•-^^

 
 SILENUS
 
 ^AC FOOT 
 jJBRARy
 
 S I L E N U S 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS WOOLNER 
 
 HonUon 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 1884 
 
 The right of translation is reserved.
 
 WS So 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY CF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 
 Book I. 
 
 Pan. Death of Syrinx 
 
 PAGE 
 
 r 
 
 II. 
 
 Return of Silenus 
 
 17 
 
 III. 
 
 Punishment of Pan . 
 
 25 
 
 IV. 
 
 Sorrow of Silenus 
 
 43 
 
 V. 
 
 Dionysus 
 
 54 
 
 PART SECOND 
 
 Book I. Silenus Fallen 
 
 II. Pallas Athena 
 
 III. Call of Silenus 
 
 IV. Death of Silenus 
 V. Threnody, Lament of Women 
 
 71 
 
 92 
 
 105 
 
 114 
 
 127
 
 PART FIRST
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 SiLENUS, radiant as a summer morn, 
 Smiling exultant in the might of youth, 
 Loved of the loveliest, Syrinx ; in her grace 
 Surpassing swallows turning on the wing 
 At even over water brimmed with gold. 
 
 And Syrinx loved Silenus. Never yet 
 Until he loved her had the nymph been moved 
 By other than the love of tranquil streams ; 
 The witchery of birds ; flowers, and the growth 
 Of woodlands wild, and woodland happiness. 
 
 But they must part ; these lovers fair and 
 true ; 
 For he with Dionysus now must range 
 B
 
 2 SILENUS. [part I. 
 
 Far Indian lands to bear the pregnant vine ; 
 Compelled by prime affection's ancient bond 
 To labour for the God wherever led. 
 Self-thwarting, therefore, in his love content 
 The dear delight awaiting him delayed 
 Till his return. 
 
 And Syrinx drooped not tho' 
 No more beholding at the dewy dawn 
 Her lover's advent thro' the morning sun 
 To take her in his arms. Tho' now no more 
 She felt his living kisses drain her soul ; 
 The memory of his presence and his love, 
 Made every day a wonder full of joy. 
 And gave the darkness such auroral dreams 
 She fain on waking sank again to sleep. 
 
 Ofttimes beside a solitary pool 
 She looked down laughing to her face within, 
 Wondering what passages of grace it bore 
 Beyond the grace of other forest nymphs 
 That won her Demigod to gaze entranced !
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 3 
 
 One summer noon in idle bliss she lay 
 Fingered by slender grass, and flower-bekissed, 
 Her glances wandering daintily adown 
 Those undulating beauties half concealed, 
 He ever likened unto all things fair ! 
 Pleased with his similes, she stretched her limbs 
 Their utmost gleaming length, and moving tossed 
 Aside her garment that her beauty lay 
 Open and perfect to the wistful wind. 
 
 Enfolded arms behind her resting head 
 Eyes half-way closed, she dreamed of gladness 
 
 past 
 And joy to come, when she should hold her 
 
 Love 
 Safe in her arms, and lose him nevermore. 
 Tho' fair the dream she felt her will enthralled, 
 And some uncertain fear of danger nigh 
 That hovered thro' the changes of her bliss. 
 With all too broad a gaze shone the bright day ; 
 From overhanging branches little birds 
 Pried curiously ; and hovering butterflies.
 
 4 SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 Familiarly descending on her charms, 
 Outspread their glimmering splendours ; while 
 
 the spell 
 Held her fast bound as Cepheus' chain held fast 
 Andromeda's white beauty, whereon glared 
 Poseidon's dreadful monster of the sea. 
 Thus tranced she lay in durance, till a flush 
 Of twittering birds, dived in the neighbouring 
 
 shade, 
 And in the leaves a rustling near, unlike 
 The peaceable soft wind, lifted her gaze 
 Where stared two brilliant goat-eyes ; cheeks 
 
 agrin, 
 Ruddy and strained ; and long white clashing 
 
 teeth ! 
 
 " O tempting nymph ; fairly and plainly done ; 
 I saw thee spurn the foolish folds away ; 
 Well conscious they were not the charm I sought, 
 In that I munch the kernel not the shell. 
 Praise thou shalt have, for rarely can be seen
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 5 
 
 Temptation in more captivating shape, 
 More softly moulded to ensure my joy ! 
 Then why delay ? If hungry, and the fruit 
 Hang ripe before us, why not pluck and eat ? 
 Thou canst not ripening more richly blush. 
 Nor I more hungered wax. Ah, then be 
 
 wise, 
 Frankly embrace the offering of Fate, 
 And pass with me to immortality," 
 
 " Away, thou evil-spoken, misformed God ! 
 Who thief-like crouched and slyly watched to 
 
 gloat 
 In stolen espial on my quietude. 
 Swine that crunch acorns and that grunt are 
 
 tuned 
 As much to clemency and tender care 
 For purity of earthly maid or nymph 
 As thou art, God of goats insatiate ! 
 Know thou this beauty, that excites thy hope 
 To hateful grinning leer, shall never know
 
 6 SILENUS. [PART I. 
 
 The touch of even an Olympian God, 
 
 Nay, not if mighty Zeus himself should smile. 
 
 To thwart Silenus, who commands my love." 
 
 " Prettily spoken, O voluptuous nymph ! 
 Another wile to fan the flame yet higher 
 By coy resistance irresistible ! 
 Erewhile I said rarely had beauty been 
 Temptation in more captivating shape ; 
 But now so glowingly hath passion's fire 
 Inspired its blushes to the full-blown rose, 
 No other fruit can blush so ripe and sweet 
 To quench with sweetness lips of God athirst. 
 Then heed the speeding chance ; in forest 
 
 shade 
 Let us away to regions unexplored." 
 
 "You may perversely close your eyes from 
 light. 
 In feigning bluntness to a plain intent ; 
 But now my meaning you shall not mistake.
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 7 
 
 An easier task it were to make a doe 
 
 Feed upon garbage than to spirit me 
 
 By flatteries rank within thy loathly arms. 
 
 A nymph am I perfect in life ; and pure 
 
 As any flower breathing its native air. 
 
 The wind and streams, the sparkling summer 
 
 showers 
 That waken laughter in delighted leaves, 
 And music from the flowery grass, have been 
 Companions I have loved from infancy ; 
 And tuneful songsters from my fingers feed. 
 Why should I leave this fair Elysian world 
 For horror, darkness, and my own contempt ? " 
 
 " Nay, Syrinx, mine, by conquest justified, 
 Gazing unhindered on thy beauty thrown 
 Consentingly wide open to the day ! 
 If I sagaciously can scent my game 
 And track to capture, must I then forego 
 My natural recompense because the prize 
 Loves freedom better than fair forfeiture ?
 
 8 SILENUS. [parti. 
 
 What can thy beauty do against my strength ? 
 
 Merely increase itself in vain affray, 
 
 Making my strength grow stronger with the 
 
 strife ! 
 Unwisely rash, shouldst thou attempt escape, 
 And flutter uselessly thy milky breath ; 
 What could outstrip my rapid-leaping hoofs, 
 Whose clatter calls the nymph and satyr 
 
 throngs. 
 Hands spread, to admiration as I flit : 
 One hoof drawn tight to ham, down click ; 
 
 anon 
 The other up, down click ; and then along 
 The rocky river margin click on click ; 
 Till envious birds would interchange their wings 
 For hoofs whose nimble play outspeeds the 
 
 wind ! " 
 
 Whereat, high -puffed in pride, the goat- 
 legged God 
 Crying to Syrinx, " Now, behold ! Behold ! "
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 9 
 
 Went at a rate to prove no wily boast 
 His threat of certain capture in the chase. 
 As she beheld afar his goat-limbs wane, 
 And vanishing, his upper man-shaped form 
 Seemed moved by will alone ; suddenly then 
 Hope smiled and beckoned her the other way ; 
 And, like a creature hunted for its life, 
 She flew toward the sheltering river sedge ; 
 But scarce had started ere the crafty God 
 Caught her intent and, as on pivot, turned ; 
 And had he been a prey-bent vulture winged 
 He had not grown more rapidly to view 
 While leaping over the dividing space. 
 
 Tho' fleeing at her utmost swiftness she 
 Back glancing saw his fiery eyes astart, 
 And hands, tho' shut and fast against his sides, 
 That might at any moment snatch and seize. 
 Shone near, gloomed far those waters of de- 
 spair ! 
 Twice doubling she was headed from her course,
 
 lo SILENUS. [PART I. 
 
 Hard followed by the hoofs' terrific click. 
 
 At length the river ! Breathing smote her 
 
 cheek, 
 And one red claw clutching her bosom tore 
 Its tender beauty as she swerving plunged 
 Deep in its water to escape the God. 
 
 The Demon waited by the water's edge, 
 Until for lack of breath she should arise, 
 When easy pastime then for him to bear 
 Her unresisting, to the woodland shade, 
 And leisurely devour the passive fruit. 
 
 But Syrinx, sinking to the river bed. 
 Anchored her fingers in the rooted sedge. 
 Devoted to Silenus she resolved 
 To hold them till she died, rather than live 
 And glance again at those red eyes of hell. 
 While thus against her own young life she 
 
 strove, 
 Great Artemis, loving the forest nymph,
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. II 
 
 In pity flashed a brightness thro' her bfain, 
 And smote her agony to sudden peace ! 
 
 From that deep river-bed dream-borne she 
 
 passed 
 Straightway again to happy infancy, 
 When danced the butterflies to laughing flowers ; 
 When merry music in tumultuous froth 
 The maidens milked from kine at evenfall ; 
 When cheery reapers sheared the standing corn, 
 And danced at twilight in the jocund hour 
 When sunshine waned into the harvest moon 
 Lighting the chase, the capture, and the kiss ! 
 Then shone that day of glory when her 
 
 fate 
 Surrendered to Silenus on the hills ! 
 
 That day when tempted by the forest gloom 
 She rambled where huge over-clambered trees 
 Immeshed in trailers showered bright blossoms 
 
 down 
 In odorous stars at every passing breeze.
 
 12 SILENUS. [part I. 
 
 Where twisting freshets sparkled from the rock, 
 And birds atwitter by the shallow pools 
 Curtseyed and sipped, or bathed their fluttering 
 
 wings. 
 Where brooding splendour lay athwart the grass 
 Her feet must traverse ere she could ascend 
 The blessed pathway winding through the cliff 
 Toward regions trodden by Immortals' feet ! 
 
 O what a far-off world in one long stretch 
 Of lustrous mist and azure mountain-range 
 Floating on foam of oceanic light ! 
 
 Heedless of distance, onward eagerly 
 She drank new joy with every quickened breath, 
 And every breath winged onward her desire 
 Beyond the beauty seen ; transcending all 
 She hitherto had known. 
 
 But hark ! Alarmed, 
 Her sense awoke to harsh reality ; 
 Hearing hard by a roaring, as of clouds 
 Bursting in horror. Lo, a raging bull, 
 Stupendous, tearing the scorned earth to dust.
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 13 
 
 Lowering his horns, made at the nymph direct ; 
 When, conscious was she of a shadowy hand 
 Casting her swiftly on a heap of bines 
 That sinking bounded with her as in sport ; 
 Of some great mighty Shape hurling a spear 
 Slantwise against the brute, that checked, then 
 
 turned, 
 And charged again : and thereupon the Shape, 
 Lifting a splintered fragment of the rock, 
 Struck his curled brow and crushed the mon- 
 ster's life ; 
 And dragging the dark carcase to a cliff 
 He thrust it down among the crags below. 
 Then calmly smiling on her thus he spoke, 
 
 " How came a nymph so young in these rough 
 wilds 
 With no protection rambling here alone ? 
 
 " Syrinx am I ; I dwell in lower lands : 
 The forest wonders opening as I came
 
 14 SILENUS. [PART I. 
 
 Lured me from space to space to ramble here. 
 But whence art thou who saved me, slaying 
 
 death 
 With snatched-up fragment of the splintered 
 
 rock ? " 
 
 " Silenus I ; Olympian Hermes' son, 
 Of Dionysus friend and follower. 
 That splintered fragment saved thy lovely self 
 From gored defacement and from mangled limbs ; 
 And need of swiftness held the taint of chance, 
 Else slaying bulls I count but lightsome play. 
 As breaking necks of hares to puny man. 
 
 " Approving once my strength Athena smiled. 
 For when the banded Titans made assault 
 To overthrow the dreaded power of Zeus ; 
 Pallas, the winged one, soared, and gloaring 
 
 down 
 Alit before the mighty Virgin's feet. 
 And strove to clutch Her garment. She with- 
 drew
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. IS 
 
 A pace, and raised Her spear, and cleaved his 
 
 brain. 
 Knowing the Goddess would abhor the sight, 
 Kindled to tenfold strength, grappling the 
 
 bulk 
 I dragged the mountain-monster to the edge 
 And rolled his carcase down the Olympian wall. 
 This bull that chilled thy blood to white 
 
 dismay 
 Had seemed a fuming pigmy alongside 
 That evil Titan by Athena slain. 
 
 " Let us now waive ungracious memories. 
 And cherish what is near. Ah, were it dear 
 To both as dear to me ! I never loved 
 A Goddess, nymph, or mortal maid till now : 
 And now, O Syrinx, my whole soul is thine ; 
 Yield me thyself and let me know of love !" 
 
 " I cannot else than love thee, Demigod ! 
 To gaze on lovely ; gentle as the doves 
 Taking the food I offer from my lips !"
 
 i6 SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 " If like thy doves, then like thy doves I take 
 The food I long for from thy offering lips !" 
 
 Ah, then the wild delight of clasp and kiss 
 And drowning in forgetfulness ! The thrall 
 Of mazed enchantment in those saving arms ; 
 And rapture on the music of his heart 
 Beating a lullaby to blessed sleep ! 
 
 Thus happy died fair Syrinx ; in the flow 
 Of never-ceasing water thro' the land 
 Of pleasant shade that gave her beauty birth.
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 From Indian heat where silent noons ablaze 
 Dwarf men's dark shadows on the smouldering 
 
 earth, 
 And burn each aspect to the hue of shade, 
 With Dionysus great Silenus came, 
 Full of the starry light he knew would beam 
 In rosy lustre from her countenance 
 When he rejoicing should his Syrinx meet 
 And babble wonders to her wondering ears. 
 
 But when he heard how many a time the 
 flowers 
 Had bloomed and faded since his Love was 
 
 seen ; 
 And found no tongue to syllable a word ; 
 c
 
 i8 SILENUS. [PART I. 
 
 No trace or sign whereby her lonely fate 
 Might be pursued, he wandered wearily ; 
 While gloom came over him like darkening 
 
 clouds 
 When gathered into storm they blot the day. 
 
 " None breathed," he mused, " whose cruelty 
 would harm 
 A nymph so tuned responsive to delight ! 
 And had she been by bear or wolf devoured, 
 Some ravelled scrap of raiment had been left. 
 Caught in a thorn or blown against the sedge ; 
 Something had told a tale or pointed clue !" 
 
 Conjecture, weary, faltered in the trail ; 
 And could not picture Syrinx sunk and drowned 
 In water native to her limbs as heaven's 
 Translucent azure to the flight of birds. 
 
 But never more was Syrinx seen of nymph, 
 Or mortal maid, or shepherd, as he loosed 
 His bleating charges from the trampled fold. 
 No longer from a lifted rock her voice
 
 BOOK II.] SILENUS. 19 
 
 Was heard to hush the warblers of the wood ; 
 While timid creatures sidling crept anear. 
 Never more she with sprightly sister nymph 
 Glode in the river, diving/swiftly down 
 To seize on twinkling fins of fish affright, 
 Or from the surface flashed in lovely gleams. 
 The deer she loved at wonted places stood, 
 Waiting, expectant, for her hand's caress ; 
 And all who knew her looks and gentle ways 
 Lacked some contentment common to the day. 
 
 Followed by forest shades that grew apace, 
 Silenus, moving by the shining stream 
 Listless, awoke to music, piercing, strange. 
 Melodious wailing pitiful, that smote 
 His heart to sorrowing for Syrinx lost. 
 And coming near the sound, he saw where Pan 
 Half lost in reeds, sat by the water's edge, 
 Blowing pipes fastened side by side, in length 
 Beyond a human span. 
 
 So rapt was Pan
 
 20 SILENUS. [part I. 
 
 In those wild notes he gave the listening wind, 
 Silenus stood unmarked by him awhile ; 
 But when their glances met, Pan, as if caught 
 In crime, upstarting, stretched his arms and 
 fled. 
 
 " Why flies he thus ?" Silenus mused. " What 
 meant 
 That guilty cringe, and glittering in his eyes ? 
 Why should his music smite this heart with pain 
 For my lost Syrinx ? Syrinx loved him not. 
 Alas, how vain is thought ! Where may I find 
 The voice to tell me where is Syrinx gone?" 
 
 While sighing thus, the reeds before him 
 sighed, 
 Swaying in easy motion to and fro. 
 And every tongue told something to the breeze. 
 "Ah, lovely reed I" he moaned ; "thy grace 
 accords 
 With my beloved Syrinx when she lived ;
 
 BOOK II.] SILENUS. 21 
 
 Ah, now she lives in my sad heart alone. 
 I must away ; away. Too much, too well, 
 Thou tellest me of grace for ever fled ! " 
 
 Then as he left, the long leaves sighed forlorn, 
 " Silenus, O Silenus ! wherefore leave 
 Thy Syrinx, as thou didst in times agone?" 
 
 He turned again. Sitting beside the reeds 
 He saw a tremble shivering thro' their leaves. 
 And every leaf became a tongue that talked 
 In multitudinous whispering. He strove, 
 But could not understand; and sat, hands clasped. 
 Agaze and hopeless. 
 
 Darkness hugged the land. 
 And both together slumbered deep in peace. 
 Save where great Artemis, kissing the cliffs, 
 Beamed smiles along the river, whose response 
 Quivered in laughter-light from every reach, 
 Till hidden by soft winding far away.
 
 22 SILENUS. [part I. 
 
 Why prattled still the reeds ? Pan's guilty- 
 stare, 
 Why should it burn his memory with pain ? 
 And why should music of these river-stems 
 So sadly wail to him of Syrinx gone ? 
 Alas, he knew not, and must waive the cause ; 
 When, as the moonlight suddenly went out, 
 A flash within revealed the dreadful tale ! 
 
 Syrinx he saw hard chased by nimble Pan, 
 And flushed with terror, his devoted nymph, 
 Plucked at by demon claws, plunge in the 
 
 stream 
 And her young spirit pass into the reeds 
 That now were whispering her sad well-away. 
 
 Taking them in his lonely arms he sighed, 
 " O loveliest of the loved, is this now all 
 Left of thee, once so pure and beautiful ? 
 Must thou be now frail debtor to the wind 
 For voice to tell me thy dark sorrowing ? 
 I sitting by thee with no power to soothe.
 
 BOOK II.] SILENUS. 23 
 
 " How harsh and terrible the Fates ! That I 
 Should live my life, and never taste of love 
 Till thine came on me like the risen sun 
 After a dreaming night. And then awake, 
 The great round glory shining on me full, 
 That I should turn and leave to fickle chance 
 This new delightful kingdom where I reigned ; 
 Straightway invaded by remorseless Pan ! 
 
 " 'Twere idle waste to raise a feeble arm 
 Against the measure of eternal doom. 
 But must he free, and safe, and scathless go ? 
 And must I live, for ever in my gaze 
 His grinning goatish leer, and unavenged ? 
 Nay, I will front the thief My spear ! my 
 
 spear ! 
 Farewell, my Syrinx ; one more last farewell." 
 
 Then lifting up his weighty spear, whereby 
 Had fallen lions and striped tigers fierce. 
 And wide-horned monsters with dark eyes of fire,
 
 24 SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 And others that seemed mountains as they 
 
 moved, 
 With noses used as hands, and legs like trees 
 In girth, Silenus left the river-side 
 And slowly paced into the forest gloom.
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 The sun had set the mountain-tops afire, 
 And every thicket singing for delight ; 
 And brought shy creatures, dainty-paced, abroad 
 To graze the open, gray with nightly dew. 
 Aloft the eagle in gigantic sweeps 
 Winged thro' the dazzled air, or pausing, pierced 
 The vaporous world beneath with dire intent. 
 Throughout awe-stricken woods casting a hush. 
 
 Near his thatched hovel in the dewy morn 
 Blowing his cheerful pipes sat Pan the God. 
 Late partner of his night, a woman faun, 
 Lay near him dead, he having wrung her neck 
 Because the goat she milked had overturned 
 The bowl he waited for just brimmed and frothed.
 
 26 SILENUS. [part i- 
 
 And baulked him of his draught. He meant 
 her flesh 
 
 To feed some favourite panthers caged and tame. 
 
 While straggling round him herds of satyrs 
 thronged, 
 
 Their ruddy bodies glowing in the beams 
 
 Of early day. Some milked ; some slaughtered 
 goats ; 
 
 And some their playful flocks drove pasture- 
 ward ; 
 
 While the God laughed to count the rich increase. 
 
 But ha ! the great Silenus spear in hand. 
 Advancing by colossal strides he fronts 
 The cowering God, who drops his music pipes, 
 And bends to steal away. 
 
 Silenus cries, 
 " Move but a hoof and my impetuous spear 
 Goes thro' thy body in the solid earth. 
 Fixing thee there till thou hast heard thy 
 doom."
 
 BOOK III.] SILENUS. 27 
 
 For the first time in Pan's gay history 
 The grinning corners of his mouth fell down : 
 To ashy-pale his fiery visage waned ; 
 And his goat eyes stared vacantly around. 
 Shuddering with terror, writhed his shrinking 
 
 frame 
 And hanging feebly jarred his cloven feet. 
 
 " Demon accursed ! Doomed as I was to leave 
 My helpless Syrinx, thou didst count it safe 
 Unpityingly to hunt the nymph to death. 
 Silenus absent ; no protector by ; 
 No eye to see ; no tongue to tell the tale ! 
 
 " And when the Goddess Artemis for love 
 Transformed the murdered nymph to river reeds. 
 Thou must go cut and fashion them forsooth 
 To music-pipes, and sate thy pampered self 
 In making wail for thy defeated hope ! 
 In wanton deed and unrelenting spite, 
 Since crime began no crimes have equalled 
 thine.
 
 28 SILENUS. [PART I. 
 
 And thou ; unable to conceal thy crime ! 
 Else wouldst thou not have shown that guilty eye 
 Glittering aslantwise when we met, and shrugged, 
 And slunk away, vile thief, in abject fear. 
 Thou didst not know the river reeds would talk 
 And tell thy crime, commingled lust and death, 
 Thy pastime, grinning lust and death. Not far. 
 The naked proof ! There sprawled a victim lies, 
 Fair in her woman's form ; her cloven feet 
 Twisted aside in death's sharp agony. 
 Does all Olympus sleep, such ruthless crime 
 Can rage unhindered in the open day?" 
 
 His clear voice rang, and echoing thro' the 
 vale. 
 
 Startled the fauns and satyrs with amaze. 
 
 Quitting their toil they crowded eagerly. 
 
 Wondering their God, low-crouched and pallor- 
 struck, 
 
 Should quiver cringing like a beast chastised ! 
 
 Silenus cried.
 
 BOOK III.] SILENUS. ^ 29 
 
 " Behold that murdered thing ! 
 Was there not one of all you dastard crew 
 To stand between her and those strangling claws? 
 Had she no lover by ; or father near ; 
 No one of kin to stretch an angry arm 
 To shield and save her from this monstrous fate?" 
 
 " His favourite daughter," every voice replied, 
 " By forest maiden captured in the wood. 
 And hither brought. When the babe due was 
 
 born 
 Its little goat limbs smote her heart to tears, 
 And hating tears Pan slew her ; penned the babe 
 For nursing with a young full-uddered goat ; 
 Where she grew strong, well-loved throughout 
 
 our woods ; 
 And until now we knew not of her death, " 
 
 And all the satyrs raised a doleful howl. 
 Roaring a loud continuous wrathful storm ; 
 Beating their breasts they stamped their cloven 
 hoofs.
 
 30 SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 Then shrank the demon, horror-struck, appalled. 
 More than the spear these voices made him quail. 
 
 " Are thy bolts spent, O Zeus ? Athena, where 
 Thy dreadful spear the irresistible ? 
 Is Justice dead ; or, angered, has She left 
 This earth to chance and cold malignity ? 
 
 " I pierce the savage future, and behold 
 A world without Olympian government, 
 Wherefrom the Gods have vanished into night : 
 The memories of them fled, save what remain 
 As statues sunk in fragments thro' the land ; 
 Unearthed by prying creatures bent on gain, 
 Or patching pieces of the Gods to shrines 
 Whereon to rear their naked vanities ; 
 Knowing no more of Gods and their decrees 
 Than thou canst know of love and purity. 
 Or kindliness to gentle weaklier things. 
 Tho' fled the highest Gods from that dark 
 world.
 
 ROOK III.] SILENUS. 31 
 
 I see, far-shadowing in times to come, 
 
 The Gods of gloom triumphant there, and thou 
 
 By darker evil in ascendency ; 
 
 Nations and Powers, vast peoples falling down 
 
 In grovelling baseness abject at thy feet. 
 
 " Yea, grin and brighten at the prophecy 
 Till thou hast heard the whole ; await the 
 end ! 
 
 " Cheaters and thieves, thy worshippers, con- 
 trive 
 And build strong places to maintain their spoil. 
 Forged into power for greater plundering. 
 These robbers wage remorseless war and seize 
 Countries by industry wrought into wealth ; 
 When, proud of pillage, blood-dyed criminals. 
 Tricking themselves in gauds and blazoned 
 
 pomp, 
 With hope of gold, device, and phrases deft, 
 Trail the lured many, till the dupes betrayed
 
 32 SILENUS. [PART I. 
 
 Rise goaded to despair and pluck them down, 
 Then rush the vacant palaces to rule 
 By force and guile, as ruled their former lords. 
 " Dearly thy worshippers love hoarded gold ; 
 This will their laws most zealously protect ; 
 Harsh in enactment, prompt in punishment : 
 But outraged honour, insult, mangled life. 
 Shall lightly be condoned, or lightly passed 
 With empty forfeiture and formal frown. 
 But tho' thy worshippers control mankind 
 Their adoration brings thee no content. 
 
 " This then thy burning doom : 
 
 Tho' Lord of all, 
 No one who breathes, from the proud king 
 
 enthroned 
 To beggar whining at his guarded gates, 
 But will deny tho' fast he worship thee ! 
 
 " When the great Gods have fled, and hap- 
 less men 
 In gloom arc left with thee, some lofty few,
 
 BOOK III.] SILENUS. 33 
 
 By agony such as Prometheus bore ; 
 By looks of mute entreaty, eloquent ; 
 By fixed endurance till the fibres snap ; 
 And watch determined creeping ever on ; 
 By resolution's armed assail and shock 
 Doing vast slaughter on embattled foes, 
 Shall raise triumphantly their cherished Gods 
 In splendid temples, forcing every knee 
 To bend in reverence before their shrines. 
 
 " The righteous will in every age bend low 
 For very truth and very love to truth. 
 While these thyself and demon ways abhor, 
 The multiplying millions will be thine 
 In unacknowledged secret worshipping ; 
 A myriad-mass of hopeless hypocrites 
 Who feign the worship custom bids them 
 
 hold; 
 And nourish evil they perforce decry. 
 Whose blameless language hides fell purposes ; 
 Transacting crime while lauding righteousness. 
 They feast on what they outwardly eschew ; 
 D
 
 34 SILENUS. [PART I. 
 
 Soaked thro' with falsehood, winked at, under- 
 stood. 
 Till understood unaided by a hint. 
 
 " The king, so screened from every wholesome 
 breeze. 
 The air he breathes so drugged with flattery, 
 So poisoned source and flow of every rill 
 That brings him knowledge, the proud gold he 
 
 wears 
 Circles a living lie. His influence 
 Corrupts more deeply those corrupting him ; 
 Gendering hatred and confusion where 
 His kingly duty and high privilege 
 Had tolled the blessing of a people's love. 
 
 " Exalted priests well recompensed to serve 
 The latter Gods shall warmly worship thee : 
 Denouncing wealth and every fleshly lust, 
 They vie together in superfluous pomp ; 
 The lees of luxury in purple stains 
 Stagnant upon their cheerful visages ; 
 While wrangling with each other over spoil,
 
 BOOK III.] SILENUS. 35 
 
 Tempted by promises, or wrenched by threats 
 From weakling followers in sickness cast. 
 
 " Skilled masters of the lyre, that sacred 
 boon 
 Whereby my Father, Hermes, challenged man 
 To sing of heroes and immortal Gods, 
 Leaving the vantage of their sunlit heights. 
 Shall grovel with thy multitude and touch 
 Light tuneful music for their revelry : 
 Each cadence measured to the tune of gold. 
 Lavishly jingled in their raptured ears. 
 
 " Thus shall this earth, halved between night 
 and day, 
 Whose loveliness brings kisses down from heaven 
 In flashing fire, sunshine, and singing showers. 
 Be as a desolation to his eyes 
 Who sees thee undisguised and dominant ! 
 And him thy worshippers will hate, tho' bound 
 By the same oaths, at the same altar shrines ; 
 But hate in secret working fell despite 
 They whisper not to kin or nearest friend.
 
 36 SILENUS. [PART I. 
 
 " In public adoration parents kneel 
 Before the Gods their nation owns divine, 
 What time their prayers slip covertly to thee 
 To load their progeny with opulence ; 
 And warriors ask to fight thro' fame to wealth 
 That they may stalk in decorated pride. 
 Some with full granaries call famine down 
 That they may pare starvation to the bone ; 
 And beauty prays that her embellished charms, 
 Warming the market, may command full price. 
 " Each slave will love thee, vowing that he 
 
 hates ; 
 But, should some strange exception boast the 
 
 truth, 
 He will be seized for madness, bound in chains. 
 And fastened in a dungeon till his death. 
 
 " This then thy doom ; tho' thou shalt aid 
 
 thy slaves 
 By every shift dark cunning can devise, 
 In fostering their desires' accomplishment ; 
 Thine own desire, the naked pomp of power.
 
 BOOK III.] SILENUS. 37 
 
 Shall fly thee ever, and for all thy toil 
 Never shalt thou taste glow of victory." 
 
 Silenus ceased, and stood alone with Pan. 
 For every shepherd, satyr, faun, and goat 
 Had fled and left the God for evermore. 
 His features ashy pale ; its fire extinct 
 In that grim visage never glowed again ; 
 Pinched now his shape, close shrunken like a 
 
 corpse. 
 Two birds of prey wheeling in air swept by 
 With cough and scream, baffled of some intent, 
 Silenus marked, " Those evil wings," he cried, 
 " Carry a sign ! The very vultures shun 
 Thy guilty carrion for their empty maws. 
 The swift Erinyes, unappeasable. 
 Dreading some ill unknown, pause in the chase. 
 Shrinking affrighted from thy loneliness." 
 
 Now, as the upward grin fell lax for dread. 
 When Pan beheld Silenus spear in hand
 
 38 SILENUS. [PART I. 
 
 Advancing toward him with colossal strides, 
 The fiery bent of his insatiate self 
 Changed straightway into fierce malicious hate 
 Hard set on wreaking vengeance might and 
 main. 
 
 Again Silenus cried, *' Accursed go, 
 Lost in thy solitude thou never more 
 Shalt taste the freshness of the summer wind ; 
 Shalt know but hate in ever-burning brain ; 
 Rage and destruction bearing no delight. 
 Thy bitterest disgust, that life's increase 
 Surpasses thy persistence to destroy. 
 
 " Faithful, unshrinking Death, whose out- 
 stretched hand, 
 Soothing with soft inevitable touch, 
 Quenches the agony of humankind. 
 Cannot be known by thee. 
 
 " Thy worshipper. 
 Who sees the compassed object of his pains 
 Smitten, collapse and vanish into nought.
 
 BOOK in.] SILENUS. 39 
 
 Dying in yells of wrath, and gnashing jaws, 
 From smouldering fire within, shall blast thy 
 
 hate 
 In envious despair ; and thou wouldst crawl 
 A sheathless worm parched under blazing skies. 
 If, after torture, thou like him couldst rest !" 
 
 Head bending low, feet draggling, now 
 accurst 
 Pan thro' the forest wandered to his fate. 
 Never seen more goat-horned and goat-behoofed 
 With shaggy thighs, and flesh of ruddy glow ; 
 But infinite in strange distinctive shapes 
 And livery shifting with the changing time. 
 
 Now voluble and sly he blandly soothes 
 Honour alarmed to ignominious peace. 
 Precursor of contempt and watchful hate 
 Biding a vantage for the grievous stroke. 
 Or aptly chosen honied phrases fire 
 Ravin for neighbouring land, madness for more ; 
 Till plunderers reeking weighted by their wealth
 
 40 SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 Consume in indolence. Now smiling one, 
 Sleek and grown bloat with unearned luxury, 
 Whose gray goat eyeballs brightly rolling fall 
 On shapely maidens, stately dames, who thrill 
 Unholy ecstasies and take the taint 
 He means. Now proudly strutting lord of vogue 
 He trails a hot throng in his glittering wake ; 
 Who fretting time and fortune scatter wide 
 The treasured power their wiser fathers stored. 
 
 In every guise, in every form he starts ; 
 The beggar's garb, the mien of kings. Now 
 
 roars 
 A fervid patriot who overthrows 
 The rule and order grown of bygone toil. 
 Now whines the poor oppressed ones drearj^ 
 
 woes, 
 That wins from wealth a bland beneficence, 
 The food that feeds, the succour that enslaves. 
 Now prompts the lure, the cruelty, despair 
 Of plotted failure launched as enterprise ! 
 Now tempts young lowly damsels to destroy ;
 
 BOOK III.] SILENUS. 41 
 
 While high-born bribe the lowly to conceal 
 Their fruitage plucked in dark forbidden ways ; 
 And ogresses in quiet villages 
 Batten in comfort on the waifs of shame. 
 The trader vends false bales, imprinted best, 
 Which in far lands unrolled are there revealed 
 Pierced thro' with foul decay. Yet greedier, 
 
 some 
 Cheat poverty itself with measure short ; 
 And vaunted chieftains of advanced regard 
 Esteem a fraud fair use of barterer's skill ; 
 As men are free to use their ancient right 
 Of making choice between contending thieves. 
 By dulcet promises some creep to power 
 Whose shadows blight and wither priceless 
 
 worth, 
 Whose dead weight crushing genius to the dust, 
 Cripples its flight to their own wingless range, 
 
 "Great nature's law," the worldly -wiselings 
 cry;
 
 42 SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 " Both rough and smooth we take as best we 
 
 can; 
 And ills march ever mixed with man's advance!" 
 
 Thus the dark demon incarnates his will 
 By slaves who prattle fiend philosophy 
 In phrases rolling off the fluent tongue, 
 Easy to say, remembered easily ; 
 Sating with glamour tranquil multitudes 
 Who breathe contentedly the scentless death.
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 SiLENUS, wretched on the morrow morn, 
 Wended his way where sank his hunted 
 
 nymph 
 Beneath the water she in Hfe had loved ; 
 Half soothed he thought to clasp those wailing 
 
 leaves, 
 All that remained now of his flattering dream. 
 
 There by the stream, aghast, he saw, in room 
 Of grassy reeds, a parched and withered heap 
 That crumbled harshly unresponsive dust. 
 When down his hands fell thro' it in despair. 
 
 Taking two handfuls vacantly he raised 
 His arms as making an appeal to heaven ; 
 But rigid stood, aimless, and impotent :
 
 44 SILENUS. [PARTI. 
 
 An image in wild action motionless, 
 To strange and frightful pallor changed through- 
 out. 
 
 Casting at length the dust abroad, he sighed, 
 " There flies my solitary dream of joy. 
 A dream, a dream ! " 
 
 Then with a dreadful cry 
 That pierced the forest depths, and made the 
 
 rocks 
 Thrill to their inmost hearts, Silenus fell, 
 And falling crashed his spear ; and helpless lay, 
 Ashy, as one long dead. 
 
 His anguish smote 
 The Naiades in sedgy nooks and Nymphs 
 And Dryads lone of ancient shadowy woods, 
 Who lifting lamentations all amain 
 Thronged to him lying prostrate and beloved ; 
 And kneeling strove with kisses, chafe of limbs. 
 And castins: little handfuls of the wave
 
 BOOK IV.] SILENUS. , 45 
 
 About his throat and brow, to summon back 
 The sharp-fled h'fe. 
 
 In vain their tenderness 
 Was lavished on him, pressing bosoms warm 
 Fast to his chilly breast ; laying their cheeks 
 Softly to his ; while slender fingers combed 
 From the moist brow his dank and matted 
 
 hair, 
 Calling vi^ith murmurous moan upon his name. 
 Until they sank beside him hopelessly ; 
 The clouds above with shadow covering them, 
 Their solitude, and unavailing charms. 
 
 They lay in silence on the ancient Earth, 
 And looked like flowers that might lie there 
 
 and fade, 
 And be within her substance drawn again. 
 
 But had the Earth growled inwardly and 
 heaved 
 In quick succession of stupendous throbs. 
 They had not been with wonder startled more 
 Than when they heard Silenus mutter low :
 
 46 ^ SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 "As rush, and reed, tall grasses, and pink 
 
 flowers, 
 Mirrored in softened hues within the stream, 
 Are to themselves that breathe the living air. 
 And guard the river banks, was she to me. 
 No sooner ripe than plucked ! Nay, O, not 
 
 plucked, 
 But shaken from the stem into the stream, 
 Borne by the flow to darksome mystery. 
 
 " Close from me, Leto, close thy tender 
 eyes : 
 Or let their gracious light on others fall ! 
 I could endure them were thy favour less. 
 Be harsh toward me in mercy. Do not let 
 Thy pitying sweetness mutely tell my loss ! 
 Henceforth you see me broken worthless waste. 
 My spear is shivered ; I am now no more 
 He that could front a monster and prevail. 
 
 " Despise me, Nysa ! Strength and forecast 
 failed
 
 BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 47 
 
 When needed most to bear the stress and 
 
 strain. 
 Why knew I not the demon's will accursed, 
 Nor stayed its guilty course by flashing spear ? 
 Why, when she gave herself to me, forthwith 
 Did I desert her, tramping far-off tracts. 
 To teach their dusky dwellers wiser ways ; 
 Leagues, moons away, taught savage men, when 
 
 here 
 Ramped direst evil uncontrolled at home ! 
 
 " Blinded with bliss was I, or I had known 
 Her risk with Pan should hateful chance 
 
 entice ! 
 " Unhappy fate to strive for others' good 
 And lose meanwhile our own. Fondly I 
 
 thought 
 The bright regards my Syrinx cast around 
 Would be enjoyed by all, as they enjoy 
 The sunshine laughing th-ro' the summer rain. 
 "The Gods I counted just ; Powers high and 
 
 dark ;
 
 48 SILENUS. [PART I. 
 
 Riddles to Demigods and mortal men. 
 We must obey them blindly : vain to seek 
 In their decrees, all dimly understood, 
 A meaning running side by side with ours, 
 
 " A massive crag released from mountain 
 wall 
 Rushing in thunder crushes all beneath. 
 It were as idle to beseech the rock, 
 Lightly to waver, falling as a leaf, 
 As make appeal to stay the hest of Gods ! 
 Our feeble thoughts reach not their lofty wills ; 
 Haply themselves the bounded ministers 
 Of Destiny unknown ; for who shall say 
 Whence the first beat of power ? Who wise to 
 
 track 
 Thro' growth and change its pathway unto 
 
 man. 
 Who also deals surely his stern decrees, 
 As beasts, and slaves, and captive women know, 
 
 " Ye lovely ones, yearning to soothe my woe, 
 O could I take a hand of each in mine
 
 BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 49 
 
 To wander onward till wc reached a world 
 Where Gods had made no law nor man had 
 
 dwelt ! 
 And there live unremembered and content, 
 In the wild woods and by the mountain 
 
 streams 
 That shine in loops and spaces thro' the sand ; 
 Where lying we might watch the seabirds soar 
 And dolphins thro' the water leap and plunge. 
 
 " And should a roving storm disturb our day, 
 Straggling from troubled regions and escaped 
 Inexorable Zeus while dealing doom. 
 An estray like ourselves, its mighty roar 
 Should be our music ; while its transient fire 
 In spasms of glory quivering thro' the heavens, 
 Should light with splendid wonder our new 
 
 world. 
 " I am so languid now, a wounded wretch 
 Drained well-nigh of his blood, whose breath 
 
 scarce lifts 
 His hollow breast, his eyes fast losing light, 
 E
 
 so SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 Beholding me in pity might feel strong. 
 
 The stroke that wounded me cut tenderer 
 
 cords 
 Than ever arrow pierced or blade could reach. 
 Such dread and horror fill my soul I seem 
 Some lost and evil creature soaked in crime 
 Suffering his punishment, but memory gone 
 Of what his sin had been. 
 
 " Great Heracles, 
 Smitten with madness from the ravenous pain 
 Of Nessus' poisoned blood, unwittingly 
 Into the sea his faithful Lichas threw, 
 Young Lichas whom he loved. Forgetfulness 
 Gently waved over him her airy hand, 
 And he was spared the bitterest agony 
 When flames consuming quenched his final 
 
 pangs. 
 " Madness appals me. Could but memory 
 
 lapse 
 In any way than thro' dark Lethe's stream !
 
 BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 51 
 
 Who drinks that chilling draught forgets de- 
 light 
 Together with past weariness and wrong. 
 
 " I would not lose my vision of the past : 
 Still would I see in fancy Syrinx left 
 With playful memory, while her glances rove 
 Her own young beauties in their perfect prime ; 
 For, trifling with them, I had loved to show 
 Their undulations course in lily sheen, 
 While she enjoyed with smiles, and never knew 
 Herself to be a lovely marvel full 
 Of varied inexhaustible delight, 
 Till I awoke her wonder with the truth. 
 
 " Here wishing halts. I would shut out the 
 rest, 
 And would not have my backward gaze defaced 
 By horrors of the past. 
 
 " But drowsiness 
 Bethrals, I fain would slumber. Clymene, 
 And sweet Calypso, stretch forth each her 
 hand
 
 52 SILENUS. [parti. 
 
 To soothe my head softly with tender strokes ; 
 
 And you, O Eriphia, graciously 
 
 Throughout their length smooth my numbed, 
 
 listless arms ; 
 And Leto, cool this anguish-stricken brow 
 With breathing fresh and sweeter than the rose ; 
 Thus let me feel your kindness till I sleep ! " 
 
 He ceasing sank in slumber as he spoke. 
 Nymphs, dryads, and wild naiades subdued, 
 Sat by, their long arms round each other twined ; 
 And some on others' shoulders pressed their chins, 
 And leaning forward watched his every breath. 
 One said, " Benignant fate had been their 
 guide 
 To great Silenus lone and sorrowful ; 
 For he was softened in beholding them. 
 New honey would they bring him mixed with 
 
 milk 
 Warm from young goats, of large-eyed sweet- 
 breathed kine ;
 
 BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 53 
 
 And they would sing him tenderest songs of 
 
 old, 
 Of fated lovers who had lost their loves 
 And wandered into gloiy other ways. 
 They would attend and serve him thro' the 
 
 suns ; 
 By moons would watch, and keep his slumber 
 
 safe 
 From prowling creatures, and the dangerous 
 
 shafts 
 Of Artemis that ofttimes pricked the brain 
 To madness ; and would tend him till once 
 
 more 
 He woke and drank the gladness of the morn. 
 And Dionysus, who Silenus loved, 
 Silenus his instructor and his friend, 
 He should be sought and told the dreadful tale. 
 And come with healing words of hope divine."
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 " Hail, mighty One ! Hail, great Silenus, hail! 
 Look up, or thou wilt wear the earth to holes 
 With that hard wistful gaze. Behold the world 
 In glorious sunshine. Wherefore idly fix 
 Thy blank regards on nothing ? Overhead 
 The very eagles fluttering for joy 
 Wing thro' the radiance upward lost in light ! " 
 
 Thus Dionysus. For the God, to heal 
 His follower, now prostrate in despair, 
 Had come with nymphs and satyrs, leaping 
 
 fauns, 
 Maenades, wild-haired and rosy-cheeked ; 
 Flecked panthers snarling ; serpents lithe and 
 
 strong
 
 BOOK v.] SILENUS. 55 
 
 That swathed him grimly, till his fondling hands 
 Stroked the bright scaling of their golden throats ; 
 Then up in either hand he held them, pleased 
 To watch their forms disport in vacancy. 
 
 At timely glance the cymbals clashed as one, 
 Shrill shrieked the oaten pipes, bellowed the 
 
 mouths 
 Of ramhorns blown by satyrs stout of breath ; 
 While others shouted till the deafening din 
 Shattered in janglings harsh the outraged air. 
 
 " O Dionysus, wherefore thus disturb 
 This torpor that abates my wretchedness ? 
 The torture slept awhile ; why wake afresh 
 Feelings that hover over memory ; 
 Why mock me, laying bare the cruel past ? " 
 
 " Thou hast, beloved Silenus, dear and true, 
 Been ever my companionable friend : 
 Fired with old love this is the wherefore I,
 
 56 . SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 Leaving my ivied rocks in forest glades, 
 Lovely with laurel-holt and asphodel, 
 Gather my frolic troop and bring them now 
 To wake and comfort thee with pregnant cheer. 
 
 " Gracious and fair, the nymph was meet for 
 thee. 
 But thou by right of worth had been fit lord 
 To rule young Hebe, my bright sister. She 
 Who in Olympus filled the nectar bowls, 
 Now fast in wedlock with great Heracles. 
 
 "Behold the symmetry and burning hues 
 Of flowers expanded to their shapes complete : 
 A passing storm or footfall levels them 
 Sullied or crushed to ruin. Who despairs ? 
 Yet but a little while, again behold 
 Their like in splendour blooming as before ! 
 
 " As they are, to the Gods are nymph and 
 maid 
 Of mortal birth ; grateful to clasp, and sweet 
 Are they to kiss ; and bravely they endure 
 The burden of our love. Their longest lives
 
 BOOK v.] SILENUS. 57 
 
 To the duration of Immortals pass 
 
 As gnats their sunset hour to mortal man. 
 
 " Then why bewail a momentary joy ? 
 Has love so fused thee with mortality 
 Thou art weighed down to earth, that thirsts 
 
 for all 
 It once gave forth ? Could sorrow bring her 
 
 back, 
 Glowing and rosy to responsive life, 
 Sorrow were well bestowed. Now frets to 
 
 waste 
 The glorious fervour that whole peoples fired 
 To feats beyond their wont. With me you 
 
 loved 
 To mark the kindled passion we had roused 
 Achieve our purposes, when, casting thoughts 
 To men as sowers cast their seeds, we saw 
 Some wax in favour, and saw others sink, 
 Swilling the precious juices of the grape 
 That might have been their comforter and 
 
 strenirth !
 
 58 SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 " Now shout, my jovial satyrs ; lifting hoofs 
 Arouse Silenus to festivity ! 
 If }'Our sweet lives be brief, ye forest nymphs, 
 Brighten them while ye may. Enrich the round 
 Of bliss with grace surpassing birchen-trees, 
 When trembling in the wind their branches 
 
 play. 
 Show him, ye stately naiades of the wave, 
 That loveliness is yet, and went not out 
 With one, however fair ! Keep measure true, 
 Both voice and step ; let every hand combine 
 By even clash and fingered stop to wake 
 The caverned echoes of harmonious mirth. 
 Till our delight becoming frenzied air 
 Our saddened one shall breathe it, and his soul 
 Inflame with high imaginings sublime." 
 
 Then madly ramped the God-directed dance, 
 Where ruddy bodies, circling shapes of white, 
 Sped round so fast, so swiftly glanced their 
 feet.
 
 BOOK v.] SILENUS. 59 
 
 That ruddy figures turned on gleaming limbs ; 
 And whirled on hairy legs the gleaming shapes, 
 While tangled raiment fluttering, intermixed 
 With floating hair, bright -hued, and many a 
 
 spear, 
 Vine-clad, and harmless with fir-cone atop. 
 By glimpses seen, sliding in glittering curves, 
 Enamelled serpents mutely thrid the rout 
 Where growled the leopards to the panthers' 
 
 snarl, 
 Or mumbled, over-rolled, and kicked at will. 
 
 The revel ceased and hung in silence, when 
 Silenus, rising slowly to his height, 
 Stretched forth his nerveless hands and cried 
 
 " Alas ! 
 Alas for me if I must tear the threads 
 My sorrow weaves in pictures of the past ! 
 For tho' my gladness changed and flashed to 
 
 hate 
 And fell thro' fiery anguish to despair,
 
 6o SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 Yet these returning horrors oft intrude 
 Where day-long smiles gave day-long deep con- 
 tent ; 
 And should I banish them for evermore, 
 Silenus would be other than himself. 
 
 " But Fate is hard. The greatest Gods are 
 nought 
 Against the measure of resistless doom. 
 If now I must forget, thou seest me here, 
 O Dionysus, a resistless slave 
 From whom has fled the spring of enterprise, 
 Who must obey, but never more may rule." 
 
 " Awake, Silenus ! In the future shine 
 Triumph and glory sprung of mighty deeds, 
 By the stern Gods approved. Strewn thro' the 
 
 world 
 Are nations savage as their scouring wolves, 
 Famine-bedriven over icy plains, 
 Which we with high persuasive proof will front 
 And show them law yields fairer life than when
 
 COOK v.] SILENUS. 61 
 
 Revengeful men shed blood, or rob for greed ; 
 And with temptation of the luscious grape 
 We will enchant them into peaceful toil. 
 
 " At one deep draught now drain this cup 
 
 divine 
 Down to its moon of gold. Leave not a drop, 
 For every drop is precious ; scarce unfit 
 To pass Athena's lips, when shouting She 
 Holds up Her shining nectar bowl and tells 
 Tidings of victory to feasting Gods ! 
 
 " Each bloomed and purple grape was singly 
 
 plucked, 
 Ere bursting ripe, by dainty-fingered nymphs ; 
 And these when heaped, by their own pressure 
 
 shed 
 The wine you drink, fragrance and liquid sun. 
 
 " The cup you handle was Hephaestion's gift. 
 After his downfall, from Olympus hurled 
 By wrathful Zeus, I nourished him and gave 
 Reviving, warm, deep draughts of crimson 
 
 wine.
 
 62 SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 Day after day I watched the cunning God 
 Fashion these nymphs who nursed me when a 
 
 babe. 
 You see me heave to clutch the teasing bunch 
 One dangles playfully beyond my reach ; 
 While Hermes swings his nimble feet and smiles, 
 Amused to eye me as I jerk and crow. 
 His gift, embossed with playtime of my past, 
 Is thine, and thine this well-filled skin. 
 
 " When clouds 
 Darken and chill thy life, and memory 
 Of what is gone too bald and clearly stares 
 For steady gazing to endure, then drink ! 
 When thou wouldst rise to action, but the heart 
 And limbs in languor hold thee back, then drink ! 
 Pour thy libation when the dazzling rays 
 Of Hyperion to the zenith pierce ; 
 And when his light in mighty splendour sinks 
 At eventide again libation pour ! 
 Worship the glorious God throughout the day, 
 So he may strengthen thee, and penetrate
 
 BOOK v.] SILENUS. 63 
 
 Thy loitering blood, and drive dark dreams 
 away. 
 "I go ; ere long returning I shall claim 
 Thy presence with me to the blustering North, 
 Where we, the vine our welcome, marching on. 
 Will with its tendrils link our prophecies 
 To rich abundant store in coming time ; 
 And, thro' his appetite, tame savage man 
 To toil and tillage of the liberal earth." 
 
 Long after Dionysus and his rout 
 Had vanished, and the airy echoes ceased 
 Of distant laugh and thrilling cymbal-clash ; 
 When noon, and brooding silence lay like 
 
 thought 
 On the green ocean of the woods afar, 
 Silenus still was standing, cup in hand, 
 Gazing, or as in gaze, on its device. 
 He had beheld the baby arms outstretched 
 To reach the dancing grapes a teasing nymph 
 Dangled in nearness never to be touched ;
 
 64 SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 And this recalled a tale his Syrinx told : 
 How when a babe, fresh from her mother's arms, 
 She first stepped forth and walked. Lying one 
 
 day 
 Within her father's orchard, on the grass, 
 Babbling to one drooped apple overhead, 
 Her mother noted how she fain would pull 
 The mellow prize, and plucked it from the 
 
 bough ; 
 Then, placing Syrinx on her little feet 
 Against the tree, went off a pace or two. 
 Holding the bright temptation nigh her 
 
 reach. 
 To seize it in her eager hands the babe 
 Unconsciously moved forward step by step 
 After the wondering mother ; who, enrapt, 
 Snatched up the child and kissed her out of 
 
 breath. 
 
 Thereafter nestling in the flowers a faun 
 Came trotting where she lay, and offered fruit ;
 
 BOOK v.] SILENUS. 65 
 
 Which she, remembering Mother's hest, refused. 
 Whereat the wilful savage raging vowed 
 That eat she should, or he would ope her mouth 
 And force the fruitage down. She turned and 
 
 fled, 
 The faun pursuing, to a rapid stream 
 Wherein she leaped. He, shrieking on the brink, 
 Stood pelting her with berries as she swam 
 And landed lightly on the other side. 
 
 Well he remembered how afresh each day 
 Her brightened countenance gave, mirror-like, 
 Clearly each varying passion he disclosed ; 
 And how she stored his sayings as the voice 
 Of Fate. How, by her graces overcome, 
 He would forget all beauty of the world 
 But hers; entranced, would hold her in his arms. 
 Smoothing her shapely form, from laughing 
 
 throat 
 Down to her agile feet, and lingering long 
 On each bewitching beauty, tho' the next 
 F
 
 66 SILENUS. [part i. 
 
 Enticed with yet more captivating charm : 
 But this enjoyed, the last forsaken seemed 
 To tempt return with sweetness multiplied. 
 
 Love fondly strung these precious memories 
 Until the story was completed, when 
 The record fell, splashed into sudden night, 
 And Syrinx was no more. 
 
 Then yearningly 
 Recalling how the drowned to Hades pass 
 In pleasant dreams of early childhood days, 
 Syrinx he saw risen from the river-bed, 
 Ranging at will those happy times agone, 
 Till they two met ; and might, alas ! alas ! 
 Never have parted, had not ruthless fate 
 Driven him unhappy into wilds remote. 
 Could even faithful love be mindful then. 
 The swift remorseless water sweeping by 
 Obliterating fast as fancies flew. 
 The overwhelming bliss and gracious light 
 Her trustful love and beauty were to him ;
 
 BOOK v.] SILENUS. 67 
 
 And could she know what agony would burn 
 At loss of her, and take the bursting flame 
 And ashes of despair as sacrifice 
 His passion offered to her vanished grace ? 
 
 Then, overborne by longing, sick for lack 
 Of hope, the blessed boon that haughty Zeus 
 Denies not to the restless race of earth, 
 Silenus sank in silence on the ground. 
 
 The drip of rocks anear, and running streams, 
 Hushed whispering of the forest overhead, 
 Soothed him to quietude and gentle sleep, 
 And zephyrs passing fanned him with their 
 wings.
 
 PART SECOND
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Ages had passed. Now was Silenus old, 
 And fallen from his glory. Bald his head ; 
 Its few gray locks lay loose and scantily ; 
 And gross, uncomely, his dishonoured form. 
 Those mighty limbs that bore him bound for 
 
 bound 
 Alongside fleetest stag, now scarce endured 
 His shiftless ponderous weight without support 
 Of docile faun, or cymbal-clashing nymph ; 
 But in the thews that bound his slackened 
 
 arms 
 Yet lingered force beyond the force of men ; 
 As Phormis, one hard shepherd of the hills. 
 Learned to his lifelong cost. For on a feast, 
 After the shearing, he, the clown, enraged
 
 72 SILENUS. . [part ii. 
 
 Silenus would not own his flock surpassed 
 Lycaon's flock, in brute audacity 
 Spurned with his foot the fallen Demigod, 
 Who, gentle as milch kine, or bleating lamb, 
 Flamed in red wrath at such despite against 
 His sunken state ; the cruel foot straight seized, 
 And, for a deadly moment, in his arms 
 Pulsed their primeval strength. Lifting his 
 
 hand. 
 Hard-clenched, he smote the caitiff on his knee, 
 Crushing both bone and sinew into pulp ; 
 And ever after on a crutch the churl 
 Limped out his days ; his withered limb a sight 
 Shepherd and maiden loathed. Vexatious 
 
 boys 
 Threw stone or clod, inviting him to run 
 And chase them, crying, " Catch me if you 
 
 can!" 
 Silenus had obeyed the God of Wine. 
 Too aptly had he in his dolorous mood 
 Worshipped the fragrant drops of Lethe calm ;
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 73 
 
 And succour, used beyond necessity, 
 Changed to an enemy within the wall 
 That unsuspected wrought his overthrow. 
 
 Tho' ofttimes he with Dionysus ranged 
 Countries where demons of outrageous shape. 
 Enshrined in sullen richness, ruled as Gods, 
 His ringing exhortation no more flew 
 Winging the God's intent, and winningly 
 Soothing ferocious gaze to droop-eyed peace ; 
 Inspiring men by fervid influence 
 To shun accustomed evil and reproach. 
 
 Now, as an aged hound, he hung upon 
 His well-loved master's footsteps, and had died 
 Were he forbidden this old privilege. 
 
 Tho' now no more he shook uncultured wilds 
 With great pulsations like a thunderous dawn 
 Of sunflame woven in tempestuous glare, 
 That frets with fire the rim of drifting gloom ; 
 Still, from the charm of constant wont was he 
 A presence so familiar there had clung
 
 74 SILENUS. [part ii. 
 
 Some haunting sense of need unsatisfied 
 
 Had the march lacked his towering merriment. 
 
 Moon following moon beheld Silenus lost 
 In torpor, steadfast, like a willow trunk 
 Casting its image in the shimmering stream. 
 But, when again with living things awake, 
 His spirit gazed as from a lonely star. 
 
 When, stored the vintages, the mirth leaped 
 free ; 
 At rites of death, or feasts of marriages ; 
 When troubles fled the charging revelry, 
 And bowls were filled until the world flew 
 
 round. 
 Smiling he shone the guest predominant. 
 Rough rivals plied the frequent bowl he drained, 
 Until from his unsteady hold the wine 
 Erringly soaked his beard, and crimsoned down 
 His spacious body wasteful to the ground : 
 Then he would sing, and shout, and prophesy.
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 75 
 
 The hinds enchanted ever all agape, 
 
 Eyeballs wide-showing, pressed an eager crowd, 
 
 Noisily claiming he should tell their fates. 
 
 " Your fates ye seek, ye knaves and coarse- 
 skinned clowns ! 
 Ha ! ha ! This Zeus Himself was hot to learn 
 Of great Prometheus, hating whom He fixed 
 In chains on Caucasus, with bird of hell 
 To tear him in eternal agony. 
 What for long ages Zeus so vainly sought 
 Ye would, O modest ones of crook and goad, 
 Have at a word, ha ! ha ! 
 
 " Ply the cup, ply ! 
 Slack not the pouring, ye shall have reward 
 Fate flashing madly off at every point, 
 Like doves, when feeding they behold a hawk ! 
 Fate running from my lips ; tears from mine 
 
 eyes 
 Tight-squeezed from lengthened laughter ceas- 
 ine not
 
 76 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 Will fluster you to such bewilderment 
 Ye shall not know if flowering mead ye tread 
 Where airs immortal breathe, or if ye pace 
 A pathway downward to the hideous gate 
 Of Hades beyond Styx. 
 
 " Ye are unversed 
 In oracles, O ye of herds and sheep, 
 And likewise swine ; each moving patiently 
 To taste the shambles as his lord directs. 
 
 " When first ye feel the axe, or entering knife, 
 Dread no frustration ; knowledge surely comes 
 When life's dark mystery is thus resolved ! 
 
 " Storms hurt you not so thick your hairy 
 hides ! 
 Dull, disregardful ; eating steadily 
 Throughout your placid lives, what moves you 
 
 now 
 Keen to unriddle Fate, forecasting doom ? 
 
 " That doom is ye shall love with love pro- 
 found 
 Your own dear selves and all you call your own ;
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. -]-] 
 
 And from that worship never shall ye swerve 
 Toward deed of grace, or any kindly thought, 
 Unless advantage largely sanctify. 
 
 " When Bion would with sweet Idyia toy, 
 No scruple shall corrupt his bliss. Tho' scorn 
 May hunt her shame to solitary haunts ; 
 What matters ! Snapped its stem the flower 
 
 will fade, 
 And other flowers smile welcome on the way ; 
 They have no voice in their own choosing, yet 
 Breathe sweetness blushing when their sweets 
 
 are plucked. 
 And breathing sweets blush when we pass them 
 
 by. 
 
 " Staunchly wilt thou uphold thy friend while 
 he 
 Toils faithfully to shape thy purposes ; 
 But if of thee unmindful, his desires 
 Wing him to interest apart from thine, 
 Straightway he falls an outcast from thy love, 
 A useless alien or an enemy !
 
 78 SILENUS. [part ii. 
 
 " When multiplied your fathers' flocks and 
 herds ; 
 Corn, oil, and wine in vast abundancy ; 
 Tho' every cup be filled to overflow, 
 Insatiate ye shall hanker for the whole ; 
 Wondering what age, with aches and shrivelled 
 
 stoop, 
 Enjoys to make it obstinately cling 
 To government, prerogative of strength ! 
 
 " The laws forbid. Else in old bygone 
 time, 
 Dim stories run^ the worn were helped away ; 
 And Nature aided in the going out, 
 As she is aided in the coming in. 
 The earth hates cumber. Ah, those ancient 
 
 days 
 When our forefathers by rude wisdom led 
 Measured their usage by necessity ; 
 Direct in every movement, unperplexed ! 
 
 " As yc your fathers your own sons, full- 
 grown,
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 79 
 
 Cresting the heights will proudly stand and watch 
 Your feeble footsteps totter on the slope. 
 Memory then flaunts bright visions of your 
 
 prime. 
 What time you watched your fathers' faltering 
 
 pace, 
 And these cheer not the dangerous passages, 
 As on ye plod in grisly darkness down. 
 
 " Beyond, your immortality shall munch 
 Immeasurable husks ; or bleating shall 
 Wandering on dim illimitable plains 
 Appeal to emptiness with plaintive cry. 
 
 " From boundless herds such bellowing shall 
 scare 
 The shivering spectres, they shall dread return 
 To fret and anguish of mortality. 
 While ye, the weak ones, hover timidly 
 For ever round impenetrable fruit ; 
 Watching the baser strive in vain to seize 
 Bright creatures winged with beauty and sur- 
 prise !
 
 8o SILENUS. [part ii. 
 
 " But why foreshadow thus ? These darkhng 
 jests 
 Make the Olympians laugh ; that sheep and 
 
 swine, 
 And horned oxen mimic freakish man, 
 Who does himself grotesquely imitate 
 The stately pace of Gods ! 
 
 " I would delight 
 My jolly shepherds with a dance of joy, 
 But these old bones now fail me : once I could 
 From rock to rock leap and not fear a fall. 
 Now I can only drink and prophesy ! 
 
 " But gather round me ; for I yet can sing 
 How liberal wine amends the bitter wrong 
 Closed in with life, and unescapeable." 
 
 " How dark and strange the uttered words 
 
 of Fate!" 
 Whispered the herds. " We are we know not 
 
 what ; 
 And wend we know not where. Maybe unmeet
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 8i 
 
 Mortals should know of more than mortal life ; 
 Therefore he utters mysteries for fear 
 We might be mazed, and, into madness driven, 
 Work fell destruction. He would save from 
 
 ruin, 
 As Zeus for love had fain withheld the fire 
 Of living glory when for love He went 
 To Semele. Then let us all affect 
 To track and catch his drift, lest telling more 
 He stagger us with more than we can bear. 
 He told of jests that wake Olympian mirth ; 
 Join then in laughter ; marry with his mood." 
 
 The Satyrs, shepherds, clowns, a motley herd 
 Crowding Silenus round, in one huge roar 
 Joined laughter, shock on shock, peal after peal, 
 Till the mad air was frantically rent. 
 With laughter loud his glowing body heaved 
 Incessant. High his voice above the rest. 
 As 'mid the thrilling chatter starlings make 
 Pierces a falcon's scream. 
 G
 
 82 SILENUS. [part ii. 
 
 The lusty nymphs 
 Tore their wild hair ; plucked their loose raiment 
 
 free, 
 Casting the coloured cloudlets in the air, 
 And seizing each a partner, whirling round, 
 Threw out their limbs in random unison 
 At poise on tightened toes. While bending low, 
 Pairs sprang together mimicking wild beasts 
 Catching their prey ; or, stooping heads to butt 
 Each others' breasts, the nymphs fell sadly 
 
 mauled ; 
 Their bosoms, tenderer than satyr horn 
 Or the hard brow of lout, ached from the blows ; 
 Well pleased to rest they round Silenus closed, 
 Awaiting till his song came rolling forth. 
 
 " Ye red-faced satyrs, all come drink to me ; 
 Your wine-skins shoulder, fill the bowls. 
 Take one deep draught to warm your souls ; 
 Squat snug on your haunches or on bended 
 knee:
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 83 
 
 Raise your arms ; shout a song : praise wine 
 the divine ! 
 
 " Praise wine. Tho' we gasp when we first draw 
 
 breath, 
 We suck life anew from the breast ; 
 And milk is good, red wine is best ; 
 For red wine wrests a breathing time from death. 
 Raise your arms ; shout a song : praise wine 
 
 the divine ! 
 
 " Sad for woman when her own lord is slain ; 
 
 For hopeless the loss she bewails. 
 
 Tho' hopeless, when all comfort fails 
 
 Red wine takes the place where her lord has 
 
 lain. 
 Raise your arms ; shout a song : praise wine 
 
 the divine ! 
 
 " Lowly wine whispers soft words of delight, 
 Innocently fondling her charms.
 
 84 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 From dreams she wakes, within her arms, 
 Lo, holding a new hero strong and bright ! 
 Raise your arms ; shout a song : praise wine 
 the divine ! 
 
 '' Lover, so wretched for his faithless Bliss, 
 He would lie in the grave at peace. 
 Wine brings a cup and sorrows cease 
 As true Love clasping gives delicious kiss. 
 Raise your arms ; shout a song : praise wine 
 the divine ! 
 
 " Weak and strong wine cheers ; the young and 
 
 the old ; 
 Makes valour do all valour can ; 
 Transforms the coward to a man, 
 Who then draws his sword like a warrior bold. 
 Raise your arms ; shout a song : praise wine 
 
 the divine !" 
 
 To his full lips the rich Hephaestion cup
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 
 
 Lifting, Silenus drained its splendour void. 
 A deed so noble fired with zeal the rest, 
 Who emptied theirs in glorious sympathy ; 
 When cheerily again Silenus sang. 
 
 " Who would his flocks and people save, 
 And stands to fight in battle brave ; 
 
 What should he meet 
 
 If he retreat 
 Beat back by overwhelming foes ? 
 A crown of myrtle mixed with rose, 
 And cup of the reddest grape that grows ! 
 
 " One who by words and shifty wiles 
 His true friend's love for him beguiles ; 
 
 Our scorn to show 
 
 What best to throw 
 Over the head that brings disgrace ? 
 The due of cheater false and base, 
 A cup of sour wine dashed in his face !
 
 86 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 " Then rash and foolish wine's abuse ; 
 For good and bad wine has its use. 
 
 This cheers the brave ; 
 
 That sHghts the knave. 
 And merit more who can desire 
 Than raising hero's glory higher, 
 And giving the cheat a bed of fire ?" 
 
 Again the shepherds muttering, 
 
 " What know we 
 Of cheat or hero ? If we can we steal 
 Our neighbour's sheep, and swear it was the 
 
 wolves ; 
 Which is fair honest stealing. But to clip 
 A wolf, and clothe a wolf, and pass it off 
 A sheep, is downright cheating, and denounced 
 Of every shepherd lad. Well, heroes, they 
 Are well enough in stories women tell 
 To tickle gaping babies after dusk ; 
 But fighting, save in anger, we despise : — 
 Hush ! for Silenus tones in lower strain."
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 87 
 
 " How sweet, when memory fades with closing 
 eyes 
 
 And wings of blessed Sleep 
 Fan into slumber deep, 
 When, hand in hand, happy and loverwise 
 We roam at will the vales of paradise. 
 
 " Then Sleep puts her soft cheek against mine 
 own ; 
 
 Or, eyes to eyes content 
 
 In peaceful wonderment, 
 We list the flowers by whispering zephyr blown 
 Trembling in music hitherto unknown : 
 
 " Or from the margin of deep water gaze 
 
 As rising Naiad there 
 
 Wimples her yellow hair 
 To hide faint blushes when her hand she lays 
 In mine, while kissing me in calm amaze. 
 
 " In calm amaze I should have truant played, 
 So lonely long while she,
 
 88 SILENUS. [part ii. 
 
 Perplexed awaiting me, 
 Questioned the rill for tidings, sore afraid 
 I might await her lonely in the shade. 
 
 " But ere my tale of absence I narrate 
 
 She throws the moonbeam charms 
 Of her long loving arms 
 About me, murmuring, Tho' thou comest late 
 I own myself Sleep, Naiad, Love, and Fate !" 
 
 " Silenus maunders," growled the listeners ; 
 " Singing of sleep foreshadows weariness. 
 Let us now lead him to his sleeping-place. 
 That he may rest. 
 
 " Ah ! Look ! The water runs 
 From his old eyes ; but not in laughter now. 
 His face down 'twixt his knees ; both hands 
 
 upon 
 His head as tho' it ached ! 
 
 " These Demigods
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 89 
 
 Are mysteries. With half the wine he drank 
 A mortal had been merry ; not so he. 
 Despairing, dolorous he looks ; and shakes 
 With sobs, as children sob when harshly chid. 
 Mayhap his second childhood comes apace, 
 And stress of singing songs o'ermasters him !" 
 
 As chilled the waning riot with its King, 
 His mirth in some dark sorrow quenched, the 
 
 throng, 
 Then dwindling fast away, soon vanished, save 
 Unswerving nymphs and shepherds who upheld 
 His listless heavy bulk and lumbering feet 
 To his soft bed of fern, laid dry, compact. 
 By tending maidens ; whereon, overthrown 
 With skins that once clad savage beasts of 
 
 prey, 
 Silenus sank ; but, struggling against sleep. 
 He turned uneasily ; then pausing glared 
 At unseen foe ; unaided, sprang upright ! 
 Then, stretching back his right arm suddenly.
 
 90 SILENUS. [part ii. 
 
 Amid loose straw there dangling from the 
 
 thatch, 
 As tho' about to hurl some mighty spear, 
 He shouted, 
 
 " Demon, not the thunderbolts 
 Of all Olympus shall protect thee now ! 
 To carrion will I slaughter thee and glut 
 Wild wolves when maddened with mandragora ! 
 As nothing else, not vulture's stenchy maw. 
 Could gorge such foulness as thine evil flesh. 
 " But no ! For death might be a resting- 
 place ; 
 And I would have on thee the deadliest 
 
 curse ! 
 Therefore live on. Live to feel what thou art ; 
 Then live thou on for ever ! This thy doom." 
 
 The maids and shepherds huddling crouched 
 aghast, 
 Beholding him distraught ; great eyes aflame ;
 
 BOOK I.] SILENUS. 91 
 
 And his whole stature red in furnace-glow ; 
 With voice of lion hungry and enraged 
 Stifling the air grown heated like a den. 
 They knew not what would save themselves, or 
 
 aid 
 Their Lord ; but while they cowered, hesitating, 
 He on his bed fell down and spake no more. 
 
 Timidly then they prop his wreathless head 
 And languid arms. They watch him till he 
 
 sleeps 
 Making hoarse thunder with an even breath.
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 " Having beheld thy lustrous countenance 
 How have I, great Athena, fallen and sinned ! 
 Once to have felt Thy smile ; calm, less severe 
 Than so divinely true, that Cytherea's 
 Before it pales as starlight in the morn ; 
 And shameless afterward breathe like a beast 
 Knowing no purpose but his mate and food ! 
 
 " Beneath Thine azure gaze all troubles cease ; 
 And hopelessly confused entanglement 
 Opens to clearness like a simple flower. 
 
 " My face withdrawn from Wisdom's smile, I 
 lay 
 Befooled by sorrow, useless as a bow 
 Drawn by some hasty hand and overstrained. 
 
 " By Thy resplendency in olden time
 
 BOOK II.] SILENUS. 93 
 
 I wrought with Dionysus in wild lands 
 To give men safety by well-ordered ways ; 
 Enriching to content with fruit and corn 
 Strange peoples, rough and turbulent, who knew 
 No law but will, no pity more than fire 
 From tempest hurled at random throughout 
 
 space. 
 Then toiling dawn as restful eve was sweet ; 
 Then sang the whole great dome of day for 
 
 joy; 
 
 From darkness shone the glory of the stars. 
 
 "Athwart my glory swept a blighting wind, 
 That fouled the air with murky hate and death 
 And evil-doing ; and dismayed I fell 
 Adown the deep inevitable past ; 
 When, bracing up my being, unto Thee 
 I should have turned for succour and for strength. 
 
 "As Dionysus taught, so mixed was mine 
 With fleeting life, the mortal weighed me down : 
 Lacking meanwhile Thy presence and Thine aid, 
 I never rose asjain to God-like state.
 
 94 SILENUS. [part ii. 
 
 Now feeding lowly wants, I dwell amid 
 Coarse satyrs, coarser clowns of sheep and 
 
 herds ; 
 Drinking the grape for comfort and a cloud 
 To cover horrors past. Thus, having grown, 
 Wasteful and aimless, to unwieldy shape ; 
 With scarce the power of motion save to hold 
 The well-filled cup that swells but keejDs me 
 
 down. 
 The grossest churls grin, urging me to sing 
 Ribald and wanton tunes for their disport. 
 And they would make me dance, but well they 
 
 know 
 Unknitted my frail joints ; I shout instead, 
 And chant them prophecies about themselves 
 They do not understand. For while the heat 
 Burns in me, they all change to sudden sheep, 
 And kine, and snarling beasts ; or things that 
 
 pierce 
 To suck the juice of fruit. 
 
 " How changed, alas !
 
 BOOK II.] SILENUS. 95 
 
 From that Silenus whose long spear in weight 
 
 Equalled the spear of Ares ; who could wrench 
 
 A rooted ash out from the solid ground, 
 
 And slay a monster at a single blow. 
 
 Who half a summer day could hold enthralled, 
 
 By exhortation unto deeds of worth, 
 
 A fierce innumerable multitude ! 
 
 " Now, tarnished, bloat Silenus will be borne 
 In tales, thro' lapses of far time to come, 
 As a great wine-skin gurgling laughter-noise 
 That made dull shepherds dance. For shallow 
 
 gaze 
 On some poor failing dwells and sees the whole, 
 Tho' but a halt upon his lengthened march 
 Whose movements were of God-like stateliness. 
 Abundant in fair issues of delight. 
 Let man once stumble, or forget ; once err 
 From weakness, or fierce passion's goad, the 
 
 fault, 
 Alone remembered, wings his cruel fame ; 
 His worth all cancelled, or uncredited !
 
 96 SILENUS. [part ii. 
 
 The splendour of Hephaestion's skill forgot, 
 Each scornful tattler gossips of his hurt. 
 The God who makes the thunderbolts of Zeus 
 Is known to mortals as the God that limps ! 
 
 " As I by mortal thraldom am debased 
 Below the brute, ah ! never more to rise, 
 I would with mine own degradation cease. 
 No longer shaming the Divinity 
 From whom I sprang ; or as a shameless lure 
 To mimicry, when rightly I should flame 
 A fiery signal warding dangerous steeps 
 About whose feet wreck and wild billows 
 play. 
 
 " O Pallas ! Great Athena ! Wisdom's self ! 
 We know Thy sure unswerving course, un- 
 checked, 
 Speeds to an aim Thyself alone canst see ; 
 Unheeding mortals, save a gracious glance 
 Occasionally cast, which they perverse 
 Strain utmost wilfulness to blink ; and hate
 
 BOOK II.] SILENUS. 97 
 
 Even to slaughter and dark dungeon walls, 
 Thy worshipper who lauds the light divine. 
 
 " What comes so sadly and so dear to most 
 Disquiets not the passionless repose, 
 Marking Thy mien all other Gods above. 
 Canst Thou look downward from that lofty 
 
 height 
 Regarding me with other than cold scorn ? 
 If tenderness of perfectness is part, 
 Thine eyes may pityingly upon me fall. 
 And in their radiance I may cease to be ! " 
 
 " A babe," spake Pallas, " beauty in thee 
 moved 
 Immeasurable joy ; the idlest note 
 Enticed thee, as a gaudy Western sky 
 At eventide some careless shepherd boy, 
 Lost and enraptured in its golden light, 
 His flock neglected wandering wide astray. 
 " Thou didst, while drifting into sidelong 
 ways, 
 
 H
 
 98 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 Pursue delusive splendour that delayed 
 And frittered thy advance ; and courage failed 
 When halting thou beheldst the scanty space 
 Trod by thy footsteps in the vanished time. 
 
 "Ill portioned and ill mixed thy nature held 
 Too much of heaven's fire to herd with men ; 
 Too little for the Gods. Hopeless to find 
 An equal, and thence loving, as thou didst, 
 A forest nymph, to make the balance true, 
 More than was fitting gavest her of thyself, 
 And losing her wast dragged so nigh to death 
 Thou couldst not spring to healthy poise again. 
 
 " Instead of nymph hadst thou a Goddess 
 loved 
 She might have scorned thee ; and in fierce 
 
 despair 
 Thou hadst, as conqueror, destroyed with fire, 
 As now with revelry and crimson wine. 
 
 " Save Zeus my Father and loved Hebe, none 
 Of Gods divine have ever touched my hand ; 
 Nor great Prometheus whom I loved and took
 
 BOOK II.] SILENUS. 99 
 
 Within my shield and guarded him against 
 The Horrors vigilant, that, hid or seen, 
 Beset Olympian fire, when bent on theft 
 He dared encounter them for love of man. 
 
 " But thou in thy intent hast guileless been ; 
 Whose fair young love was torn and crushed as 
 
 life 
 Unfolded in her to the perfect flower ; 
 Thou in thine innocence a helpless babe 
 Shalt clasp my hand ; and, as I lead thee 
 
 hence. 
 Thou shalt, tho' late, enjoy the blessed peace 
 Found but within my guard. 
 
 " Strange is thy Fate ! 
 As one great star, beyond thy sight remote, 
 Ringed by lone splendour in the space of 
 
 worlds, 
 Encircled has thy being been with love ! 
 And, as that splendour to the central orb, 
 It never nears but moves for ever round, 
 Thy passion is to thee ! "
 
 loo SILENUS. [part II. 
 
 " O Goddess dread ! 
 And yet I dread Thee not. My hand in Thine, 
 I seem an infant led. That haunting fear 
 Of dire and unimaginable wrong, 
 Hovering malign for the appointed swoop. 
 Is past. Around is calm, and hope beyond." 
 
 " Thou art, Silenus, now within the light 
 Of life. In joyful ease they dwell who tread 
 The ground that bears thee now ; and spirits 
 
 here. 
 Unmixed with transient offspring of decay. 
 Presenting aspects perfect to themselves. 
 Are pure in sympathy with all around. 
 
 " Behold these graceful reeds that waving turn 
 Their edges to the breeze. Thy Syrinx dwells 
 Within them, they are she. The water-flags, 
 With purple candour gazing to thy gaze. 
 Asking thy love, are Leto, Loving thee 
 She pined to death ; and dying hoped to grow 
 In stately water-flags anear her friend,
 
 BOOK II.] SILENUS. loi 
 
 The graceful Syrinx whom on earth she loved. 
 
 " Will but to see them in their mortal guise, 
 Lo, they appear ! Behold them bending low 
 To thee, as thou art bending low to them ! 
 
 " Tall Eriphia w'hom thou loved 'st to watch 
 Because her movements had the measured 
 
 charm 
 Of music when innumerable leaves 
 Sing their thanksgiving with the wind of heaven, 
 Loftily now she droops in yonder birch, 
 Fingering delightedly released perfumes 
 That pause in lingering eddies on their way. 
 
 " Here are no wooings as on earth are known ; 
 Each spirit here loves all, and all love each ; 
 Those who fulfil their lives are here and blessed ; 
 The base as base remain resolved to earth, 
 Becoming food and mansion of the worm. 
 
 "When here perfection ripens, new desire, 
 Breaking its bounds, attains sublimer worlds 
 And rarer fineness in the living air, 
 And inspiration, throbbing passionately.
 
 I02 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 Joins in the music of the sounding spheres ! 
 
 " That spheral region is remote from this 
 Far as thou now art from thy slumbering form 
 Breathing hoarse thunder in the midnight gloom 
 That shudders at the sound. Thou wilt awake 
 Believing this to be a sleep of dreams. 
 Ere entering again that house of flesh, 
 First learn thy fate from me : 
 
 " No evil aim 
 Has stained thy soul that weakness has debased, 
 And, tho' to others thou hast been a bane, 
 It was by ways unmeant. Therefore dread not 
 Fire of exasperate wrath ; nor Furies' scourge 
 Of serpents, poison-fanged, more than thou 
 
 fear'st 
 An azure noon, or love-sick nightingale 
 Warbling his ardour to the evening breeze. 
 
 " Piercing the dimmest future thou canst 
 reach, 
 Thou seest thyself a wine-skin gurgling mirth. 
 Jeered and bcmocked by unborn multitudes.
 
 BOOK II.] SILENUS. 103 
 
 Comfort thyself in weakness. Th9u canst see 
 Into the cycles of immensity, 
 Compared with vision of Olympian Gods, 
 About so far as might a sparrow hop 
 Against my Father's eagle at his speed. 
 
 " In punishment thy name will bear the 
 weight 
 Of well-deserved reproach thro' countless years. 
 But years will end : bright wilt thou reappear 
 Purged of thy grossness ; splendid, as when she, 
 Syrinx, beheld thee hurl thy mighty spear. 
 For truth is strong, and, when unclouded, rules 
 Omnipotent. Men's ignorance and guile 
 Are ofttimes clad in adamantine scales, 
 Impenetrable as this golden mail 
 Guarding my breast ; dashed from the arc of 
 
 which 
 A God-hurled thunderbolt would fly in dust 
 Leaving assault no hope. Impregnable 
 May error be against attack without ; 
 Corrupt within it loosens into ruin.
 
 104 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 " Doubt not thy gentle life and stoned woe 
 Will soften harsh decree and conquer love. 
 Then courage ! Dread no more ! Pursue thy 
 
 Fate! 
 I shall be nigh thee in thine hour of need ! "
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Come hoofs, come heels, and wine-skins ; 
 cow-horns come ! 
 Your spry goats leave to browse the vine, or leap 
 In airy arches over clefted rocks ; 
 But come you hither, hoist the fir-cone high ! 
 
 On thymy hills, O shepherds, leave your flocks, 
 Of mellow-fleece, and bleating let them feed 
 The breezy down ; or, if on roving bent, 
 Let them seek humid nooks of greenest growth. 
 Doubt not of increase ; their own crook-horned 
 
 lords 
 Have keen espial for the ewes' retreat ! 
 
 Your spears becrimsoned by the sneaking wolf, 
 Array in ivy or the looser vine ;
 
 io6 SILENUS. [part li. 
 
 -With fir - cone guard their whetted perilous 
 
 blades ;- 
 Commanding victory, we with juicy grape 
 Offer the cup but hide the pointed steel ! 
 
 Blare horns, crash cymbals, shrill the double 
 
 pipe: 
 Yell satyrs ; bellow fauns ; and shriek ye 
 
 nymphs ! 
 Leaving the swollen udders to their chance 
 Of wasteful galaxy-besprinkled grass, 
 As homeward kine low for the milker's hands. 
 
 Tarry no longer by the rills to braid. 
 Devices freaking your inwoven mats, 
 With clustered seeds that crest the pointed 
 
 rush, 
 O clear-eyed Naiads cool ! Haste, come with 
 
 us, 
 And show wild people how divinely pure 
 The shapeliness of those who tend the vine !
 
 BOOK III.] SILENUS. 107 
 
 Now wends great Dionysus North away 
 Thro' regions where loud torrents round the 
 
 rock, 
 Grinding with thunderous roar its rapid sides, 
 And, shattering down in cataracts of foam, 
 Shine forth in wonder, dazzling, iris-spanned, 
 Of every hue the flowers of summer yield. 
 
 He the gay God will lead adventuring feet 
 And overcome whatever dangers lurk 
 Of hunger, crouching beast, and raging 
 
 storm, 
 Or fury of surprised revengeful man ! 
 
 Then leave, ye loveliest, your tended bees 
 To revel on their honey for a while. 
 Sweetest of sweets new honey from the comb ; 
 But sweeter yet the sweet of hoarded toil. 
 Gathered unceasingly through burdened hours 
 Eyed by keen hunger armed with threatening 
 
 beak. 
 Then let the little toilers feast their fill !
 
 io8 SILENUS. [part II. 
 
 Athena gave the olive. Wisely ye 
 The oil expressed pour into slender jars 
 With lengthened ears that they may hear the rat, 
 Or any two-legged robber coming nigh. 
 But if your oil they rob then let them rob : 
 Better oil wasted than yourselves should lose 
 The show of thronging people mad for joy, 
 Falling adown in worship of the vine ! 
 Then hasten forth to join the fir-coned spears ! 
 
 Be tempted, O ye Dryades, a while. 
 Quit the gnarled safety of your shadowy homes, 
 They were but acorns in the ancient days. 
 What time Zeus, nurtured in the mountain cave. 
 Lay hid from Cronos, child-devouring Sire. 
 Leave beech and birch, cold ash, and broad - 
 
 leaved plane, 
 Ye who can battle with the wintry storm, 
 And dropping summer garments, lithe and 
 
 bare, 
 Resist the strength and teeth of Boreas !
 
 BOOK III.] SILENUS. 109 
 
 In vain we hail the Hamadiyades ; 
 For each, where her twin leaflets broke the soil, 
 Lingers contented on the self-same spot. 
 
 Placid Limniades persuade to move, 
 And for a while forego their heavenward gaze. 
 Assure them heaven is more benign than vast, 
 And will again their steadfastness requite 
 When they returning reassume the watch 
 Of changing glories thro' the day and night. 
 
 For Dionysus plans his march to glow 
 And gleam with nymphs of river, lake, and 
 
 wood, 
 In beauty unconfused. 
 
 Come Oreads, 
 From mountain heights descending : primrose 
 
 hair 
 Borne out from rosy features either side, 
 Quivering like wings that tremble with a song ! 
 Sing to us of great chasms, thunder-split ;
 
 no SILENUS. [part ii. 
 
 Of tempest warfare making noontide black, 
 
 Till spent it bursts in sudden torrents down 
 
 Sweeping hillsides with all their pines away ! 
 
 Ye bright ones, tell of lofty things afar. 
 
 Stern eagles in their solitary haunts ; 
 
 Why they on splintered points a livelong day 
 
 Blink satisfied and silent in the sun ? 
 
 And tell us why they ring the mountain-world 
 
 Ere swooping downward on a destined aim. 
 
 Tho' coy the Nereids, in beauty proud, 
 No garments vex the movement of their charms. 
 Whereon the favoured eyes would love to dwell. 
 But, ever baffled by the waves and flash 
 Of sparkling foam, brief glimpses only catch ; 
 And only mortal high, heroical, 
 Was ever blessed by Nereid's embrace ; 
 As Peleus, who, by Thetis loved, became 
 Father of great Achilles whose renown 
 Went level with the Gods'. Ah ! they could 
 tell
 
 BOOK III.] SILENUS. Ill 
 
 Of wonders in the blue Aegean sea ; 
 
 Of caverns where green monsters ruby-eyed, 
 
 Guard jewels heaped and sprinkled on the 
 
 floor, 
 Crushed gems compounded into glittering sand 
 In times of Chaos ere the Gods were born. 
 But they forsake not their own watery world. 
 Or make brief pauses by the shelving shore 
 To snood their brine -drenched locks, or watch 
 
 the sails 
 Buoyant on dancing laughter-loving waves. 
 
 Great daughters of the ancient Power that 
 clasps 
 The rounded earth, the Oceanides ; 
 Beyond the flight of hope to waken them ! 
 In vast Atlantic water leave them still 
 And undisturbed, awaiting Fate when hence ; 
 In some dim future yet inscrutable. 
 They shall behold their billows thronged with 
 fleets
 
 112 SILENUS. [part II. 
 
 Innumerable, as wild-fowl in their haunt 
 At breeding time on lonely island mere. 
 
 Who would be laggard in a God's advance, 
 Remaining fixed as flowers however fair ? 
 When she might wander with the nightingales, 
 Who fly from land to land and loudly sing 
 Of fairest bloom and all the woodland joy 
 Their tender gaze collects in passing by. 
 
 What can smile lovelier than a Naiad's lot. 
 Whose springs well rippling from the coolest 
 
 depth ! 
 Thro' creviced rock she sees them ever drip 
 And run atwixt moist stones beneath the grass. 
 The grasses spreading finger-tips to feel 
 Unceasing motion thrill them, while the flow 
 Ouiveringly carries on the lustrous day 
 Thro' sweeps of open space, to wind along 
 Rich tillage patched with store by homes of 
 
 men ;
 
 BOOK III.] SILENUS. 113 
 
 And widening out, far-spreading, reach on reach, 
 Commingles lastly with the sounding sea ! 
 
 If she, the dainty and the pure, forego 
 Fixed contemplation of her sacred charge, 
 To follow Dionysus' crowded march ; 
 Who will, regardless of triumphant chance, 
 Here linger, conquered by the cark and fret 
 Of little earthly cares ? 
 
 Sound high the shell ! 
 Raise voice and spear ; move forward foot and 
 
 hoof : 
 Astound the silence of the sleeping hills, 
 And make the forest shiver with your shouts !
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 Forecasting victory lolled the vintage God, 
 The languid-eyed and smooth-limbed son of 
 
 Zeus, 
 Great Dionysus on his tiger huge ; 
 Whose silent glide of pliant-pacing feet 
 Seemed rather drift of undulating flame 
 Than crafty brute compact of bone and thews. 
 
 By fierceness fiercer than the tiger's own, 
 Artaxeres, an orient Prince, had tamed 
 Its savage temper to obedience. 
 Grateful for fellowship and wisdom learned 
 Of Dionysus, for the priceless vine 
 Imparted to his people, he had given 
 As boon his fondled treasure, now subdued ; 
 Soothed to such gentle gait the God could sit
 
 BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 115 
 
 The dreaded back holding his cup so brimmed 
 A bubble setting threatened overflow, 
 And bring to lip without a wasted drop ! 
 
 Now marched he in the rude Edone's land, 
 Ruled by Lycurgus, grim flesh-loving King, 
 Who, hating grain and oil and every fruit, 
 Loathed most the tempting clusters of the vine, 
 Whence oozed the red abominable juice 
 That fires man's brain to waste, and taints his 
 
 blood 
 So thick with foulness, dimmed, his eyesight fails 
 To wing an easy arrow to its aim. 
 
 The King bound every man to bow and spear; 
 Flouting the texture of the tedious loom. 
 For clothing of the beasts ; man's pride to seize 
 And privilege to wear ! Girt by his throng 
 Of worshippers, all guardians of the grape, 
 Divinely tranquil Dionysus passed, 
 Trampling thro' open plot of dazzling flowers 
 His multitude left crushed ; athwart broad shade
 
 Ii6 SILENUS. [part II. 
 
 Mottled by winks of sun, and hovering glints ; 
 Across clear streams their crowding footsteps 
 
 left 
 Puddled to muddy swamp. On one side hung 
 Pale purple mountains ranged along the North, 
 And, sounding near, glittered the azure sea. 
 
 The rolic followers, shouting on their march. 
 Roused to its secret dells the forest depth. 
 Where panthers slunk close listening in their 
 
 lairs ; 
 While fast the rabbit lay, and murderous stoat 
 About to spring, curled smit with sudden fright ; 
 Small songsters diving sank among the leaves, 
 And eagles screaming winged inland afar. 
 
 The God's intent, gift of the precious vine, 
 And needful revelation with his boon, 
 Time, soil, and season ; how to train the shoots, 
 Nip wasteful buds, and note the ripening prime ; 
 How best make ready for the vintaging 
 The jars befitting wine ; or, stored in skins
 
 BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 117 
 
 The gums protecting best from soak and loss ; 
 All wanted for its use ; the God's intent 
 Suffered an overwhelming swift defeat 
 In slaughter, horror, and a field of blood ! 
 
 The Gods themselves, scanning events to 
 
 come, 
 May see with vision blurred ; or make a 
 
 lapse 
 In sequence and mistake the drift. The stars 
 May not in orbits self-determined roll, 
 But swayed by other stars perform their parts. 
 And Dionysus, late triumphantly 
 Returning victor from the teeming East, 
 There having cast the tendrilled witchery. 
 Enthralling peoples with the conquering vine. 
 Assured and satisfied beheld success 
 Upon the people of Lycurgus, King, 
 As he would meditate a cup inwrought 
 With forms by great Hephaestion, for the play 
 And action of their shapes divine.
 
 ii8 SILENUS. [part II. 
 
 As soon 
 Had he imagined those bright forms could turn 
 Storming upon him in an ash-faced rage, 
 Ferocious, uncontrollable, as gift 
 So rich in promise scornfully refused ! 
 While meditating fondly his great boon, 
 A sharp and distant din he heard ; and cries 
 From many quarters, lengthened shouts that 
 
 swelled 
 And gathered, like the tempest from the hills 
 Sucked down the valley round the log-built 
 
 town, 
 That threw blank chill and silence on his host. 
 
 Now, flashing thro' the stormy darkness, 
 bursts 
 A glittering stream of spears, guided by him, 
 Swiftly in measured paces step for step. 
 The grim Edonean King, whose head unhelmed 
 In his wild haste discloses burning hate 
 At deadly heat blanching his countenance.
 
 BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 119 
 
 lie faces Dionysus. When the King, 
 Holding his spears, that shivered in their haste 
 For sharp assault, made fell assail by fierce 
 Impoisoned words barbed with disdain, the 
 
 God 
 Saw a great beast aroused too strong to slay, 
 And strove by promises of sweet account, 
 In brief recital of his purposes, 
 To win acceptance for the precious grape. 
 
 But the king's hate had rooted into life, 
 And grown throughout his being, as the veins 
 That pulsed a net of movement thro' his 
 
 frame ; 
 And wasteful as to woo a hurricane 
 Laden with blight to spare the buds of spring. 
 Is strife with enmity at highest tide. 
 
 If in fulfilment even Gods may fail, 
 Thwarted by force unknown or unforeseen, 
 Malign, and not regarded ; how shall man
 
 I20 SILENUS. [part ii. 
 
 Not stumble and halt, perplexed in ignorance, 
 Checked before sheer unfathomable chasms 
 Across the followed pathway to his hope ? 
 
 Quivering, teeth-set, Lycurgus, in his hate 
 Of Dionysus, terror-stricken lest 
 The God on his stern people breathe the taint 
 He dreaded mostly, worship of the vine. 
 Scarce deigned him breathing-time, ere shriek- 
 ing loud 
 He charged with every spear the helpless host, 
 And baulked escape by sending nimble bows 
 To hold the seaward road. 
 
 Arose a scream 
 Of piteous, shrill, unutterable woe, 
 As struck their entered flesh the shock of spears ! 
 Yells, arrows, blows, spear-thrusts, derisive taunts 
 Mixed to a storm of rage, beating in waves 
 Successive, fiercer each, urged by the King, 
 Whose wrath was lighted into lurid smile, 
 Beholding where the baffled God withdrawn
 
 BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 121 
 
 Scaled a steep rock hard by, and uttered words 
 Of doom. 
 
 But exultation changed anon, 
 When ceasing Dionysus hurled his spear, 
 Fluttering in vine-leaves, thro' the metal shield, 
 Firm breast and sinewy shoulder, crushing thro' 
 The strong bladebone beyond, leaving the King 
 Becrippled in his savage power, reserved 
 For deadlier fate than death from wound of 
 
 spear ! 
 Then from the lofty crag the God adown 
 Plunged headlong in the sea. 
 
 Lycurgus now, 
 Maddened by anguish into fury, blared 
 For slaughter, while he urged them not to spare 
 One that might wag a future tongue and say 
 He saw a King in Thrace smitten by spear 
 Tricked in the juggling leafage of the vine ! 
 While faster flowed the victims' blood, their 
 shrieks
 
 122 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 More loudly filled the vacancy of heaven 
 Appealing to the Gods. 
 
 Silenus heard, 
 And, roused from heavy dreams that held him 
 
 bound 
 And stupefied in some oblivious world 
 Throughout the fearful fortune of the day, 
 Rose like a lion with a rolling roar, 
 Thundering above the havoc, and appalled 
 The slaughterers to wondering pause, while hung 
 Trembling the reddened blades spell-bound in air. 
 
 " Ye murderers," cried he, " degraded slaves, 
 Doing the bidding of a brutish King 
 Who knows nor cares for either right or wrong ; 
 Forbidding you the treasure we had brought 
 Of riches, peace, and laws to govern you ! 
 We offer you the wisdom and the fruit 
 Thousands have bent their toiling lives to find 
 Thro' generations aided by the Gods, 
 Which ye refuse, and welcome us with death !
 
 ROOK IV.] SILENUS. 123 
 
 " Oh Dryantiades, what a fate is thine ! 
 Fell, grisly son of wrath and vengeance thou ! 
 Flesh-tearing wolf in human form ! The wolves, 
 Thy kin, await the feast of mangled limbs 
 Wild horses on Pangaeum's mount shall wrench 
 Asunder from thy carcase shuddering, 
 When they, these murderers, know thy crime 
 
 has lain 
 Stark barrenness accursed upon their land ! 
 
 " That day thy fetters, forged of brightest 
 gold 
 And silver melted from the mountain-side. 
 Shall mock the trailing glories of the rose 
 Blossoming there on thy death-spot, O King ! 
 
 " Thine is a fate so horrible that death 
 In ghastliest imaginable shape 
 Shall seem a blessed boon beyond thy hope ! 
 Mad shalt thou be ! And maddened by the 
 
 vine ! 
 Thy lifelong horror shall around thee cling 
 So close its leaves shall taint thine every meal,
 
 i 
 
 124 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 And canopy thy dreams ; until the world 
 Shall seem to thee but one grape-bearing stem, 
 Which 'tis thy burdened duty evermore 
 To hack at and to hew. And thou shalt find 
 That, fast as thou mayst cut, the dream -vine 
 
 grows 
 Yet faster. Thou unable to descry 
 Man's form from that of trees, shalt hack and 
 
 hew 
 The limbs of Dryas, thine own son, and slay 
 Him who by thee of all was best beloved ! 
 " But hark ; the thunder ! Speaks the voice 
 
 of Zeus ! " 
 
 Then harshly yelled the King, " Enough ! 
 Enough ! 
 A foolish spear driven thro' me should suffice 
 Without the plague of hearing evil things 
 Prophesied on myself ! The voice of Zeus ; 
 Ha ! Ha ! Among our hills the thunders dwell 
 Wanting no Zeus to aid in utterance.
 
 BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 125 
 
 Of these parts I am Zeus ! Thou callcst me 
 
 wolf! 
 What I call thee soon shalt thou hear, ha ! ha ! 
 And mayhap feel the truth. 
 
 " Stand forth there bows ! 
 In that huge wine-bag plant me fifty shafts 
 That I may fairly name him porcupine 
 Bristling in fear to hold us all aloof" 
 
 The bowmen notched the arrows on the 
 
 strings 
 And raised their bows to aim ; but, ere they 
 
 d re w 
 Their shafts back to the head, Silenus cried, 
 
 " Stay, murderers, and blood-stained savage 
 wolf! 
 It were but trifling sport to rend thine arm 
 From out its socket and to splash thy brains 
 Scattering upon the earth. Thy bows and spears 
 But merest straw to fence thee from my rage
 
 126 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 Were I so willed to slay. But thou art doomed 
 To darker fate than any death from me ! 
 For when thou hast thine only son destroyed 
 Thy reason will return. Then shalt thou know 
 Thy loss ! The curse stern Gods have laid on 
 
 thee, 
 Thy country's barrenness, thy people's wrath, 
 The fierce wild horses, and the golden chains ! 
 
 " Thy Father's voice, O great Athena ! Hear 
 Thy worshipper. This is his hour of need ! " 
 
 While spoke the Demigod crashed thunder 
 burst. 
 Blazing one instant in stupendous glare, 
 With sound, as water singing in descent ; 
 With smell of burning hides ; and all was dark.
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 No lowly offered roses at the shrine 
 Of Aphrodite can more richly bloom 
 Than these, Silcnus, we have brought to 
 
 grace 
 The rock that guards thine honoured bones. 
 
 Long years 
 Our vines have blossomed, set, and grown to 
 
 fruit ; 
 The vintages been gathered, drunk the wine ; 
 But thou art still the loss we must bemoan 
 As on that fearful day of blood and fire. 
 When, Dionysus driven into the sea, 
 And thou alone didst face the evil Kin"-.
 
 128 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 Our life-blood ran in streams, till thou wert 
 
 roused, 
 And thy voice rang like thunder from the hills 
 And stayed the slaughter ; when the slaughterers 
 Paused in their pastime, like affrighted ghosts, 
 As thou didst tell the King his dreadful doom 
 Of madness, fury, murder of his child ; 
 And reason waking on the deed of blood. 
 Well couldst thou read the future ; pace by pace 
 The Furies have fulfilled thy prophecy ; 
 The barren country; and the people's wrath 
 Bursting in vengeance on the King accursed. 
 And when upon thee fifty points were bent, 
 Thy voice again in thunder stayed their hands ; 
 Shook the black vault of heaven, brought 
 
 thunders down. 
 Where wonderstruck, in blinding fire, we saw 
 Pallas Athena, spear and shield outspread, 
 And heard Her mighty voice. 
 
 And when the gloom 
 Had passed away, with horror we beheld
 
 BOOK v.] SILENUS. 129 
 
 The fifty bowmen fifty blackened heaps ; 
 While thou wert lying as a babe asleep 
 Smiling- on mother's lap, without a wound 
 From shaft or spear, or stain of thundcr-fire. 
 But they had seen the Gorgon shield and 
 
 turned 
 To hard black stones and sunk into the soil ; 
 For no one could be found to bury them ; 
 And some say vaguely nothing now remains ; 
 Tho' no one knows for no one goeth nigh. 
 
 The flash that slew the fifty felled the King, 
 Who side wise lay outstretched like slaughtered 
 
 wolf. 
 Then ceased the carnage; all male folk were 
 
 slain ; 
 We women taken prisoners and spared, 
 Because they thought us shapely, strong, and 
 
 fair, 
 And, scorning war-slaves for their wedded wives, 
 They gave us freedom, and they married us. 
 We nurse and rear the children of our lords ; 
 K
 
 I30 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 And every day make ready every meal ; 
 Fashion their garments, and keep bright the 
 
 hearth. 
 We do all women have to do for men. 
 These are not worse than men of other lands : 
 Men are much like each other everywhere ; 
 Unfeeling, hard, and coarse throughout the 
 
 grain. 
 Their thews are stouter, and our own must give ; 
 Their wills are sterner, and we must obey. 
 
 This is not what we thought our lives would 
 
 be, 
 Adored Silenus, in the times agone ; 
 When, hallowed by the forest shadowing, 
 We heard thy stories of heroic men 
 Who loved their loving maidens tenderly. 
 We thought the common course of woman's 
 
 life 
 Gently united with the man's she loved ; 
 That every meeting of their eyes bred smiles
 
 BOOK v.] SILENUS. 131 
 
 In happy looks, and words of sweet content, 
 Contentment in each other winged with hope, 
 Sole blessing left us, our forefathers taught. 
 A word of doubtful meaning, never clear. 
 Hope now has left us in another sense : 
 We are but as we are, and must remain. 
 
 It gladdens us to know we had the care 
 Thy memory should receive a warrior's due 
 In this great rock placed where thine honoured 
 
 bones 
 Were laid deep in the grave we filled with 
 
 flowers. 
 For, while the curse clung withering on the land, 
 And nothing quickened in its barren soil. 
 We told the people our offended Gods 
 Must be appeased by sacrifice and prayer. 
 Five hundred strong men came with rolls and 
 
 cords ; 
 Long wooden levers, picks, and spades to dig 
 An even roadway and an easy slope
 
 132 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 Whereon they urged the great rock inch by inch. 
 It gave us joy to watch their sunburnt limbs 
 Brighten with sinewy effort, as the words 
 To move were cried. With simultaneous shout, 
 They clenched, and put together all their strength 
 In one great impulse at the close and set 
 The rock where now it rests. 
 
 The toilers all 
 Fell back, and gazing on the feat awestruck, 
 Knelt, holding forth their arms and praised the 
 Gods! 
 
 We do not chatter idle words of thee, 
 Silenus ; knowing thou wert huge and bald ; 
 Thy lingering locks but loose, and scanty gray ; 
 Thy smiling eyes were moist, and vague thy 
 
 lips; 
 And thy limbs creased with fatness like a babe's. 
 These plain defects, an easy gibe for churls, 
 Awoke within our hearts no pleasantry. 
 Whatever fair reproach might cleave to thee
 
 TOOK v.] SILENUS. 133 
 
 We ever loved thee and thy gentle voice ; 
 Thy gentle voice that patiently disclosed 
 What heretofore our eyes had never seen 
 Our ears had never heard : 
 
 Why sharply edged 
 The driven scud of heaven against the wind, 
 And birds their spring notes sang so lustily ; 
 How the bees, seeking honey for themselves. 
 Ministered singing to the loves of flowers ; 
 How flowers, when in their fullest beauty bright 
 Could lure winged riflers to the fruits' increase ; 
 And why on one cheek alway blushes fruit. 
 Thou wouldst unweariedly narrate to us 
 The stories of the trees ; and why they turned 
 To this incline or that ; why at a slope 
 Whole forest flanks swerved inland from the 
 
 shore 
 Thrifty of leaf ; and why some drooping sought 
 Shelter from light, to root in earth again ; 
 While others proudly, with exalted points 
 Trembling in sapphire, whispered to the wind.
 
 134 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 It did not, loved Silenus, make us love 
 These tales the less because male creatures 
 
 scoffed, 
 Calling them little and of little worth. 
 We loved them with thee ; now we love them 
 
 more, 
 Having lost both the Teacher and his tunes. 
 Our lords have arms of strength, and hold 
 
 their spears 
 As weapons well in use ; and with them we 
 Dread neither panther's teeth nor tusk of 
 
 boar ; 
 For deft are they with bow and arrows winged 
 To fell or check the hare and stag at speed ; 
 But all their talk is ambush, capture, spoil ; 
 Food, drink, and clothing ; and the store for 
 
 fires. 
 Our lords so little heed the joy around, 
 The sweetest flower asks vainly for a smile ; 
 Unnoticed ring the woodland melodies, 
 And march the clouds of noon without regard.
 
 BOOK v.] SILENUS. 135 
 
 Therefore do we on our permitted days 
 Heap the red roses on thy sacred rock. 
 Our lords believe the sacrifice we bring 
 Will add fresh clusters and protect their vines, 
 And they, remembering Dryantiades' fate, 
 Are gruffly lenient toward the rites we pay. 
 
 Our sweetest dreams are dreams of memory, 
 During the toilsome day, when lacking hope, 
 We wander backward in the olden time 
 And gather round thy feet to hear thy tales 
 Of Gods and Demigods, and favoured maids ; 
 Of Goddesses who deigned to mortal love ; 
 And dreadful monsters slain by strength divine. 
 Children of duty and obedience, 
 As these of ours, brought forth in nature's 
 
 course, 
 Babble a duller music than the babes 
 Of love. Kindly we use our helpless ones ; 
 All things are kindly to their tender young ; 
 But children they of our lords' will, not ours, 
 We seem not nursincr our own kith and kin.
 
 136 SILENUS. [PART II. 
 
 Our fathers said the ruling Gods were just ; 
 And haply, when our bones are laid at rest, 
 In the Elysian Fields our shades may meet 
 The lovers of our souls we never found ; 
 When looking back, this loveless life of ours 
 Will be remembered as a feverish dream. 
 Where thine own hand was guide and comforter, 
 Saving us from the pitfalls of despair. 
 Our tears, affection, memory, all are thine. 
 Our solace thou art now. Our sweetest hopes, 
 That ever beck with smiles of welcoming. 
 Are in some way we know not mixed with thee. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed liy R. & R. Clauk, Edinburgh.
 
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