanned By the breeze, thy charioteer. Soon thy slowly waning sphere, Lifted far O’er the topmost mountain-brows And intricate forest-boughs, Through the clear Interspace of earth and star Shall impel its shining car. Then, ere many days are o’er, In the light Of thy fiery bridegroom bright, Shalt accomplish strange love-lore : There withdrawn from mortal sight Shalt thou know Inward changes, and explore . Caverns of thine ever-new Birth anointed with the dew Of the seasons as they go. 75 76 Chorus. Lilfland : See, none is so noble-fair, None is pure without compare, Moving in the crystal air With such grace, As our lovely lady queen, When her silver shield-like sheen Breaks the bright star-arrows keen From her face. So our merry mazes we Ravel on the sward ; Over us all silently, | Seen but never heard, Bats about the treetops weave Mysteries of flight, Till the lingering summer eve Flickers out of sight. Then the secret planets seven Join our mystic dance, Peering from the height of heaven Deep significance. | Over the bracken and over the briar ? Tremulous green and tall grass-spire, Falling in flashes of silvery fire A fatry [ntermezzo. 77 Breaks thy beautiful light. Into the heart of the harebell it looks, Touches the lips of lisping brooks, Dreams in the eyes of wondering rooks Watching their nest all night. Broad like a flood it covers the ground, Wraps the huge oak-buttresses round, Wave-like washes a verdurous mound Out on the open plain. But where the forest is folded in shade Darkling it glides through the listening glade, Silent, footless, fair as a maid Of love-fancying fain. Hither away, away we hie, Whithersoever thy light feet fly, Whither thy glances lifted high Lead our wandering quire. Ringlets over the herbage fine, Ringlets beside the tumbling brine, Dance we ever to thee, divine Queen of our heart’s desire. 78 LElfland : Hie and away to fairy sport, Every ray in shady resort Seemeth a maid of our lady’s court, Fair as the river’s flow. Far as the moonbeams reach we run, Up to the edge of the rising sun ; When a maiden is wooed she’s won, None can answer no. Litho. No! (General laughter.) Mab. Once more this vagrant Echo mocks Our voice, and shakes her laughter-locks Contemptuous of the prison door ; Haste, Puck, and hale her here once more. (Zixit Puck. After an interval re-enters with Ecuo.) Puck. I found her mossy prison thrown Upon the sward, and Echo flown. Thrice loudly on her did I call, And heard her by a ruined wall Make faint reply ; but when I came, Our Lady Moon, in argent flame, Passed by that way with all her suite ; I saw the fanciful white feet Mab, Puck. Mab. A fatry Intermezzo. Fe. Of all the maids that hold her train, And lost my nymph. Like jewelled rain A cloud of fireflies onward swept: Upon the back of one I leapt And bent its dance towards a dell Among the woods which I know well ;— There in a huge and hollow stone She oft will dwell whole days alone ;— And hardly had I found a place Wherein to hide a moment’s space, When in, without doubt or demur, She stept, and was my prisoner. My elves, what punishment condign Shall we inflict >—a fairy fine Of all her changeling properties, Her mask and tricksy mimicries, Her sandals swift and magic hood Invisible? Think ye this would Be too severe upon the sprite ? Forget we not that other wight— That mortal-who of love makes sport, And waits the sentence of our court. "Tis well. The maiden shall not lose Her properties, provide she use 80 Elfland: Them in our service for the just Chastisement of that faithless dust. He, jilting a true mortal maid, Shall love a fickle mocking shade ; And jeering at heart-broken bliss Shall break the little heart that’s his. (They move to the side of the sleeping man.) Here, where he slumbers in the grass, Beside his feet let stand the lass. See how the dew has drenched his hair : Doubtless his dreams are strange and rare. See, on his forehead stand bright beads : Doubtless the moon a fever breeds Among his limbs. Soon will he wake: Over his eyes love-cobwebs shake. Stand all around, light elfin crew, With censer lamps in order due, And after me this song ensue, Love-mystery to make. Mab and Chorus. O let the Moon, that with thy dreams Mixes the magic of her beams, Brood o’er thy slow wit till it teems With multiform desire ; Mab. A Fatry Intermezzo. SI Let her thy dull soul so confuse That thou have no more sense to use, Nor subtlety enough to choose, . Nor wisdom to enquire. Let her take form before thy face, Descending with an airy grace To fill this shining maiden’s place, Out of her sphere above ; That when thou open sleepy eyes, With half surprise, half not surprise, In Echo’s face thy heart surmise The mistress of its love. As in the days when Daphne stood Before the Sungod’s burning mood, And passed and vanished, while he wooed, Into a shady grove : The moon shall pass her western bar, The stars shall vanish star by star, And changeling Echo fly afar, And leave thee sick of love. Haste now, the wight begins to wake ; Already doth the dim dawn break, G 82 LElfland : With fitful breathings of the breeze ; A glimmer strikes about the trees, The beechen boles grow large and white ; Haste, while the morning yet is night ; Our work, all we can do, is done ; Haste, ere the rising of the sun ; Haste, ere the morning is full day ; Haste, fairies all, away, away ! ( They vanish.) Peter (sitting up and stretching himself.) O ay! ’tis cold. I dreamt. (Sees Ecuo.) But Gods above ! What’s this? No dream: the dreamlass of my love ! (Zo Ecuo.) Look not so cold ; see, I am wholly thine. Look not so cold’; I am not drunk with wine, But love, true love. O how thou art so fair As never mortal maid! ‘The silver moon ° Amid my dreams put off her starry shoon To dwell amid thy hair, an aureole Of unimagined brightness—like a bowl Of sparkling wine when summer dries the soul. O maiden, now the moonlight pales away Thou art alone in beauty. Grant me, say, ae OS A Fawry Intermezzo. 83 Say thou wilt grant me but the single bliss Of one complete explorative close kiss. Yet ’twould not be enough, divinest Gir. But thou must render me thy whole sweet self. (Ecuo moves backward. Nay! be not angry. Let me touch thy hand How fickle is the light about the land. She seems to fade. This doubtful morning haze And glimmering white dawn begins to daze My proper sight. But I will follow thee, And in my love-devotion shalt thou see My joy to brave all danger. Dearest one, Let us halt here a space. How now? she’s gone. And now? why now? But reason this outreaches: A crowd of maids !—or are they only beeches ? No, here thou art : all danger is surpast. My love, my lily-fair, ah, now at last What longing arms I fling around thy neck (Embraces a beechen stem.) Oh ! Lcho (out of the distance). Echo. La arya begat a hen - ~~ ane ra » a> Ph Sik Cag Gee Teas wane ‘ Ae : | : : ; : ay *) aia dit a. fa f Aa a | 138 Be Ba Ay a ee bee i a s a 2 ore, i. , ° : \ hae % ; Byduae fay, eee. w iia. wae Bene > Pe). eee ee ea bs or | - Ps PES VOICES, is The invocations and the cries of Earth.— Once, high uplifted into lucid space Beyond the vital air’s inveiling girth, Alone in night and the intense embrace Of the star-circled sun, I turned my face, And saw the fields and forests, islands, seas, Of this fair planet moving from their place Eastward for ever ; and I seemed to seize The low rhythm of their movement like a murmuring breeze. Il. Half lay in shadow and the land of night ; And as when o’er a sparkling ocean-plain Wave follows wave in mounds of rolling light To some dim shore where all their splendours wane, 88 Earths Voces. So ruddy deserts and green lands of grain, Blue seas and rocky headlands, rank by rank, Passing in slow procession did attain The shore of night, and on that cloudy bank Out of all sight and sequence into darkness sank. Ill. But now the Moon, late hidden, as I moved Peered over Earth’s black shoulder, like a sprite Half charmed by some huge monster half beloved, Half feared because of his exceeding might. And where, about the pole descending white, Wide snow-fields lie, and like an ermine cape Cover the rounded world, her glances bright Glimmered in azure calm o’er half its shape ; The rest the sovereign sun in cloth of gold did drape. iV. So beautiful the scene that with delight Gazing I lost no detail of its graces, Until—hke one who, wakeful late at night With meditating fond familiar faces, Earths Votces. 89 Starts from the busy picture fancy traces, Awe-struck with outer silence—wonderbound I watched the worlds glide forward from their places Into abysmal stillness : not a sound Now marked their smooth resistless speed to the profound. Ve - Then in an universe of suns I saw Our planet pass obscurely like a mote ; And filled with sudden yearning and great awe, To know the burden of its single note Amid the spheric chant, with wings of thought I cleft the airless space, dipt into shade Nightward below the Moon, and, forward brought In one large curve of meteor swiftness, made Entrance into the sunlight on Earth’s orient grade. VI. There paused a moment ; then with slow wide wing Sank through the murmurous air. And as I beat Earthward, a lark, like arrow from the string, Shot by me with a shrill great cry to greet 90 Earth's Votes. The rising sun, and tossed his music sweet Upward and outward in a fount for ever. Screaming below a wounded eagle fleet Went like a whirlwind over rock and river, Seeking the high crag-homeland of his death’s endea- vour. Vit. So, landward, I alighted on a beach Beside a misty sunlit sea that swayed And shimmered like a cloud of fireflies, each Borne to and fro as random fancy bade ; When through the soft hush that the water made I heard loud voices and rude choral song, And saw a boat that with its anchor weighed Pushed outward from the shore, and in a throng The women stood, and seaward their white farewells flung. VIII. Until the daring music dipt and died Over the flood, and all the air was still : Then turning from the melancholy tide The women mounted homeward up the hill ; Earth's Votces. QI And I remained. It seemed their sturdy will Was to explore new lands ;: instead whereof I heard the whistling shrouds sing wildly shrill Over a white sea domed with black above ; The roaring winds about them whirled and snakelike strove, LX? Stung by the lightning, and a maddened cry Smote heavenward as the gaping beams drank death; And, like a hungry beast that cannot die, Ocean flung high her white and windy breath, -Heaped huge her wet coils o’er the dead beneath, And forward rolling in fresh quest of prey Rustled each surfy scale and python wreath. But turning from my dream I took the way Of those sad wives, and sought the village o’er the bay. X. And one walked ever, vacant-eyed, apart, And hastened ; whom I followed to a rude Dim chamber where the one child of her heart, Smitten with mortal pain—six years of feud g2 Earth's Votces. ’T wixt life and death—moaned and in grievous mood Denied endearance ; whom her mother kissed And stroked her fair hair, but thus vainly sued One smile of recognition, for I wist She only cried as cries a lamb lost in the mist, XI. Whom the unknown One watches. So an hour Her mother watched and lulled a low refrain Which with her weariness did overpower To placid sleep the fretful sense of pain ; And evermore the song, renewed again About that chamber, seemed obscurely fraught With ancient memories of grief and vain Renewals of despair, the slow years wrought To patient love and tenderness which is not taught. XLS But now borne forward on the wind afar I heard the roll of drums, and in the street, Standing, beheld the burnished ranks of war Pass by in dignity of measured beat. ee ee Earth's Vozces. 93 Strange was the tramp of quick persistent feet O’erharmonised by music, like the days Of one who through a long life’s frost and heat Still labours on and, while he labours, prays,— His faith high while his feet halt on the dusty ways. XIII. A thousand soldiers with eyes forward cast, Yet flashing somewhat at the random shout A stranger village sent them, so they passed : Fair and sunfreckled, veteran and raw lout, Each with his own cloudfancies clothed about— To bring fame homeward like a friend, or die Storming the stubborn-hearted steep redoubt. And as they went their music rang on high Afar through fields and vineyards to the summer sky. XIV. Empty the little street was, and quite still ; Save, as I passed, the murmur of one blind Gray beggar who upon a warm door-sill, Deaf in his age and darkened in his mind, 94 Larth’s Voices. Muttered the wind of words he could not find Wherewith to implore the'silence ; and his moan As I went forward, floating after, twined - About my heart, till, hamlet left; alone bal sat where grass was green upon a sunny stone. XV. Then I perceived that Nature has one cry For all her children ; for around me shrill Cicalze, hid in flowering grasses high, Made the whole land with their sharp music thrill ; Which with the hot air over vale and hill Went quivering heavenward, like a censer-fire Of Nature’s own strange yearning to fulfil Some intimate foreknowledge and desire Of unexpressed perfection, whereto all aspire. XVI. And overhead three swifts, keen-twittering, Darted each after each and passed, _ Cleaving the winds with scymitar-curved wing, Skyward, in mad career of circles vast, Earth's Voices. 95 Until they vanished in the blue at last. So I arose, and passing from that place} Fled o’er the fields and woodland valleys fast, Until upon a plain I paused a space Before a densely-peopled wideflung city’s face. XVII. Like a great altar on a rising ground Tt stood, surmounted by a smoky sign High-pointing heavenward ; and I heard a sound, Low, like the bateless roaring of the brine Which on a thousand miles of Afric’s line Surges for ever : ’twas a nation’s prayer, Hoarse, unremitting, and the mist malign Was laden with reiterate plaint of care, Triumph and strife and wide-eye’d want and wan despair. XVIII. And past me, with a shriek from East and West, And feet of thunder up the sloping ways, The great town drew in fiery grim unrest Her steaming traffic through its iron maze ; 96 Earths Votces. And all the roads a flickering dust did raise, Like white flames o’er the country far and wide, Because of those who in the wheeling chaise Or huge deliberate wain on every side About her to and fro their busy errands plied. XIX. So, standing by the gate, I was aware Of low soft singing and a voice whose tone Struck strangely through the resonant harsh air ; And at a window spied a maid, alone, Oblivious of hard ways and walls of stone, Who, all the while with needle deft in hand, Sang, and it was as Love a veil had thrown About her singing and herself, to stand Between her cloud-world and the loud ungracious land, DOE For in the heaven of her voice I saw The fair fields where love-dreaming feet delay Beside a brook whose budding beeches straw Dead leaves of last year in the new-mown hay ; Earth's Votces. 97 Where ’twixt the closely-grown stems two can stay | And see but one scene all an afternoon, Save in each other’s eyes, where Love’s bright ray Burns diverse beauty, like the sun and moon, Silver and golden, through warm nights and days of June. XXI. So fair a Paradise of longing dwelt Between her lips. But as I dreamt thereof There came a hush, and some around me knelt. I turned ; and saw the sad reverse of Love: A slow funereal train that seemed to move Upon the music of its own low plaint, In silence of all hearts, while two did prove Death’s extreme severance, and one with faint World-desolate cry broke the pauses of the chant. XXII. Which passed. And, like a loud returning tide, The roaring world swept upward to the gate, Bearing me inward ; and straightway the wide Street-wilderness unwound its noisy state. H 98 Earth's Votes. I heard the eager strife and fierce debate Of wayside traffic and the hurried tramp Of countless feet upon the pavement-slate, Like rain that nightly falls upon a damp Garden, whose steadfast plash the ear with awe doth stamp. 2 OS UNE And din of hawkers and in dusk by-lanes Discordance of hoarse tuneless instruments, Rhythmical ring of anvils, hiss of planes, And busy hum of factories immense ; And one, a mother with pale features tense, Who, peering in each swift indifferent face, Pleaded her child’s life, till her own starved sense Turned giddy in the shifting whirling race, And she fled from men’s scorn to Death’s obscure embrace. XXIV. And one, a man, in crying of his wares Grown aged, till forgetful even of gain, Feeble in body, bent, and gray in hairs, Nought of him but a voice seemed to remain ; Earths Votces. 99 For with a long high note, like one in pain, Rising and falling with pathetic art, Prone through the streets he went and wheeled his wain, - Nor looked to right or left to find a mart, But only forward to fulfil his one dim part. Oats Then, turning from the crowd, I saw the men Who sharpen rude steel to each shapely end Ranged rank on rank within a long low den, Each doomed from high seat o’er a wheel to bend, As though a nation’s tyranny did lend The load of all its wealth to every shoulder ; And with the murmur of the stones did blend A hectic cough, fitful, of lives that moulder Motionless under heaven, each like a grey rock-boulder XXVI. And farther onward, in a lurid glare, I saw the red heat-wrinkled limbs of those Who ply their fierce glass furnaces with air, And, day and night renewed, without repose H 2 100 Earth's Votces. Blow till the tube’s white-dazzling pendant glows To clear and perfect grace—a subtle feat ; And evermore the blast with fitful throes Of molten fury from that inward heat Roared upward in the silence of their naked feet. XXVITI. So through the ranks I passed of those who do Good service in the masonry of man, Whose measurements are sure and blows are true, And hearts courageous for whate’er they can In field, or factory, or camp, who scan, Most critical, their own work ; and I heard Their labour’s musical low murmur span The spaces of a land’s despair—a word Whispered in Heaven’s ear: and my heart with joy was stirred. XXVIII. Whereafter, in a while, I saw a crowd Stream to a gate as of some sacred fane, And passing inward was aware of loud Sweet harmonies in rhythmical refrain, Ltarth’s Votces, IOI And heard the ringing strings recite again Those heights and depths of yearning human mood, Eternal orisons, which one in pain _ Daylong and nightlong of dread solitude Wrought for the want and wonder of Earth’s multitude. XXIX. Yea, when a string smote softly through the still, Giving a note of sorrow to all times, Whereto with gradual melodious thrill One after one responded, like faint chimes Heard in the leafen gloom of sunny climes: All hearts with awe were silent ; but thereon, As when a wind breaks forward through the limes, Sweeping the bees out, with an angry tone A myriad tumultuous voices drowned the one ; XXX. And raved in harsh reiterated rage And insane self-insistence, till a chill Shudder the listening spirit did engage, As when one brooding all night o’er some ill 102 Earths Votces. Wakes to the hard blind roaring of Life’s mill. So note on note the intertangled sound Grew in chaotic utterance until, With whirlwind cries of fear, as though the ground Of all existence opened, from the world-profound XXXII. Three tones strode upward through the noisy throng. Great was the hush: as when a rabble crew, Bent on destruction, wanton spite and wrong, Sees one it fears but knows not in full view. Great was the wonder of that hush, wherethrough I heard the plaintive voice that spake before, Cry as for help ; and though the murmur grew Instant again, I knew there was a power Prompt to devise deliverance ere the final hour. XXXII. Thus wave on wave the wind of music swept About our hearts, till all old memories Of joy and sorrow from their slumbers leapt Transfigured to life-radiance in surprise Earth's Votces. 103 At their own beauty ; and the seas and skies Poured all their splendour o’er us, and fair dreams And high forebodings in those symphonies Glanced on us, fitful with reflected gleams Shot from the silver waters as of unseen streams. XXXII. So when I turned again into the street, Even Life’s common sounds seemed glorified In Music’s sunlike utterance : the fleet Insistent days and hours seemed to divide With measured equal beats the rhythmic stride Of ages, in whose loud discordance stood, Not old despair of hopes so long belied, But promise of harmonious ends of good And present part in splendour not yet understood. XXXIV. Thus pensive through the city’s western gate Half unaware I wandered, and a slight Slope led me from that tumult. ”I'was now late : The level sun made shadow more than light, 104 Liarth’s Votces. And beat the mountains with his burning might To ruddy gold. Calm was the fragrant wind Of garden closes. One, a peasant wight, Sang as the day went downward unrepined ; But soon I left that land and all its lays behind ; XXXYV. And fled up on the mountains, crag by crag, Until I gained their pathless utmost peak, Where, resting on an extreme stony jag, I turned, and saw that City’s towers antique And modern chimneys, as by sudden freak, Flushed scarlet in the sun’s descending fire ; And straight a hundred belfry throats did speak A deep-toned Ave, mounting higher and higher Heavenward about the world as daylight did expire. XXXVI. And as when on a purple Alpine ridge With silver-sweet farewell the evening star Delays an instant, until Earth’s black edge, Deemed motionless of mortals, from afar Earth's Votces. 105 Plunges obscurely forward to debar All further greeting : so on that grey crag Close under heaven I felt Earth, like a car, Wheel from beneath me, and my flight did lag Westward from that high mountain like a wind-borne flag. XXXVII. And I beheld, once more, Night’s cloudy rim Creep forward over continents and seas, And heard the bells of eve, where’er the dim Shadow delayed, break upward on the breeze With childlike cries for help to One who sees From them that fear the darkness ; by whose shore I saw a vision of those who on their knees Morning and eve the face of heaven explore, Circling the world with prayer and praise for evermore. XXXVITI. Loudly the bells rang ; but ere long each tone Lapsed in the general consent of sound, As upward and in airy flight alone I left the haunts of mortals, and the round 106 Frarth’s Votces. Of Earth gave but one cry to the profound— Voices and bells with notes of labour blent, One indistinct hoarse murmur, inly wound About the world, and rising, as intent To reach the throne of God before its force was spent. XXXIX. An instant so. And then the veil of air Dropped, and I passed into the absolute Far silence of the spheres. No sound was there, But all the throbbing hours fell round me mute, Like wavelets where no shore is ; past compute The myriad worlds, in mystic motion free, Fled round about or fell like ripened fruit All down Night'’s infinite ; and like a sea The universe set shoreward to eternity. XL. So I beheld Earth, with her weary load Of want, pass swiftly ; and it was as when Some plaintive strain of music on a road Grows distant-faint and flutters out of ken frarth’s Vozces. 107 Behind an angle : like the minds of men, At once their world and prison, that white vail Of soft circumfluent air did surely pen Each heavenward cry and high despairing wail Wall-like within its own impassable fixed pale. XLI. And swifter, like a wan and eager wight Threading some gay-apparelled crowd, she fled Among the universal spheres of night Following her lord the sun where’er he led, Until she passed and vanished as one dead ; While he supreme in thunder-stillness strode Forward with lessening flame into the dread Distance of gloom where all his glory showed Less than the starry lamps which light grey Time’s abode. , XLII. Yet in that moment saw I that his feet Were shod with purpose ; for in some huge arc He swept sublime, whose centre equal-fleet, Who knows? might flame-like cleave the wondering dark 108 fLtarth’s Votces. About some greater light—again a spark Before the greatest. So with high hand fraught With quick farewells to Earth I turned to mark The end of all our wanderings, and sought Him who holds all world-systems centred in his Thought. Mier CL LANEOUS POEMS. WHO COMES WITH ME ? (SUGGESTED BY SCHUMANN’S ‘ ARABESKE,’) WHo comes with me, who comes with me, Through the morning air so bright and free ? Come hand in hand, by sea and land, All day together will we be. Come o’er the hills, where sunlight fills The twinkling grass with new delight ; Breathe from the air enchantment fair And happiness from every sight. See, pure and pale, athwart the gale Gay streamers of the wild red rose ; While, far behind, with white foam lined, The broad green sea careering flows ; I12 Who Comes with Me? And all around, to the utmost bound, Cliff caught on cliff, and range on range ; Earth’s garment bright, spread out in light, And figured o’er with endless change Beneath the crowds of white-rimmed clouds That sail together within the blue, And bar green lands with purple bands Which fading fringe the distant view. And far across the yellow gorse And blooming heather embossed in green Sky and sea have kissed in luminous mist— A glorious veil of silver sheen. The bee on her way takes holiday, Flitting at will from flower to flower ; The spider spreads his amber threads, All careless of to-morrow’s shower. The harebell laughs as the clover quaffs His delicate draught of morning dew ; Each bird upsprings and joyously sings, And all are singing to me and you. Who Comes with Me ? Tig! O come with me, O come with me, All day together by land and sea ; What matters to know of whither we go, If only together we two be? 114 IN A CANOE. From shade to light, from light to shade, The overbending boughs between, I glide, as in a fairy glade, Till the sweet summer day is made A melody of summer green, The meadows all are clothed with light, As with a garment, and the heat Swims dreamful where the grass is dight With ox-eye daisies and the white Of lady’s-smock and meadow-sweet. And clear-cut in the quiet air Move large brown outlines of the COWS, That nose Earth’s verdure fresh and fair And scatter far its perfime where Ln a Canoe. II5 With peaceful onward push they browse. Beside the brink the swift stream lags, And spreads its liquid arms to cool The golden-flowered phalanx of flags Whereby the water-wagtail wags Its mirrored head in many a pool. And here a swallow lightly skims Or strikes the broad flood, breast to breast, And there in shady hollow swims The lazy roach beneath wet rims Of water-lilies, where they rest. Here by an overhanging bank The sunlit soft transparent wave Reveals a myriad lives that prank In giddy dance within the dank Deep water-world which is their grave ; And there a wild rose overblown Showers red rain on the shining way, And the fair moving fields are sown With countless blossoms random-thrown And gliding downwards with the day ; And here and there a willow dips And dallies with the dimpling plain, But evermore the river slips Ns 116 In a Canoe. Onward—as from a maiden’s lips Some low melodious refrain. And with a soft and rippling sound The little bark fleets onward too, By bushy brake and meadow-bound, The swimming swirling curves around, Till in a slumbrous swoon the view Slides swiftly shifting, and the shades Grow longer, and the evening light Dies, and the sunset splendour fades Slowly against the stars of night. ir 7 mee ARTIST TO ALS LADY. I put my hands together, palm to palm, And say: Take these ; and, whereso’er thou wilt, Go,—I will follow. For indeed I have No cther life than this—to follow Thee. Tue lady of my love is very fair ; Often when morning rose above the rain She waved her white hand at the window-pane, And passed and mounted through the fields of air. I never saw her face or felt her smile, She seemed to pine among the haunts of men ; Till at the last I left my city den, And followed in her footsteps for a while. 118 Lhe Artest to his Lady. She led me where the light shines freely down, She set me by the river-fringes green, And turned herself, and in her face, I ween, The glories of all worlds to me were shown. Her marble front is not of mortal mould, Her look is of the lands which are not seen, Broad is her brow, somewhat austere her mien, Yet magical her beauty to behold. For all the friendless way hedged with offence, For all the hours forsaken of her face, Now to behold in peace her peerless grace Is and remains my perfect recompense. I19 VENUS APHRODITE. I. ONCE when, as ever since the world began, Iawn touched the silver level of the sea, And like a golden shield of growing span Crept on the land of twilight stealthily ; The Sun, yet sunk below his eastern lea, Whence all the heavenly limits he could mark, As Perseus through Medusa’s locks, in glee Shot all his shining fingers through the Dark, And once more laid the monster motionless and stark. im In that day for the inhabitants of Earth And Heaven, moving in darkness heretofore, A vision of high beauty came to birth ~ Amid the foam of Ocean’s eastern shore : 120 Venus Aphrodite. Such as the Gods, who tread their golden floor, And mortals, dwellers in the orange grove Domed with aerial blue, in all their lore Feigned not in earth below or sky above, Yet, seeing, made the queen and regent of their love. III. or while the waves danced onward o’er the deep, As at the first day bright and bluely clear, And morning mounting up the saffron steep In opaline pure splendour did appear Pavilioning with flame the ocean-sphere ; A mist shot upward from the shining main, A deep blush brightened through it, like a tear That trembles on a rosebud after rain And glows with heightened hue on what it cannot stain. Iv. One cloud-like moment in the air it hung ; And then the Sun, in eastern state confest, Great level arms along the ocean flung, Giving to each swart wave a golden crest, Venus Aphrodite. jie And let one finger on the foambell rest, Which, like a hollow fretted crystalline Of some rich secret rudely dispossessed, Sundered and parted in the bright sunshine, Showing the Foamborn in her beauty made divine. V. A sunbow bent above her for a sign, The spray embowered her in brillant rain, Her rosy feet upon the hyaline Danced lightly like rose-petals o’er a plain ; Heaven was her canopy, a lofty fane For incense and for music and high mirth, Her laughing eyes, turned sunward, did detain As in a mirror, all the smiles of Earth Made happier because of beauty’s perfect birth. VI. With one hand half uplifted did she hold Her fair locks from her in a shining band, As if to match the sunlight with their gold Glittering with ocean-dew ; the other hand 12 Venus Aphrodite, Sustained a robe sea-woven of glaucous strand, Which veiled her limbs as softly as the moon Glimmers where dawn-illumined mountains stand Rosy in snow, or as in leafy June The glowing foliage holds yet hides the hot midnoon. Vit. And where she stood the waves on every side Fell from her into many a hollow space And fair concavity, as though they tried To keep the impress of her rounded grace In inverse beauty ; like a crystal case, Broken to free some glory of art, they lay, But shifting ever as to catch a trace Of that fair model, till in fair dismay They spread and died upon the distance far away. VIll. For with divine consent from arm to arm, From breast to brow, the lines of beauty run And shift and flow with ever-changing charm Which nothing can detain beneath the sun ; Venus Aphrodite. 123 And lke a silver fount that seems to shun Even momentary rest, but ever flows In wasteful beauty till the day is done, Lovely in loss, since loveless in repose, So rich in love’s regret fair Aphrodite rose. IX. And Neptune’s children from the emerald gloom Of ocean caverns, in a boisterous pack Played round about her path of roseate bloom— Sea-nymph and Triton in a foamy track, _ With winds and water-sprites and cloudy rack Of morning, and the mountains seen afar— Orbed in one onward course which grew not slack Till Venus, mounting on her dove-drawn car, Went heavenward through the blue vault like a _ glistening star. 8% Therefore when Gorgon-headed Night was gone— In labyrinthine marble calm and dread Unearthly glitter, death to look upon— Beauty arose to birth, and so was wed 124 Venus Aphrodite. To every dawn-lit dell and mountain-head And dream of man ; wherewith in flowing guise Unto the heavenly lands she lightly sped, To be Earth’s lovely envoy in the skies And chosen Cynosure of Gods’ and mortals’ eyes. fos SLEEPING VENUS. STILL, as she sleeps, betwixt her slender brows The calm of summer and dim twilight dwells ; Day’s faint vermilion, clear with evening bells, Fitfully on her sleep-flushed temple glows. Her lips, like rosy lovers loth to part, Make scanty room between them for her breath ; About their wavy outline wandereth A smile as sweet as when swift sunbeams dart This way and that upon a windless lake That ripples roundly ere it sinks to rest ; And to that smile the smooth curves of her breast And flowing limbs delightful answer make. 126 Sleeping Venus. O’er all that placid world of hill and dale Night from her downcurved eyelids slowly draws The fragrant gloom of sleep, that overawes And folds the waking senses in a veil. White shines her forehead as when moonbeams rise Blue-veined against heaven’s crystal vault profound ; Her ebon hair, in slumbrous tresses bound, Forebodes the silence of the starry skies. 127 A SUMMER DAY. Love from the mountains led his sheep, Once, on a summer day, Into a valley green and deep, Under rock-ramparts gray ; Sat on a stone where the waters run Rippling the hours away, Touched his lute in the light of the sun,— That was a summer day ; Prayed in his heart for love which is fair, Prayed as the lonely pray ; Love which is fire when life is air Laden with fragrant May ; 128 A. Summer Day. And as the leaflets lisped, and their shade Shifted like emerald spray, Paused and peered evermore as he prayed Love might pass that way. Then from the meads below the vale, Love, with a high sweet song, Came through the thickets, where roses trail Elder-bushes among ; Reeled as she went a homely thread Spun from a distaff-prong, Singing until her heart was wed Unto her own clear song ; Sang to the light and the sun-lit glen, Prayed for love which is strong ; Love which leads with a light look, when Life cannot bind with a thong. And as she wound by the hedgerows, where Daisies and buttercups throng, Listened and looked evermore, lest there Love might reply to her song. A Summer Day. 129 So the sheep, as the day grew red, Straggled and went astray ; Out of a listless hand the thread Leapt, and was lost on the way ; But ere Night o’er the mountains mute Wafted her wings along, Love met love below, and the lute Tuned itself to the song. 4 (ys O THEO PEARS OPALE MIO Upwarb all day we toiled athwart the rain, Henry and I, through Alpine pastures green And great firwoods that overhung the vale Far spread below ; but ever, as evening fell, Day’s cloudy curtain parted, and the mists Thinned more and more, and fled among the hills, Or dropped beneath, or clung in silver threads To tresses of dim forest; and we saw A clear blue arch of space spanned high above, And, burning behind the utmost mountain edge, Gold altar-glories of the stricken sun. And high amid the snows we found a crag, Hung darkly’on that argent slope, within Stamped hollow as by rage of Titan foot ; Lhe Peak of Terror. re And there we lit the flame, and made ourselves Good cheer, while round us dreamed a silent world. - But ere we slept, he, my beloved, arose And lightly left our firelit cave and stood Night-circled on a jutting rock beyond ; And with the setting stars about his head And at his feet that purple vale profound, He sang the song he sings me evermore. He sang to watchful heaven and weary earth, To glittering peak and star and crescent moon, And high Love, and the loveworn Heart of all. And all the vales were filled with melody, And o’er the wide wide night and clear profound, And over the blank snows and barren crags, His song came floating back unto his feet: Unto his feet, and deep into my heart, There as I lay by the fire and saw him stand, Saw him there in the night, and see him now, Now, and for ever. For he came not back. At morning dawn, when earth was dashed with light, Beside the golden summit he slipped and fell, And slid, and passed to his own home beyond. K 2 THE VEILED SSIS ORS LHEGNALOEE WORSHIPEPER, "Eva ciul may 7d yeyovds Kal dy Ka eoduevoy Kal Tov éudy mémAov ovsels Tw OvnTds amekdAue. Now know I that the white-winged hours of heaven ’Twixt me and thee in endless retinue, Each after each, shall pass ; nor ever pause To lift the least light corner of thy veil, Or grant thine eyes to mine. O hidden One, Supreme-set Mother of all mystery, And myriad-named of men, now know I well Thou dost endure us but a moment’s span Upon thy heaving bosom, to behold The Vetled Ists. I [Se (DS) The wonder of thy movement, at thy grace To fall and worship—ay, we know not what ! And then, or ever thou hast heard, to fall And pass, remembering ourselves and thee No more. O strange, O unassailable, Thou that with myriad bright play of eyes Provokest our desire, thy seamless robe, Set close about for our bewilderment, Folds thee in perfect proof. For I have toiled And tarried long by thy familiar ways, Have known thee going out and coming in, And watched thy daily wont ; have felt the flame Flash from thy face almost to scathe mine eyes, And heard at night thy breath about my ears Beat, and pass quickly by ; yea, I have tracked Thy fingers in and out through woven clouds, And passionless ebb and flow of waves and streams, And rockings of the air, only to know The weft is woven without any flaw From flight of stars to atoms : rent is none, No gap, no visionary gleam, and Thou Art hid for ever. Therefore now, once more, I see the Spring descend upon the Earth— 134 The Vetled [sts ; or The new life quivering upwards into light ; I see the plaited green on plant and tree | Slide from the soil and break the knotted bark ; The grey elm quickens with a strange delight ; The golden chestnut-buds against the blue Gleam like a thousand lamps ; and melody Thrills through the woodland air. O now once more The primal splendour of the sun returns With a most welcome triumph. Thorn and may Stand white with bridal blossom unto him ; The ground is cloven, and the sleeping flowers Have heard and known their lord: through wood and dell Yellow primroses leap and peer to heaven— He rideth by begirt with azure wings— And bloom and beauty multitudinous Break on his path. The violet stands by Glad in her grassy covert. In the meads Like angel hosts white daisies wave their wings, And as he passes bend like one and rise, And, while he fires with light the Western lands, Close their bright eyes and blush for very joy. Once more o’er vale and mountain do I hear The voice of Spring’s sweet trouble: nightingales the Nature Worshipper. And thrushes in the thicket numbetless Tremble to utter on the quiet air The mystery of eve ; where all night Earth, Orbed in her dreams of star-related life, Floats in a flood of moonlight and of dew. Once more I see it all, and, seeing, know The infinite of beauty—how thy world Is charactered with wisdom : each winged sense Faints with the weight of wonder, till I walk Like one enchanted to a magic sound, | A king whose eyes are feasted with a play Of endless scenic change, a child to whom Earth has no bounds for joy. And yet, ah! yet, Deeper than all, and deeper than my joy, Thou whom I know, nor yet can ever see, Thou, mother Isis, mother over all, Thou radiant Life and one Reality, Vanishest for ever: like the Northern beam Decking the far-off mountains, all untouched, Unheard, inviolable, Thou movest on In the great silence of our hearts, through leaf And bud and fairy bloom fleeting for aye Wherever we are not. And though our spirits he 136 Lhe Vewled sts. Burst through their woven chambers till the heart Ache for the stress of passion ; though our dreams Be girt about with one dull cloud of death For hope that cannot pierce ; yea, though our eyes For gazing vainly on thy vanishings Waste away in their orbits ; yet at last We fall, our arms stretched outward on the earth And features: folded in the clay-cold ground, Nor e’er behold thee face to face at all. DLA SY IF the daisy shake her tresses To the broad blue arch of sky, As a child that dimly guesses All the love in its mother’s eye ; If she clasp each lily finger At the falling of the night, Lest the pure stars—an she linger— Seem to shame her golden light; If she dance with many a sister In the hot shafts of the sun, Swaying, swimming, in bright glister Where a thousand are as one ; Lhe Datsy. If she reach out arms to beckon Diamond motes from dancing air : What is that, that it should quicken Pulses worn with toil and care? If she wreathe the mountains round her, Centred in the grassy earth, Where the first sun-glances found her Shaking dewy locks of mirth ; If the waters flow beside her, Catching something from her smile, Whether storm or sun betide her, Loving to be near, the while ; What is that, that it should win us To heart-yearnings still untold, Year on year that grow within us, Till the years themselves grow old? tiie LIDE, S1x hours it voiceless sank along the shore In the soft cloud-girt eve ; turned in its bed, And dreamed of other lands. But when the night Grew to its stillest, and none knew thereof, There crept across the world a wind-like sigh— Sweet breath of waking lips—that rose, and passed, And died along the night, and rose again Ineffable. And Ocean knew once more Her crescent tide-mark with its golden range Of fretted sands and shell-impearled weeds, And once more, joyous, filled with rolling waves Her creeks and inland waterways ; then paused, And, wondering at herself, sank back to rest, And dreamed again the dream that has no end. 140 L JAL SPIRIT OF. THE UMOCAIAr TORRENT. I mock the moaning of the maddened sea In fathomless gorges far withdrawn, and down I drag the screaming crags resistlessly From ledge to ledge through storm and rainbow crown. I sing of vessels trapt in utter night, That shiver down a roaring gulf of wind, Before them sudden blackness, and behind Waste hissing of the waves in foaming white. I fold the feverish eyelids of the day To court confusion of the crazy dark ; I shroud the sunbeam in my ceaseless spray And drown the slender singing of the lark ; Spirit of the Mountain Torrent. 141 I race in the swift eagle’s flight, and roll The eager flashes of his yellow eye ; I rage beside the hurricane, and sigh ’Mid seas of silent snow about the pole. I dance along the ruins of the world Wrapt in my own impenetrable breath ; Stride I in fury on the storm-winds whirled With war and famine, pestilence and death. I sing along the desert in the sun, I play amidst his rays and plume my wings ; I thunder in the columned dust that flings The veil of death, nor man nor beast can shun. Hear me, O hear! I cease not evermore : Me the eternal Future changes not, Ye bubbles broke upon a sounding shore, Ye worms that creep into the earth and rot ! I only live : I dip and dart and skim, And weave my flight through elemental spray ; Who battles me, ruthless I sweep away,— Who yields, oblivion swiftly merges him. [42 AES PIA Ole a: SING on, thou shape of death, thy savage song, I will defy thee, though the foam-waves roll, I, in the shivering night, so lone, so long, Waiting for thee—a naked human soul : I will defy thee ; though thy laws should give Pause to my breath in act of utterance, Though in each tortuous twist and trick of chance My life be lapped, I will defy ; and live. I am of thee, World-torrent ; and who braves Thy strength shall share thy strength ; so sweep away This body, still athwart thy raging waves My hands outreaching round thy soul I lay ; Lhe Spirit of Man. 143 And hold thee fast for ever. As I cling Painfully persevering, in my ears The surging of the mighty water clears To one sweet harmony ; and, like a wing Pulsing in distant skies, is borne the sound Of that far chaunt whose charm no mortal man, Hearing, forgets for ever ; for around The dreams of childhood when his life began, His formless youthful fancies, and above | All after-cries and cravings still it rang Imperiously insistent where it sang The will of God, the wonder of His love. bd 44 SUMMER LIGHTNING. LIKE a dawn the distant lightning, Fitful, shadow-crowned, O’er the twilit ocean brightening Breaks without a sound. Softly-fair the clouds are riven Crimson faint with bliss, As the heights and depths of heaven Open to its kiss. Calm in western lake-like splendour Floats the star of eve ; All hues opaline and tender Round about it weave ; Summer Lightning. 145 And that other crystal ocean Holds its image clear, Like a smile with soft emotion Shining through a tear. Faintly rings a silver laughter As the ripples die, And the rising stars thereafter Answer, and their cry, As of love to passion risen, Passes o’er the strand From Night’s gloomy eastern prison To the golden land Where flushed Eve with shining fingers For an instant keeps Back the curtained dark, and lingers, Lovely, ere she sleeps. So upon the beachy margent Love a moment stands, Takes the ocean and the argent Starlight on the sands ; i 146 Summer Lightning. Takes the sunset slowly whitening From its golden bloom, Takes the cloud-girt summer lightning And the distant gloom ; Orbs them all from world-mutation, Whole and unforgot, Into his divine creation Of immortal thought ; Where, like essences supernal, They nor pass nor range, Lifted high in Love’s eternal O’er eternal change. WIN LI GRASS : BY A MONAD (OF LEIBNITZ), HERE in the grass they laid me long ago, Far from the tumult and the tears of men, Soft in the summer grass, forlorn and low— The face of all the world is changed since then. Here, on my back, and scarce beneath the turf, To lie and le for many a summer day, Hearing the faint far ocean-sweeping surf, Seeing the blue midnoon and twilight grey, Yea, though you seek and find me not at all In these wide meadows and the shoreward plain, Though in the ground and tangled grasses tall No vestige of my mortal part remain. L2 148 l[n the Grass. Yet, peradventure, where you plant your heel And heedless start the lizard on the sand, I am, and all day watch wild duck and teal Fly northward in a blue-enamelled band. Here, void of will, of action unaware, And dwindled to a mere perceptive point, Changeless I watch the light divide the air And glitter on each reedy knot and joint. Changeless I watch the changes of the sky, Its liquid blue, its motionless light clouds,— A solitary seagull sailing by, A butterfly that him from sight enshrouds. Now midway-down a thin mist thunder-driven Moves on the air-built battlements beyond ; Still is the land, until the heights of heaven Burst and break backward, detonant with sound. And on the earth fire and a flood are spilled, The air is no more sultry, but the wind Drives forward in the grass. The moor-fowl, chilled, Huddle and crouch in hollows water-lined. In the Grass. pee ae Then, all night long, grey spectres of the dark Fly onward overhead in strange disguise, With shriekings of the wind, and weird blue spark Lighting their myriad white hail-like eyes. But in the morning with a song the land Resumes the primal harmony of dawn ; A lark, the latest of its tuneful band, Into the heart of Paradise is drawn To sing that sweet and slender hymn that I Have heard so many ages ever new, Never the same, yet, as the world goes by, The same hymn steeped in sunlight and in dew. And sometimes in the reeds a feathered thing Will shyly peer about, as though it sought Some old forgotten love of kindred wing Amid the grass with last year’s dead leaves fraught. Sometimes a mouse will move, or spider thread His amber beads betwixt the sky and me, Sometimes a frozen swallow will fall dead, Sometimes the southern winds will bring a bee. I 50 : In the Grass. Or sometimes in the later autumn days A red-fanged rough retriever will come nigh, Threading the scent all through that reedy maze, And anxious, earnest, panting, pass me by. But oftenest the world is very still ; A light breeze o’er the land will break and shiver With musical low melancholy thrill Among the grasses and the reeds for ever. I ask no more. The liquid summer light About this poplar, when its leaves are green, The change, when glitteringly bare and white Its branches on the wintry blue are seen. All are but changes of delight to me, In each I lose myself, and live, and die, And rise upon the next with equal glee, Like one who feasts for ever with his eye. I ask no more. ‘The slender drooping grace Of stem and blade seen thus obliquely clear Suffice me while the moments interlace To minutes and the minutes to a year. In the Grass. 151 The centuries soon pass, and, while I live, The world, which without me were but a dream, Its changing image to my mind shall give,— One image and one aspect of its scheme. WIND AND CLOUD. GLIDING for ever by woodland and stream O’er the far forest-gloom and shadow, Spirit, or Motion-—whate’er thou seem— How do I know that thou dost not dream By thyself in the moonlit meadow ? Sliding alone through the dim-lit grove, Or held in the hair of the willow, How do I know thou dost not love The fleecy cloudlet floating above, Asleep on thy breast as a pillow? Cloudlet, fleeting beneath the moon, So white from the Western Ocean, Lovest thou not the whispered tune Wind and Cloud. 15 3 That He, thy Companion, late and soon, Murmurs with myriad emotion ? As, far below, o’er the tufted lawn Dead leaves before him are driven ; While thou art wafted, from dusk to dawn, In a veil of tender light withdrawn Amid the stars of heaven, SUMMER. DREAMING all day, as of old, in the far-off heights of the sky, The summer floats orbed in gold, while the hours speed silently by ; The clouds are clad as in dreams, and the air is girt with a sleep, And the sound of its swaying seems like the wistful sigh of the deep. The forests stand dark in the sun, and the meadows are bright between, All gathered and melted in one, like a veil of luminous sheen, Summer. 155 And rolled, as a wonderful weft, o’er the purple shoulder of Earth, Or a bridal vesture left from moments of music and mirth. So all is still in the vale, all silent aloft on the wold ; The trees have forgotten their tale, the mystical murmur of old ; All sound of music is done in sky and meadow and glade, And the whole wood sleeps in the sun, where the sunlight sleeps in the shade. The drowsy tips of the leaves are dipped in the heat, as a flood, And their idle dalliance weaves strange magic of sleep in the blood ; Through the tall grass spreadeth the spell and the hours are charmed to rest— O the spirit of Spring is well, but the silence of Summer is best. LH EMNVORLD Sein Ts LIKE soundless summer lightning seen afar, A halo o’er the grave of all mankind, O undefined dream-embosomed star, O charm of human love and sorrow twined: Far, far away beyond the world’s bright streams, Over the ruined spaces of the lands, . Thy beauty, floating slowly, ever seems To shine most glorious ; then from out our hands To fade and vanish, evermore to be Our sorrow, our sweet longing sadly borne, Our incommunicable mystery Shrined in the soul’s long night before the morn. Lhe World-Spirre. 157 Ah ! in the far fled days, how fair the sun Fell sloping o’er the green flax by the Nile, Kissed the slow water’s breast, and glancing shone Where laboured men and maidens, with a smile Cheating the laggard hours ; o’er them the doves Sailed high in evening blue; the river-wheel Sang, and was still ; and lamps of many loves Were lit in hearts, long dead to woe or weal. And, where a shady headland cleaves the hght That like a silver swan floats o’er the deep Dark purple-stained AXgean, oft the height Feit from of old some poet-soul upleap, As in the womb a child before its birth, Foreboding higher life. Of old, as now, Smiling the calm sea slept, and woke with mirth To kiss the strand, and slept again below. So, from of old, o’er Athens’ god-crowned steep Or round the shattered bases of great Rome, Fleeting and passing, as in dreamful sleep, The shadow-peopled ages go and come : 158 Lhe World-Spirit. Sounds of a far-awakened multitude, With cry of countless voices intertwined, Harsh strife and stormy roar of battle rude, Labour and peaceful arts and growth of mind. And yet, o’er all, the One through many seen, The phantom Presence moving without fail, Sweet sense of closelinked life and passion keen As of the grass waving before the gale. What art Thou, O that wast and art to be ? Ye forms that once through shady forest-glade Or golden light-flood wandered lovingly, What are ye? Nay, though all the past do fade, Ye are not therefore perished, ye whom erst The eternal Spirit struck with quick desire, And led and beckoned onward till the first Slow spark of life became a flaming fire. Ye are not therefore perished : for behold To-day ye move about us, and the same Dark murmur of the past is forward rolled Another age, and grows with louder fame Lhe Worla-Spirtt. 159 Unto the morrow: newer ways are ours, New thoughts, new fancies, and we deem our lives New-fashioned in a mould of vaster powers ; But as of old with flesh the spirit strives, And we but head the strife. Soon shall the song That rolls all down the ages blend its voice With our weak utterance and make us strong ; That we, borne forward still, may still rejoice, Fronting the wave of change. Thou who alone Changeless remainest, O most mighty Soul, Hear us before we vanish! O make known Thyself in us, us in thy living whole. 160 A MEMORY. 0 pe Farr friend, of the sweet hours that are no more, Canst thou not charm from chambers of the Past Those happy days of old, the summer wore Like roses in her emerald zone set fast ? The dawn returns o’er ocean-meadows blue, And still the moon in ancient splendour glows ; Alas, the mortal mind no magic knows To render back the joys that once it knew. Ah me! that day we sat, two souls in one, Couched in a rocky vale, the summer hours, And heard in trance the murmurous waters run, And saw the sunbeam sleep amid the flowers. A Memory. 161 A mighty boulder, cloven from the steep, Cast on the meadow-green its silent shade, Where we our pleasant rest together made Till day dipped downwards on the fields of sleep. From noon till eve the mountain shadows wheeled And slid from slope to slope and cleft the air, The hollow vale with laughing light was filled, Like sunny wine that brims a flagon fair. The barren crags gleamed moist with heavenly dew, Forthstreaming from a thousand rills of snow And dripping dark through mountain halls below Or leaping with the cataract into view. The clouds rode overhead, as in a dream, Piled high in shifting splendour grandly calm, Until, by magic moved, on us did seem To fall delicious sleep, like some sweet balm That steeps the soul in memories divine ; And Fancy, soaring high on wings of Love, Held revel in the heaven of hope above, Where dawned the daystar of my life and thine. M 162 A Memory. So were the happy hours that were ; but now Only sad echoes of sweet voices heard— Visions that flit along the rugged brow Of that broad-featured past : like some swift bird That touching slowly stirs a sleeping flood, And while its broad face brightens into smiles Is past already westward many miles, To where the red sun sinks in fire and blood. So pass the years, and ever in the past Old Nature smiles at us frail houseless things ; And if in love or in derision vast Men scarcely know ; alone thy memory brings To me a hope that cannot fail: a calm That spreads where else despair : for in thy soul I see the mould of Nature’s mirrored whole— One love, like thine, to shield mankind from harm. A HAWKWEED. Now midnoon through the woodland’s leafy screen Scarce throws a random ray ; the quiet gloom, Spaced out in beauty and sweet sense of room By beechen stems and slender tufts of green, Floats like transparent incense summer-warm Upon a deep moss floor. The fitful boom Of swift impatient bee breaks not the charm,— Yet lacking full completion, till an arm Of sunlight, pointing, lingers to illume A starlike weed, which poised in golden grace Breaks into light—the genius of the place. 164 BY STHEVMOUTH VORA EE AGNG: HeErg, where the crawling river seaward sets, And riverward the sea, about a land Laid under heaven in lonely flats of sand Saltblackened, where the sluggish water frets Its margin till marsh-deltas interlace In reedy desolation ; on each hand The long gray grasses shiver in their grace Through sun and shadow, till salt winds deface Their wasted beauty : here—by such a strand— Pale Shelley passed, and so his course did keep To sail Death’s unexplored and open deep. 165 SONG OF LOVE. ARISE ! the morning breaks; afar The white Dawn spreads her wings o’er darkened seas, And, robed in pearly light, upon the breeze Rides like a silver star : Through rosy clouds and emerald fields of sky Her gleaming forehead forward set And feet with foam of eastern oceans wet Hasten their flight on high ; And from her scarcely parted lips Softly o’er rock and woodland slips Love’s fragrance in a sigh. Arise ! about the ivy stirs the gale In gentle whispers to the summer morn, And to the bridal of the light is borne Earth’s sweetest incense. Thee we hail 166 Song of Love. O gracious Dawn, delight of all our days, And to thy praise Our voices rise to thee o’er hill and dale. This day is given to Love: the rose to-day Blushes a brighter hue: the lark on high Carols a fuller music, to allay A fuller ecstasy ; The sky is clothed in light from cloud to cloud, The whole Earth sparkles in the sun, And till the pleasant day is done All Nature sings aloud. Arise, my love ; all Nature sings to thee: Thine is her beauty, thine her breadth of light, And thine the calm of evening, and of night The nameless mystery. Her song is of thy grace for evermore ; It fills and overflows my ears, Hushing the harsh reverberating years With all unlovely lore To an enchanted tide of melody That rises still and falls within my heart, Till I too know myself a part Of thy Tranquillity. Song of Love. 167 Arise ! step outwards from the shade : To greet thy waking eyes were all things made, And, seeing thee, all forms that pass and fade Shall quicken into life and know That from eternity they flow In thy smile unafraid. Arise, my love ; O we are one, are one ; Fold, closer fold thine arms about my life, That I may find in thee through worlds of strife A calm distraught of none. Within my heart thou movest on for aye, A voice, a harmony divine : Where Nature holds her hidden inmost sway, Mixing thy soul with mine, I see thee boundless as the boundless deep, A pure soul flowing freely unto right, And dowered so with Nature’s changeless might Thy star-lit course to keep. Arise, O loved one ; with this only kiss I seal all future years to be Ours by most holy memory O f this, of this. 168 Song of Love. Together love shall crown us from the skies, Together lead us through the glad sunrise, Together fold us when the daylight dies In equal bliss. This day and all days flowing hence shall be Love’s and love’s only: He shall sing New life to us from everything— From cloud and tree, From cliff and mountain and the dreaming sea, From wind and waterfall, From Earth’s glad sounds, and all Her glorious interchange of harmony ; From the year’s gathered store of joy and woe, From all the future linked to all the past, And, where our lot is cast, From voices bright and forms that round us flow Swifter and swifter to the last ; Until as to the verge we run His very self through all shall shine Athwart the mists of earth, divine, And blend our souls in one. 169 A*PORTRAIT. I SCARCELY ever learnt to know her face, For still, whene’er I gazed, my thoughts would fly Backward through fields of memory, in chase | Of some faint flying gleam, some kindred grace Caught from a clearer sky. And yet I learnt to love the smile that fled From her sweet lips to nestle in her eye, I loved the clustered hair about her head, The thick dark masses which were wont to shed A darker mystery. I loved the marvel of her quiet days, Her free fair confidence of happy thought : As one who ever went about her ways Not careless, not o’er-careful of men’s praise, Nor envious of aught ; 170 A Portratt. O great was she in woman’s faith, and strong, And she was clothed about with woman’s love, Her life was but a part of one sweet song Which ever in low cadence moved along, And ever so shall move. So, as I gazed, my fetters fell to ground ; One moment like a bird uncaged I stood ; Then, soaring through th’ immeasurable round, My spirit scanned the starry depths and found In her its only good. a7 LOVES ISPARING. My days fled ever in mechanic round, Enclosed within itself my spirit slept, Till Thou didst dash my dreams; then from the ground, Dark, cold, and dank with night, I leapt, And saw the circling mountain-banners blaze In that new-risen glory ; saw the plains Roll forth from cloud to catch the slanting rays That glittered in fresh-fallen rains. So, like an ocean moon-led of high Love, My life swept outward from its rock-bound shore, Nor knew of any joy except to move Calm in thy smile for evermore ; 172 Love's Spring. And as a bird, wooed by the charm of Spring, Unfolds its tender music to the air, Since Thou charm’st me to life, I can but sing For very joy that thou art there. 173 SONG. FarE thee well, my only fairest, Far from sadness fare thy way ; Though with thee my heart thou bearest, Fairest, fare thee well for aye. Thee no thought of grief embarrass, Faithlessness of friend or foe, Love consume, nor hatred harass, W heresoe’er on earth thou go. Me alone thou leavest stricken, Done to death this weary day ; So until the new life quicken, Fairest, fare thee well for aye. 174 SONG. Love, one summer day, Sitting on a spray, High in the liquid air did frame his note ; All the woods were still, Shepherds on the hill Stayed when they heard the echoes fall and float. And the voice of Love So the earth did move That the broad swelling hills did clasp and kiss ; And the tender sky, Quivering on high, Stooped as to listen to that song of his. And the singer sang Till his music rang Song. 175 Loud, louder yet, that fading land around ; And did softly steep All the world in sleep, Tull heaven itself grew faint with fragrant sound. 176 SUNG. THROUGH, through and through, Shuttle and thread Fly, till the silver woof And warp are wed. Through, through and through, Stars on their way Weave, till their golden flight Fades with the day. Through, through and through, Mortal steps run, Kiss, interlace, and cross, Under the sun. Song. Wag As the web’s wove Apart they fly: Memory alone and love, Love cannot die. AS ROUND A LIGHTHOUSE. TO——. As round a lighthouse swept of sea and air The waves plunge many fathom deep, and flow Unresting o’er the rocky base below, And glimmer shifting in the fitful glare ; So great unrest about thy heart doth go, So deep a flood of turbulent despair. Stand true, O tender heart and strong, stand true : For I, who steer alone across the deep, By thee, unknown of thee, my course must keep O’er the foam-crested fields for ever new ; And thou, alone, unknowing, on the steep, Must watch the waves with ruin all bestrew. As round a Lighthouse. 179 Not overnear to thee my course may run ; Yet pray I, somewhere on the bitter tide Thy beam the shuddering night for me divide, And show the heart-red splendour of thy sun Reorient with delight upon the wide Waters of gloomy death when life is done. 180 SLEEPS WP EL Vigo 1 ie are SLEEP, sweetly sleep, while I watch over thee, O well-beloved, beneath the falling night; Be hushed, O winds, through glade and grove and isCe, Weave silence into sweetest melody While I watch with delight. Sleep, sweetly sleep ; and let thy softest breath All trustfully steal forth unto the stars, And give mine ear assurance glad that saith,— No evil end that is akin to Death This peaceful vision mars. No, thou shalt wake ; and though I know full well The years shall dart between in weary dance, Sleep, Sweetly Sleep. 181 Yet more I know—what none can clearly tell— That though the strident bolts and bars of Hell Work utmost severance, I still to thee from age to age shall grow, Thy name with new delight for ever twined, Till in the distant rift that none yet know Thy life athwart my life may inly flow, And we be one in mind. So Hope, that still is king when all else dies, And Love, from whose large glory Hope is born, Fix fast the happy star within my eyes That shall not fade away until there rise An universal morn. Then sweetly sleep ! Earth, hold thy treasure fast ; Sing, planets, marshalled round in glorious state ; A whisper steals to me across the vast To which I gladly bow my head at last : I am content to wait. 182 IHREN IES ES Au! when [ think of thee, and how my life Is set apart from thine that is so pure, So much to be desired, on my soul’s strife There comes a calm ; for then I am most sure God is, in whom our sundered days draw nigh, —FElse were’t not good to live or gain to die. 183 PTE COMPLAINT OF FOR. CHAPS SLL O PERISH the day I was born, and the night when my mother conceived ; Let that day be darkness, let God regard it no more from on high ; Let fear fright it back to the gloom, and let it no more be reprieved From the shadowy challenge of death and clouds that about it lie. O let it no more rejoice with the light-footed days of the year, Let the pale moon know it no more, let it not be reckoned as one ; 184 The Complacnt of Fob. O curse it all ye that curse the day! let that night be dear To them that pray to the Dragon that preys on the light of the Sun. Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark ; let it long for the day, And know it not, nor behold the fragrant eyelids of morn, Since it shut not the doors of the womb when my mother in travail lay, Nor hid mine eyes from the dawning light of sorrow and scorn. Why died I not from the womb, nor gave life back to the deep? . O why was I nursed on the knee, and suckled so well at the breast ? For now should I long have lain in quiet and folded in sleep, And gathered of old to the great assembly of them that rest : | The Complaint of F ob. 185 With judges and kings of earth in their pyramid-sepul- chres lone, With mighty princes that stuffed their tombs with treasures of worth ; So had I not been; so had I sweet peace and no- thingness. known, As infants that never saw light, as a hidden untimely birth. Ah! there do the wicked cease from troubling, the weary rest ; The prisoners rest together, they hear not the tyrant’s word. Both small and great are there, the oppressor with | the opprest ; But the small man hath not fear, the servant is free from his lord. O wherefore is sweet life given to a soul in bitterness clad? And wherefore light unto him whom sorrow and darkness hold? 186 Lhe Complaint of $ 0b. Who waiteth for death all day, and seeing the grave is glad ; But finds it not though he dig for it more than hid treasures of gold. O wherefore light unto him whose way is wasted with gloom, Whom God hath girt with a hedge, that he cannot or see or think ? O wherefore light unto me, or meat for my life, to whom Sighing comes sooner than bread and weeping quicker than drink? For even all things that I feared have alighted on me from the air: I have nought of rest, or peace or quiet, but trouble is there. BAER EVERNEW. I WALK as one who, walking through the night From village unto village far withdrawn, Sees here and there a light and men who wake With confused murmur growing unto dawn. And suddenly the birds start into song, And cart-wheels creak along the flinty ways, And men are in the field, and lights are out, While the first sunbeam fills the air with praise. So louder, as I wander through the world, Sounds that glad anthem of the glimmering day, And lamps of men that grope within the dark Flash quick and quicker through the morning grey, 188 The Evernew. Ere they grow dim. O glance a thousandwise Through cold airs wreathing round my brow, Ye heralds of a sun, before whose face, ° The whiles ye fade, men hasten forth to bow. Pi MAG de Tue Child sprang into life, and smote At his first breath with bitter note Against the bounds of self ; and saw The myriad world, informing awe, So stern and solid-seeming roll With anguish on his ignorant soul, He feared and shrank. But, as a boy, He leapt, with some quick sense of joy And boisterous rude bravery, His right of heaven-born liberty And kingship o’er the world to prove ; And won. Him, thus self-centred, Love Kissed on the lips, and lightly drew As in a dream his whole soul through ; I90 A Life And left him nevermore the same, But, smiting with his mighty flame, Showed all creation, lower and higher, Transparent with that inward fire. And so on him, the man, there stole The gracious mystery of the soul : First formless, then with sudden force, The vision of the universe Unbodied, insubstantial, grown, And on the fading image thrown, A magic light, that came and went, And now, where’er his looks were bent, Leapt blinding with bright visions, now Waxed dim and died, he knew not how. But when the man was old, he said: O mighty Father, who hast led My feeble life with kindly hand Through all this visionary land,— Teacher and Guardian of my lot Still most when most I knew it not,— Now that, once more a little child, I to thy Will am reconciled, A Life Nor e’er again of grief or fear Can dream, since I behold thee near ;— Father, I pray thee, take once more The soul that erst thy Sorrow bore In pains of Love ; and let me fall Backward, with gladness at Thy call, Unto thy Being’s depth. Behold, E’en now thine infinite arms enfold And I escape not ; for the air Breathes with thy breath amid my hair ; The myriad links of force, that draw My sinews with the central law, Are still but thine ; Thou from the sky Drawest ever nigher and more nigh, And down the avenues of sense Glidest with ceaseless influence. Nay, though the sense itself grow dead, The fountain fails not at the head, And in its secret source I feel Thy spirit o’er my spirit steal For ever closer, with the kiss Of undiminished life and bliss. Yea now I weary, let me rest Calm in the haven of thy breast ; IOI 192 A Life. The world grows distant in mine ears ; Father, to thee my soul’s star nears ; And Thou that gav’st me utterance since birth, Take back my failing frame, O ancient mother Earth. THE SNOWDROP. LIKE a flame o’er earth and ocean Broke the free tumultuous day, Waking into glad commotion Every budding spear and spray. ‘Spring is here, winter is over,’ Sang the lark, and soared on high; ‘Earth shall purple be with clover Soon, beneath a summer sky.’ Then a snowdrop, pale with pleading, Passionate with intense light, Sprang where Spring’s sweet feet were treading, ‘Like a herald angel white. O 194 The Snowdrop. Quoth the lark: ‘ All heaven is ringing, For the cruel frost is gone ; Snowdrop, when the birds are singing, Why art thou 80 pale and wanP ‘Upward to the triumph splendid Shouldst thou lift a laughing face, But thy tear-crowned head is bended To the ground in lowly grace.’ And the snowdrop answered : ‘ Given, I had wings of thine to soar From the fields of earth to heaven, I would dream of grief no more ; ‘But, alas! my frame is slender, At best shapen for a sigh ; If I should behold this splendour I have prayed for, I should die ; ‘For my feet are closely holden In the darkness of my grave, And though visions of the golden Summer round my spirit wave, Lhe Snowdrop. 195 “Yet I know that I shall perish Ere those happy days arise, And the visions that I cherish Shall be shown to other eyes. ‘Beit so. And since for others All my fancies are fulfilled, I am glad ; for we are brothers, I will live as God has willed. ‘And I feel that somewhere for me Joy fulfils itself on high ; But I look not on this glory I have prayed for, lest I die.’ 196 ON BARC IROCLX: IN THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN LATERAN, ROME. STILL, still they crucify thee, O great Christ. They took thee from thy cross on Calvary, And nailed thee in a splendid place unpriced Of malachite and gold and porphyry. They counted all the wounds thy body bore, They measured all the hours of misery, On spear and reed and sponge they set great store : Still, still they crucify thee, gentle Christ. They used thy name, because thou wast so meek, To be the watchword of all godless pride ; Because thou wast so gracious to the weak, They held thy flaming cross up far and wide, On a Crucifix. 197 A curse and terror in the common street To poor and ignorant and world-untried, And then they came and crouched and kissed thy feet, With folded hands and lips slavish and sleek. Still, still they crucify thee, who didst say Suffer the little ones to come to me, Whose heart with love beguiled the beaten way, And made all men behold thee joyfully ; For now they wave away the vulgar crowd, No simple child of man may come nigh thee : With obscure rites and incantations loud They crucify thy love fresh every day. Once, where the churches offer stones for bread, And in their Holy Place call darkness light, ‘Thy sun-like truth-revealing presence shed Shame on each false and Pharisaic rite ; Till, as thy lustre more intensely shone, They took thee from thy chosen lowly site, And set thee for their own especial sun, And called thee by the name of Church’s Head. cas] TOOT On a Crucifix. And now, when in an aisle loud trumpets bray, And facing thee the priests go to and fro, And, distanced off, the kneeling people pray And breathe thy name in trembling accents low : High o’er the incense and the altar cloud, Afar, and folded in thine own great woe, Alone, thy head in deep dejection bowed, Great Christ, they crucify thee every day. Thy face is turned aside from all that scene, Thine eyes are weary of their age-long gaze, Thy frame is worn, thy shrunken limbs grow lean, Thou seem’st to tremble at the song of praise ; For here, and in thy name, the evil word, The ban, the curse, and damning pious phrase, Century after century were heard, Christ, as if thou their Counsellor hadst been. So long? ‘These twice ten hundred years, O Christ? Hath no one yet come near to lift thee down ? Hath no one yet thy holy spirit priced Above the three nails and the thorny crown ? On a Crucifix. 199 Thy seamless robe the Roman soldiers took, But these have woven thee another gown Of all thy bitter shame and sharp rebuke Wherein to crucify thee still, great Christ. Slowly the days run on, the time is long, The kneeling generations come and go, Thy word is to them as an empty gong, They look upon thee, but they do not know. Thine arms, wide-spread for all the world’s embrace, Are empty evermore of friend or foe, Still, still set stiff and rigid in their place, And straightened back from love with rivets strong. Ah, surely in the seeming endless years Some momentary glance hath gladdened thee, Some smile of recognition reached through tears Hath shed light on thy later Calvary. Yet is thy love more like a thing untold, To stay and suffer still so patiently, By suffering to overcome the cold Heart of estrangement of thy loved compeers. 200 On a Crucifix. And now, the end, what is it? For each day The magic ceremonious circle, drawn Betwixt thee and the people, doth betray Less room for love and more for serge and lawn ; The world grows weary seeking thee in vain, And leaves thee to the priests, who self-withdrawn In secret pride find popular disdain And pitiful desertion and dismay. The Papal pride has triumphed : it has set Itself for thee. The world has turned away. The Papal pride has fallen. Wilt thou yet Remain to lead us in this later day? Or will thy name, as something that is not, Pass from the ears of men unlearned to pray, Thy centuries of suffering forgot, Thy love to men for evermore unmet ? Ah! greater is thy love than this, great Christ. Thou givest, but thou askest not again ; And though our wayward worship be enticed To other shrines, thy spirit shall remain, On a Crucifix. , 201 Unknown, to breathe upon us purer life, Refine us with the flame of earthly pain, Until, our hearts with thine no more at strife, We learn how not to crucify thee, Christ. ARO: THE GREAT PEEPSHOW. < WaLk up! walk up! This way to see the world ! Scant time allowed, must make the best of it : Seventy years or so: your hair’ll be curled Before that, though, with two or three sights fit To set your eyes wide open—if you’ve wit, That is to say, to win in the great strife For bare existence ’gainst each brother chit— To keep one eye upon the slide of life, As ’twere an instant, ere death hood you with his coif. Il. Walk up! walk up! Well, you’re a stranger now ; But that won’t last. It’s excellent rare fun Up here ; but as we’ve much to see, allow Me to begin at once. Now, there’s the Sun. The Great Peepshow. 203 Where you come from I doubt that there was one Or aught to match it ; ’tis too far to touch, But has its use, natheless, which is to run From end to end of heaven, and give rays such As may suffice to warm and light our earthly hutch. LIT. It shines by day and is obscured at night— A capital arrangement, such as I Should have suggested if the Infinite Had asked my counsel. If you ask me why, ’Tis clear ’twould not have suited men to lie Abed with sun full-orbed at midnight blaze And work their days by gaslight. We descry Throughout these things the providential ways, And are prepared in all to render them due praise. IV. Walk up ! walk up! There’s plenty more to see By this said sun’s rays—simple and sublime. The world’s a show which is, you'll all agree, The greatest ever advertised in rhyme,— 204 Lhe Great Peepshow. We've had the management of it some time And can explain it fully ;—and to-day ’Tis not too much to say ’tis in its prime ; Admission free—that is, if you obey Our fatherly direction, there is nought to pay. Vv. Move with the rest, and do not stop to gaze Too long or closely. All is very good : So the Creator said—in some amaze At his own skill. Besides, in any mood, Doubting or not, ’tis deemed a little rude To look a gift-horse in the mouth. Move on: And thank your planets—as indeed you should— That you have got such good advice to con, For which the world were worthy visiting, alone. VI. Your eyes are caught at first by empty shows— Bright colours, smiling faces, forms of grace. To chase gold butterflies by green hedgerows, = To play regardless both of time and space The Great Peepshow. ° 205 In unrestricted freedom, and to race Propriety and prudence out of breath, Seem pleasant and surprisingly in place In this fair world where, as the preacher saith, What profits he that works in that he laboureth? VII. But look around you, and you'll soon perceive Your judgment is at fault, and, once for all, ’Tis best surrender freedom and not grieve, But bend your neck demurely to the thrall— Remembering the weak must take the wall. And get by rote, if not by heart, the themes Which age and ancient custom learning call, And leave enthusiastic youthful dreams, To labour for what is and not for that which seems. VIII. Such labour profits. Since it pleased the Lord To shut us out of Paradise, the sweat Of each man’s brow alone secures reward (His or another’s) ; and we need not fret. 206 - Lhe Great Peepshow. The bargain’s just, for if we do not get Interest, we get profits, which are more. Life’s interest is Nature’s secret, set In untrod plains, and if all pleasant lore Is there, Knowledge and Life,—an Eden-land whereo'er IP. The sun of freedom shines—still, here is gold, Which, after all, surpasses any sun : For without light were nothing to behold, But without this is nothing to be done. Therefore seek first for gold, and therefore shun Unthrifty habits or excessive vice : Honesty’s best policy in the long run, Dishonour ruins credit in a trice, And virtue, being its own reward, thus pays you twice 2a Yet all with moderation. We, who came Into the world and learned our lesson flush Ere you were thought of, have the prior clain. In law as well as profits. Do not push! The Great Peepshow. 207 As if gold were the very flaming bush. Order ! If there’s not room, why, ‘some must wait ; First comers first: ’tis just. And I’ll not blush To say I’ve tarried yearlong for a great Opening which now the due rotation brings—though late. ae Nay, do not push. Ah! Vengeance on you all ! Tis lost. What greediness !—a vulgar crowd Pressing and trampling forward—lI shall fall. Help ! hear me! Here is hard cash : I’m not proud. In vain. All lost. Before my eyes a cloud Hides the great show, the scene becomes obscure. I could have wished that chance had been allowed ; But no, the risk of limb outweighed the lure,— And, taking all in all, the show’s a little poor. XII. Adieu. See how they fight! So has it been Since the beginning, as if unaware The panorama’s but a shifting scene, And all its wonders only empty air. 208 Lhe Great Peepshow. Hear me, my friends. Believe me that I bear No grudge against you, but would have you know, For your own good, the lust of gold’s a snare. The world’s no shop, but only a peepshow : What’s seen or handled you surrender when you go. XIII. Carry him out! more room ! come up behind! One peephole vacant ! now the show’s at height. Strange, that our predecessors—though not blind— Ne’er fully saw or understood the sight, Withal so anxious to display their light For our illumination! But away : Our time for all such questioning is quite Too limited. Enough, while yet ’tis day, To use the precious hours. Let night come when it may. 209 Per CARPENTER AND THE KING. A CARPENTER upon a day Did call upon a King ; The King exclaimed : ‘The Queen’s away, Can I do anything ?’ ‘You can,’ the Carpenter replied, ‘I want a bit of bread.’ | ‘Why ?’ cried the King ; the fellow sighed : ‘I’m hungry, sire,’ he said. ‘Dear me! I'll call my Chancellor, He understands such things ; Your claims I cannot cancel, or Deem them fit themes for kings. IE. 210 Lhe Carpenter and the King. ‘Sir Chancellor, why here’s a wretch Starving—like rats or mice!’ The Chancellor replied : ‘T’ll fetch The Steward in a trice.’ The Steward came, and by his look You might have guessed he’d shirk ; Said he : ‘ Your Majesty’s mistook, This is the Butler’s work.’ The Butler said the case was bad, But quite beyond his power, Seeing it was the Baker had The keys of cake and flour. The Baker called,—‘ The keys I’ve lost,’ He wept ; ‘but in a span Y’ll call the Carp why, Holy Ghost ! Here is the very man.’ ‘Hurrah ! hurrah !’ they loudly cried, ‘ How cleverly we’ve done it ! We've solved this question deep and wide Well nigh ere we’d begun it.’ The Carpenter and the King. 211 ‘Thanks !’ said the Carpenter ; ‘meanwhile Go moulder on the shelf: The next time I am starving I'll Take leave to help myself.’ #2 ee LAETLOCOMOLIVE, WitH a rush and a roar, thro’ the wind and the rain, I flash in the light and vanish again, Where dim to the passenger through the wet pane A wayside station appears. ‘Tis night : all is silent and still. With a scream I waken the signalman out of his dream ; And his lamps like the flash of a meteor seem To the passenger wight as he peers. Then forward, with flaming front and a bound, I leap on the dark and devour the ground, And the night recedes in front and around, And closes upon me behind ; | Where, caught in a terrible whirlwind of wheels, The earth falls dizzily backward and reels The Locomotive. And rises in clouds of dust on my heels, With dead leaves blown on the wind. On, into the night, through echoing arch And loud resounding tunnel I march ; By misty forests of fir and larch, And over the wind-swept ndge ; And the passenger-mortal, as morning appears, Half wakes in a world of indefinite fears And drowsily falls back asleep as he hears The sound of my feet on the bridge. A thousand shocks are shattered to one As over the resonant metals I run With a storm of sounds enough to stun The ears of a marble bust. A swerve, a slip, and that slender life Is shorn asunder as with a sharp knife, Or battered from knowledge of brother or wife, And cast away in the dust. Yet I am not I to will this thing, But man arose like a masterful king, iS) G2 214 Lhe Locomotive. Put fire for my heart, a wheel for wing, And breathed his breath in my mouth ; And bade me hurry at his behest With eager feet forgetful of rest To bear him for ever from East to West, To bear him from North to South. So whenever I faint, or falter, or tite. I feel and know in my heart the fire Of man my master’s fierce desire Impels me forward again. Let him cling to me now as best he can, But blame me not if I be his ban, For since I was made the servant of man T am unmindful of men. A DTON 6 ORES of Wirt lifted head and high prophetic mouth Half-opened, in the days of nations’ drouth She gave her voice to heaven ; and all the land Stood round expectant, as the people stand To hear a Sibyl speak of peace or war. So in those summer days did she declare Rain upon Earth ; and as the people prayed Long, loudly and prophetically brayed. o ONLY A SMILE. ONLY a smile, from one of a crowd, Because the world was rainy and loud, And the wind ran gustily down the street With buffeting dance of boisterous ice Only a smile, but passing sweet, For the world was rainy and loud. Only a smile, not anything more, For further response the rude wind bore High out of our reach. Yet unto us straight The strong world stooped, as a slave, in its state, At the token of that which is passing great, A smile, not anything more, — Peewee LLOWSTIP OF HUMANITY. As one who, late at eve returning home Under the stars, hears on the common road A fellow-footstep fall, and sees one come Dimly, he knows not whom, nor'can forebode ; But cries to him ‘God speed thee,’ and is glad Hearing his restful answer through the night, And dreams of love, and though his heart be sad Feels darkly some strange instinct of delight : So Ito thee. Ifon this earthly way Our paths had lain together, I perchance In the sweet sunlight had beheld thy day And known thee as thou art—as in a trance,— (218 = Lhe Fellowship of fLumanity. And loved thee, and thou me. But seeing now Sad night compels us, and our way 1s won Though ignorance and blindness to the brow Of that fair mountain of the morning Sun Whence Truth is manifest, let us remain In word and action strangers, yet in heart One and well-known by every joy and pain That makes divine our little human part. 219 THE FELLOWSHIP OF SUFFERING. O weary child of man, O mortal friend, Afar, unseen, by road or river bend, By mountain, plain, or city, still the same, Human, unfriended, with the piercing flame Of endless sorrow in thine aching heart : Hear me, for unto thee my spirit yearns ; Touch me, behold me, where the twilight t Uplifting white arms to the tireless morn: Hear me, for in thy torment I am torn ; Hear me, for in thy passion I have part. O child, O child, how sadly sang the world Its old old song of keen cold carelessness, How blindly blew the wind of loneliness About thy soul in frozen garments furled ; 220 Lhe Fellowship of Suffering. How with pale speechless lips and wan didst pace Crushing beneath thy days that deadly feud ; How to the bitter wall didst turn thy face, Glad from the glances of the multitude. Ah! here or there ; the same sad song of woe, More desolate than world-despair or death, The cry of souls the cruel sun severeth, The moan of love to madness smitten low, Ah, here or there ; the same sad end of things, The same fond fruitless ineffectual life, High-feathered hope and passionate pulse of wings, Chill sorrow, failure, and despairing strife. Behold ! beyond the mountains of the West, Where sparkle white domes of the purple hills, The light of evening Earth’s broad bosom fills And like a golden dove broods o’er her breast, And fades, afar—for you and me, afar,— Shared token of our common deep desire, Which fadeth not, but like a beacon-star Devours the darkness of our hearts with fire. aah THE DIVINE SORROW. To-mMorROw, when the sun is sunken, And the seawave ebbs afar, If thy heart be cold and shrunken And thy hope too like a star That glitters faintly, glitters coldly, In the farthest fields of space, While the night airs, blowing boldly, Bring their cloudy train apace ; If the seeming sad insistance Of the years oppress thy soul, As from distance unto distance, Past and future, still they roll ; 222 The Divine Sorrow. And thy forward glances eager Aid not, nor the backward cast, Seeing all is mute and meagre— And the future as the past ; If in all this fate betide thee That no voice hath called thee ‘friend,’ Nature bitterly belied thee From the wretched end to end ; Even so grieve not, for only So shalt thou divine the deep And the height ; find for the lonely Love, and tears for them that weep. 222 PHE-DIVINE LOVE. CHILD, the hours that breathe around thee Know thee most divinely fair ; 7 In its love the last enwound thee, And the next shall take thy hair Backward from thy forehead’s whiteness While upon thy lips it fold Kisses, love-endued with lightness Lest thou guess what none have told. Though thou seest not nor knowest, Love about thee, day by day, Dwells and, whereso’er thou goest, Walks beside thee all the way ; 224 Lhe Divine Love. Tenderly his glances greet thee, And his words about thee weave ; Even the winds and waters meet thee Always, only, by love’s leave. Yea, though none can shape or show it, Though no mortal logic prove, Love himself doth surely know it : Thou shalt, when thou knowest Love. to to Cn THE -ANGEL OF DEATH—AND LAL: I cat thee in all hours of life and death - Friend, whom the days hide and the months and years Darken before my face: I call and cry Still, as of old time, ere the morning star Mounts in the moonlit heavens; and still, ere dawn Visits the vale of sleep, I call to thee. _ Friend, like a stranger loved and known before, Or brother long forgot, with intricate World-written countenance, obscure to read, Yet flashing ancient meanings : thou, for whom, Morning and night, with ever-new desire, I, waiting, watch without the gates of Time, If haply at length thy vagrant feet efface The way of our estrangement : yea, O thou, Q ¥ to 26 The Angel of Death—and Life. Who in that way’s delay decipherest These words of my great need, I call to Thee. O wilt thou hear me: know that night by night I dwell beside thee, and before the dawn Touch thy loved forehead with my lips, and fill With joy each hour of waking. Evernear I gaze upon thee as thou goest forth ‘To each day’s due encounter ; step by step, And hour by hour, each stroke of all thy work Wears out the world to more transparency Between us. Even now the flinty way, Flaming beneath thy feet, is grown like glass ; My glance is on thee from the well-turned field, The mill, the net, the loom, and woven stuff, From desk and counter and rock-quarried gold, Waste seas and stormbeat headlands, and from all The faces of thine enemies in the fight— strike home: the stroke is fair for me and thee. Nay, from these words I spring to meet thy soul, Vhich else were lonely in the world of men ; ) take them as the token of a love Vithin, without thee, Lord and minister, Lhe Angel of Death—and Life. 22% Unknown, of all thy actions, until death Reveal it, visual, thine, the perfect life. Yea, now I call to Love that is in thee, And cry, as one that sees her shadow pass And the lamp flash, waiting without the house For his fair one at the window: O come forth, That I may see thee as thou art, and hear Thy hidden thought, and hold thy very self In presence undisturbed. Thou art descried : Thy light is beauty and can not be hid ; But, through the tangle of frail purposes That fringe the lattice windows of thy life, Shines to perpetual promise. Fear thou not. Ay, though I come clad grimly as for war, In brazen heat or scaly northern cold, By rock or river, famine, hatred, fire ; _ Though J assail thee at the cannon’s mouth, Or drag thee down to listless years of pain, Arise thou, and with forehead unabashed Come forth, and so confront me. In that day, Thine eyes, beholding mine, within their depths Shall see, resurgent from the past, all forms Of long-lost joy and lovely memory, Q2 228 The Angel of Death—and Life. All faces and fair smiles of time, set forth And forward in the future ; all else fled. O stand and conquer so: for see, I touch Thee through this outer world, in the hot Sun I slay thee with my lips, all day to thee I whisper in the Light, and to myself Desirous draw thee in the Lightning flash, Arrayed in death. Arise and vanquish me : Grasp firm my tangled hair, brandish thy sword, Breathe heavily thy hot breath in my ears, And I will yield; and thou shalt know that Love Stands ever by thy side though Life and Death, Signing allegiance of a thousand hearts That still are One. O hear my voice once more. I am with thee. Rise up, thy duty calls ; Pass down into the world ; I am with thee. > ; : = os J< < ? % ‘ = ad 5 z . E —s ; - "3 “ iw a 5 a oa ‘ . _ a Fo a . mie . ~ 2 J —— : = ay 3 : ~ - Ce ee ee 4 7 2% -~ _— < oe iy a 4 cy \ a a ji ir > © a ee © rae y - pay = = os " iy e 7 * hans ri smh eee fae ~ - ad eared ae - 5 é me =—s-! / — oS * sf - : ee ‘ — =o ee GENOA. WHERE Genoa spreads white arms crescent-wise, Her feet o’er well-packed bale and polished spar Step on the quay with men of every star. Her heart stays with her people ; but her eyes From those high garden-terraces devise New realms of peaceful conquest, where afar Ocean’s white horses at the harbour bar Wait ever for their rider to arise. Here boy Columbus stood, and o’er the blue Immeasurable fields imagined new. Here young Mazzini, while for men he yearned, Another world within their eyes discerned— The one Republic without place or date. So both for men lived,—and died execrate. IDE BEETHOVEN. BETWIXT the actual and unseen, alone, Companionless, deaf, in dread solitude Of soul amid the faithless multitude, He lived, and fought with life, and held his own ; Knew poverty, and shame which is not shown, Pride, doubt, and secret heart-despair of good,— Insolent praise of men and petty feud ; Yet fell not from his purpose, framed and known. For, as a lonely watcher of the night, When all men sleep, sees the tumultuous stars Move forward from the deep in squadrons bright, And notes them, he through this life’s prison bars Heard all night long the spheric music clear Beat on his heart,—and lived that men might hear. Te Pee ORIEM Ff. DD: MAURICE. So day by day my life, thus nearer drawn Down the dark avenues unto the dawn, Cries to Thee : O Lord, Lord of life and death, Whom from our gaze the sad night sundereth, Reveal Thyself; be unto us no more A darkly felt thick darkness by the shore ; But like the wind, that wingeth cold and clear Before the dawn by meadow-land and mere, Blow on us ; scatter from our sickly brains The feverish fancies that ill conscience feigns ; Raise us to stand like men to meet the strife, Fearless and grand, because within thy life Our lives are hidden,—as is his to-day, Thy servant who from sight hath passed away. April 1872. (i) ow) af IV. WILLIAM SMITH (AUTHOR OF ‘ THORNDALY,’ ETC.) SUCH courage in so sensitive a frame Had given the world rebuke, but that it came In such light exquisite companionship Of gentle glance and laughter-loving lip That few, beholding, could forebode the force Wherewith that inward current kept its course In wave-like large emotion, calm and free, Towards Truth, the high compelling deity. So when, obedient to the heavenly guide, Night-long the sea with stedfast-flowing tide Rises along the land and searches o’er Each bay and inlet of its bounding shore, The moving goddess doth her empire trace In lines of silver laughter on its face. We TVSCRIBED ON A GRAVE: TO THE READER. O cuiLp of light and shadow: though I pass, The mountains and the plains where we two played Our part of earthly pleasance still are laid Out in the open world of sun and grass,— For thy fruition. Not in stone or brass Seek any sign of me. Let no tear braid Thy light-fringed lids because my path is made Beyond the bounds thy sight cannot surpass. Turn thee again unto the sunlit plain, Let all pure influences of the air And sweet sad fellowship of mortal pain Wreathe round thy head immortal fancies fair. Where’er suns rise on men or late moons wane, I leave thee at this stone to meet thee there. to Gs Or VI. DEATH. SINCE, small or great, and every man on earth, Must know thee at the last, thy lonely gloom Is bright with something of diviner birth— The lamp of human love, that o’er our doom Sheds undivided radiance. For in this Our modern world of finely graded life, The soul is nursed knowing nothing of the bliss Of sorrow borne, since human. In this strife Of complex individual interests Poor man and princely, side by side, share not One pain or passion of a common lot, Till death, more liberal than life, invests All men alike in his wide winding-sheet, And in that suit of sorrow makes them meet. WIT: Tuy presence is the sun. Yet since the swift Insistance of strong fate compels me turn My face unto the land where I shall learn By loss of thee the value of Love’s gift ; Since in the sky thy light no more shall lift Its beam afront, but on my shoulder burn Like some familiar hand which may not earn Answer of look or smile by any shift ;— I lose thee ; but not wholly. For I see Thy light fall past me down the shining ways On all this happy land of grass and tree And cloud, which takes thy semblance from its rays, Where’er th’ invisual sun of memory Upon the actual world about me plays. 220 VIIL. SINCE, in thine hour of sorrow, unto thee Came sweet remembrance of the summer sea And one who sat beside it—in his eyes The far-off thought of sea and summer skies : Since in thine heart the visionary gleam Of one half-wasted life, more like a dream, Pale in its pleading, stood to be the sign Of Love, as Love is, passionate, divine: Ah! since in all this world no fuller sound Than my faint spirit’s utterance was found Bidding thee cherish hope : so let it be. Behold, beyond the summer and the sea I utter not myself, but am His voice Who bids all Nature live, and thee rejoice. IX. TuHoucHu I should never see thy face again, Thy love in my remembrance shall remain Purer than driven snow, than flameless fire More stedfastly intense, than silver lyre More sweetly magic-laden, than young mirth More reckless of the sordid rules of earth, More simple than the daisy in the grass, Whereby a weary traveller doth pass Nor knoweth, till he haply thinks thereon, What wealth of subtle grace his heart hath won. Fairer than all of these, thy love to me Seems so surpassing fair that I would be Endued with every grace, and for thy sake From each fond thought of thee fresh beauty — ly oe eee Lve ne SEVERANCE. My life thy life unto itself doth fold Closer than death. My soul clasps all of thine, As in the bud rose-petals intertwine Before the light divides them. I behold Deep in the mystic shadow-caverns shine Thine image on the fire-fed sources cold Whereby my spirit dwells ; and with the old Foreboding unforgotten, dream divine, Thou dost disturb me. Yet the dim-lit day Dawns down between us, staring face to face, Strange as the stormy Atlantic ; with swift pace We tread the track which sets our steps astray ; Thy lips are mute ; mine move not; evermore I wait and wearily knock at Death’s dark door. 241 GE wuUed FAINE SOUL. SLEEP on, O soul! O delicate soul, sleep ! Thy life is calm and thickly fenced from care, Thy couch is soft, and roses scattered there Nurse thy quick senses while the night hours creep. Around thee sway dim shadows of the deep, Around thee circle sounds and visions fair, And rise and wave their arms, and lull thee, where Thou dreamest, ever deeply hid in sleep. Vainly for thee the morning spreads her bright Broad belt of heaven about the eastern shore ; Vainly for thee earth’s fragrant odours pour In clouds of incense up the arch of night. Dream on, for eyes thou hast and canst not see ; Sleep on, O delicate soul, endlessly. 242 Og ie LETTER GE See bad Lele HERE, where the warm sun circles thy shght frame, As water holds a swimmer in the sea, And thousand sparkling beams from grass and tree Exalt thy life and gird thee with the flame Of Nature’s vigour: here, in Nature’s name And God’s, stretch high thy hands and wide, to be Th’ acceptance of this nobler unity ; Nor fear henceforth, For higher is this claim, And worthier, than thine own life’s ; therefore feel Its vibrant influence down thy fingers creep, Rejoicing ; for thee let each sunbeam seal God’s kiss upon thy lips ; and if the sleep Of weary limbs the way of Death reveal, ’Tis God himself who calls from deep to deep. Ne) aS Go ALY LPT CLIO END Ir shall be. Although far away the sound Dies in the infinite silence of the sky, Although obscure, and hid in the profound, Our days stream outwards, onwards, and pass by. It shall be. Behold, a new world is made Out of the old, and the old dieth not ; For though the mountain-forms and flowers fade, Ageless remains the far-informing Thought. Ah! when this troublous dream and mortal sleep Fades from our eyelids, and the end is near, Down through the spaceless void and starry steep Instinct with Love the dreaming soul shall hear One whispered word ; and all the past shall be Up-gathered into Love’s eternity. 24.4 SUN: WALDSTEIN, SONATA, BLLIHOVE O CHANGELESS in thy beauty, stedfast, strong, Exultant in the calm of victory, A mighty poet flung thee forth, to be A part of Nature. So that I, thus long Listening to thy majestic voices, dream Of some vast snow-veiled mountain far away, Whose front is crimson fire at orient day ; Where in the dark Dian’s silver lances gleam ; Where shadows of the tireless storm-wreathed mist Move on in changeless interchange; where call Clamorous echoes of the waterfall From crag to crag ; whom Night alone hath kissed, And everlasting silence, and the far Glimmering magic of the Morning star. LONDON: PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET New pORTRY PUBLISHED BY Messrs. HENRY S. KING & Co. Ne ee A TALE OF THE SEA, SONNETS, AND OTHER POEMS. By James Howett. Crown 8vo. cloth, 5s. IMITATIONS FROM THE GERMAN OF SPITTA AND TERSTEGEN. By Lady Duranp. Crown 8vo. 4s. “An acceptable addition to the religious poetry of the day.’ Courant. EASTERN LEGENDS AND STORIES IN ENGLISH VERSE. By Lieutenant Norton Pow ett, Royal Artillery. Crown 8vo. 5s. “Have we at length found a successor to Thomas Ingoldsby ? 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KING & Co. 65 Cornhill and 12 Paternoster Row, London. ART La PO 4 = Pas FAD od bangnt ey ees yi