BYTHE-EARLOF-LYTT 
 
 g 
 
 
ERPCEIEY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 . CALIFORNIA 
 
 corge ttidtson.DO 
 
 Sishop of Bristol. 
 
LIN ESS: 
 
 to 
 
 BY-THE- EARL- OF- LYTTON 
 
 LONDON LONGMANS GREEN AND CO. 
 AND NEW YORK 15 EAST i6TH STREET 
 MDCCCXCII 
 
 1 
 
LOAN STACK 
 
3 
 
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 KING POPPY. 
 
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 i 5vi>afj.evwi>. LUCIAN, Verce Histories ^ lib. i. 
 
 " Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy." Hamlet. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THIS poem, conceived in 1872, and first put into 
 verse in 1874, was never entirely out of its author's 
 hands, and was almost rewritten during the latest years 
 of his life. It was Lord Lytton's favourite creation, the 
 one upon which he bestowed the most persistent and 
 loving labour. The poem in its first form was written 
 in little more than four months, but the work of per- 
 fecting it was a slow process, and he would often 
 devote days to the choice of a single word. He was 
 zealously revising it in the summer of 1887, when he 
 was appointed ambassador to Paris. The revision, 
 however, went on in the intervals of leisure, and 
 before the end of 1890 he had finished his correc- 
 tions, and brought the poem to the form in which it 
 now appears. 
 
 The following extracts from private letters may 
 serve to give some idea of the general scope and 
 character of the work in Lord Lytton's own words. 
 Writing to a friend in 1874, he says : 
 " For the last two or three years I have been haunted 
 by the notion of a longish poem which has now 
 
vi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sufficiently ripened in my fancy to enable me to give 
 you a very rough sketch of its general character. 
 The idea of it grew out of a vein of fancy which 
 first suggested the Fables, and which the Fables 
 have kept running. It belongs to the same group 
 and class of compositions but is more ambitious. 
 It is entirely fantastic, a sort of fairy tale. Pro- 
 posed title, King Poppy. The story is supposed to 
 be told by Horatio, quondam Chamberlain to H.M. 
 the King of Denmark, to whom Prince Hamlet be- 
 queathed all those things in heaven and earth which 
 are not dreamed of in our Philosophy." * 
 
 Again in 1880 he writes : "The purpose of it so far 
 as it has any definite purpose is not to prove that all 
 is vanity, but to suggest what a poor tissue of un- 
 reality human life would be if the much despised in- 
 fluence of the Imagination were banished from it. I 
 think that the practical tendency of all the most 
 popular formulas of social and political improvement 
 zs to exclude the imaginative element from the de- 
 velopment of character and society, and to ignore 
 its influence * * * Holding this view, it was a relief 
 to me to write King Poppy, and a sort of whimsical 
 enjoyment to contemplate my own image of the 
 perfection of Government conducted by a puppet. 
 Apart from this the more purely literary idea I had 
 
 * In the original draft of the poem Horatio played a considerable part. 
 He has since been suppressed, nothing being left of him but his sayings 
 in the marginal notes. 
 
INTRODUCTION. vii 
 
 in this poem was to shape out vaguely a sort of 
 Golden Legend from the most venerable and familiar 
 features or fragments of the fairy tales and ballads 
 which float about the world, and which our wise 
 generation relegates to the nursery. The Sleeping 
 Princess, the Enchanted Palace, the Flying Horse, 
 Gamma Gurton. the Old King, and the Young 
 Shepherd, who are the stock characters of the 
 generic fairy tale ; and then the Good Fairy or 
 tutelary genius of this impossible little world, who 
 directs the destiny of its more favoured inhabitants. 
 But if I dotted all my ' i's ' and crossed all my * t's ' 
 what would became of Phantasos ? and enough of 
 this pedantic attempt to tell you what I meant the poem 
 to tell for itself indirectly in its own way." 
 
 The frontispiece and the design of the title-page 
 are contributions to the work by Mr. Edward Burne- 
 Jones, to whom the Author's family desire to take 
 this opportunity of expressing their most grateful 
 thanks. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 LEGEND, A PRELUDE i 
 
 I. THE COURT 47 
 
 II. THE DAME , 69 
 
 III. THE MASTER 99 
 
 IV. THE ISLAND : 119 
 
 V. THE PRINCIPLE 145 
 
 VI. THE KING 169 
 
 VII. THE PRINCESS 187 
 
 VIII. THE SHEPHERD 205 
 
 IX. THE POPPY 219 
 
 X. THE CROWN 231 
 
 XI. THE CORONATION 245 
 
 XII. THE CONSTITUTION 273 
 
 TRANSFIGURATION, AN EPILUDE 295 
 
NOTE. 
 
 THROUGHOUT this book, 'the rubric running by the margin 
 is to the text as a catalogue to a gallery of pictures. For when 
 some painter has embodied in the images of a man and woman 
 his conceptions of strength and beauty, then says the catalogue, 
 1 This is Mars, and that Venus ; ' adding, perhaps, that the 
 divinities so named are there represented in the persons of the 
 King of France and the Queen of Navarre. As much, and 
 indeed much more, is said by the picture itself. But the 
 picture says it in one language, and the catalogue in another : 
 and of those who interrogate the picture, some, it may be, 
 would miss the answer to their question, did they not read it 
 in the language of the catalogue. Yet neither can the catalogue 
 tell them all they ask. 
 
PROLOGUE. 
 
LEGEND. 
 
 PARENT of unremember'd multitudes, cw 
 
 man en 
 
 Oblivious Earth, whose immemorial youth, 
 (Old Age's elder, and of burial born) 
 Gone with the red leaf, with the green returns ! 
 Full many, mortals and immortals both, 
 Coming and going hast thou seen, O Earth, 
 That, gone, return not ; and to thee no more 
 As once they came shall come, with gifts divine 
 Thy woods and streams and vales and hill-tops haunt- 
 ing) 
 Those vanisht guests, the gods of other stars. 
 
 There is a legend, the low-breathing wind When 
 
 men 
 
 In Spring-time whispers to the trees and flowers, Upon the 
 
 earth, 
 
 That some good gift on every flower and tree gave a 
 
 A 
 
2 KING POPPY. 
 
 glowing A guardian god or goddess once bestow'd. 
 
 faith to 
 
 S!?; Pan made the reed melodious : Artemis 
 
 but pre- 
 
 waxing With mystic influence fill'd the moonfern : Zeus 
 
 many, 
 
 began to The cypress, Cybele the pine, endow'd 
 
 grudge 
 
 credit With solemn grace : blithe Dionysus pour'd 
 
 even to 
 
 The strength of his indomitable mirth 
 
 left. 
 
 Into the sweet orbs of the cluster 3 d vine : 
 
 depart- 
 
 Faith"* Ethereal azure fr m Athene's eyes] 
 
 back 
 
 with The dim veins of the violet imbued 
 
 them to 
 Heaven : 
 and men, With pensive beauty : Cythereia's kiss 
 
 Faith, 
 
 invented Cnmson'd the balmy bosom of the rose : 
 
 Know- 
 
 Aii that Leaf of unfading lustre Phcebus gave 
 
 knew To the green laurel : washt in Here's milk, 
 
 how to 
 
 was White shone the immaculate lily : and the ripe corn 
 
 doubt of 
 
 thing 'by Demeter robed in Oriental gold. 
 
 men in- 
 
 So"fhai God-gifted thus, the rich earth's dusky breast 
 
 men's in- 
 ventions 
 
 endure but for a season ; and, as they come, they go. Not so the leaves and blossoms 
 that, going, come again. \Vhereby the divine beauty of the earth renews itself, 
 and is forever. For the gifts of the gods outlast men's faith in the heavenly 
 givers of them. And they, before they left it, clothed Earth's naked earthliness 
 with starry flowers that, turning filth to fragrance, are sweeter than the flowerless 
 stars, 
 
LEGEND. 3 
 
 Gleam'd, with innumerable hues adorn'd, 
 
 As heaven's gay bow. But of all flowers that throng'd Herebe- 
 
 ginneth 
 
 That undeserted garden of the gods .Legend 
 
 of the 
 
 The fairest deck'd Demeter's maiden child, wh?ch'' 
 
 sheweth 
 
 In Enna blooming for Persephone. 
 
 the 
 
 Her, for the sake of her sweet dower, the lord p r a o P se f 
 
 pine. 
 
 Of barren Orcus in forced nuptials bore, 
 
 A ravisht bride, to his abysmal home. 
 
 But frustrate was the boisterous theft of Dis, 
 
 To whose inhospitable realms transferr'd 
 
 Her floral treasures perish'd all save one, Q f 
 
 whose 
 
 And that one the least beautiful of all. online 
 
 remain - 
 
 A plain wild Poppy it was, of common kind, 
 
 Land of 
 
 With cup faint-scented, and as pale in hue 
 
 As the white bosom where it slept unseen 
 
 When he in haste from Enna's bowery meads, 
 
 And her scared maidens, snatch'd her. This shut 
 
 flower 
 In its delicious sanctuary escaped 
 
4 KING POPPY. 
 
 The suffocating pestilence that broods 
 For ever above the Acherontian Fen, 
 Fatal to mortals ; and beneath her zone 
 The virgin found, when she disrobed herself, 
 Its snowy-petall'd blossom. 'Twas the last 
 Of all things lovely in her life on earth 
 The touch of Death had turn'd not into dust, 
 And she would fain have saved it. But she knew 
 That long unhurt in Death's morose domain 
 It might not linger, nor returning pass 
 The Stygian Ferry with Death's toll unpaid. 
 She con- Obscure and wavering, as the windy pines 
 
 Mor- 
 pheus A midnight storm's convulsive glare reveals 
 
 how she 
 
 Thro' lurid gaps, along the halls of Hell 
 
 preserve 
 
 Plutonian Princes bow'd their vassal heads 
 In homage to Persephone. With these 
 Was one of softer aspect than the rest, 
 Who, in the semblance of a sleeping child, 
 On bat's wing borne came wafted from afar. 
 
LEGEND. 5 
 
 Caressingly his little shoulder propp'd 
 
 His pillow'd brow, with sallow hops encircled, 
 
 And silent as the falling of the snow 
 
 His flight he wing'd. To him her vext desire 
 
 To save this living object of her love 
 
 The goddess of the loved who live no more 
 
 Confided. " Queen," the Son of Hypnos said, 
 
 " Eternal slumber hides from life's unrest, 
 
 And death's undoing, those my wings enfold 
 
 In sable silence." " Tush ! " the goddess cried, But 
 
 " Eternity of slumber, is that all all his 
 
 coun- 
 
 Thou hast to offer one not yet awake ? 
 Keep for the weary thine unvalued boon, 
 Or store it where, in mocker}' of them both, 
 Delusive sculpture mimics life and death, 
 Possessing neither." Morpheus murmur'd, " Sleep 
 Thou wilt not, and no other gift have I. 
 But Lethe, the blind sister of my sire, 
 Could give thy favourite Forgetfulness." 
 
6 KING POPPY. 
 
 " For him," she said, "'tis happiness preserved, 
 Not happiness forgotten, that I crave. 
 How shall I help, where hide, him ? Whom invoke 
 And For his protection ? " " Me ! " a merry voice 
 
 giveth 
 ear to 
 
 the Responded, sweet and sudden as the note 
 
 voice of 
 
 tasos, Of an exultant skylark. Locks of light 
 
 the 
 Founder 
 
 of Ro- With blossoms girt, and dripping splendid dews, 
 
 mantic 
 
 Flow'd from the radiant forehead of the boy, 
 If boy it were, whose penetrative eyes 
 Glow'd on Demeter's Daughter. Their regard 
 Redden'd her white cheek, that beneath it burn'd 
 Bright as the faded fire a breath revives 
 In hueless ashes, as she answer'd, " Thou ! 
 Who art thou ? Ganymede, or Love ? " He smiled 
 Mysteriously ; and, answering in his stead, 
 " Beware of him ! " the God of Slumber sigh'd, 
 Whose " It is my madcap brother, Phantasos. 
 
 doings 
 
 abomi- The faiiest of our kindred, and most false. 
 
 nation 
 to his 
 brother, the Guardian of Classic Repose. 
 
LEGEND. 7 
 
 Too calm for his quick essence, and too cold, 
 
 Our classic clime ; nor even to Hermes known 
 
 That wild exuberant region of Romance 
 
 His footstep, follow'd by the future, roams." 
 
 The Apparition, lightly turning, laugh'd, 
 
 " Disloyal brother ! Is it thus forsooth 
 
 Of me thou speakest when awake ? Go, sleep, 
 
 Ungrateful one, and with a glad remorse 
 
 Acknowledge my beneficence ! The lean 
 
 And hungry nights that in thy void abode 
 
 Devour each other, for thy sake, I feed 
 
 On fairer hours than all that dancing strew 
 
 Roses and lilies round Aurora's car." 
 
 " Ay," mutter'd Morpheus, " for thou paintest time Hence 
 
 between 
 
 With truthless promise, and thy lies persuade ciLsic 
 
 and the 
 
 Even darkness to mistake itself for light. He "end- 
 
 less con- 
 Rashly I gave thee ill-requited leave] 
 
 To haunt my quiet kingdom. Fool'd by thee, 
 Slumber is now the slave of thy deceits, 
 
8 KING POPPY. 
 
 And waking but a memory of lost joy." 
 Then to Persephone once more, " Beware, 
 'Tis Phantasos ! " he murmured sighingly. 
 " Sole author he of those dumb dramas play'd 
 In the fantastic theatres of Thought 
 By puppet actors. For this God of Whims 
 Within him hath what, otherwise employ 'd, 
 Might make him dangerous. His absurd designs 
 Surpass the bound and order of the world, 
 And ever doth he vaunt his power to build 
 A world all boundless in a box of bone, 
 Itself no bigger than a human skull." 
 Her drowsy monitor the goddess heard 
 Proser- Unheedful, and to Phantasos appeal'd, 
 
 pine 
 confides 
 
 in Phan- " Fair stranger, if to thee such power belongs, 
 O save this menaced remnant of the life 
 That once was mine among the flowers of earth ! 
 For dear its little blossom is to me, 
 As the lone babe that on her bosom smiles 
 
LEGEND. 9 
 
 To a forsaken mother." O'er her stoop'd 
 
 The sleepless brother of the God of Sleep, 
 
 With vans that heaved impatient to depart. 
 
 " Child of Demeter, to my care confide 
 
 This sleeping mortal ! " he exclaim'd. " And thou, 
 
 MEKON, the darling of Persephone, 
 
 Thine, for her sake, shall be a throne sublime, 
 
 With endless rule above a boundless realm." 
 
 " Boundless ! " she cried. " If such a realm there be, 
 
 What is the unknown name of it?" He snatch'd By. 
 
 whom 
 
 The Poppy from her hesitating hand, Poppy 
 
 is borne 
 
 Waved it in sportive scorn above the brows 
 
 Of Morpheus, who was sleep-bound on the wing, 
 
 And fled away, aerial kisses wafting 
 
 From lips that, as he left her, whisper'd " Dream ! " 
 
 Deep in a wondrous world where heaven and earth Into 
 
 Drear 
 
 Are mingled where the living and the dead, 
 
io KING POPPY. 
 
 United, from their mystic union bear 
 Transcendent beings far as stars removed 
 From all that lives and dies a wondrous world 
 Where yesterday, to-morrow, and to-day 
 Are one day and the same the Poppy breathed 
 Enchanted air. And thro' its timeless noon, 
 Continually o'er the fields of sleep 
 Coming and going, as he came and went, 
 Weird Phantasos, one finger at his lip, 
 Husht commune with the white-robed dreamer held. 
 And But all he said was in a language lost, 
 
 taught 
 
 guage of Or learn'd not, by the wakeful and the wise. 
 
 that 
 
 It was the language to midsummer woods 
 In whispers utter'd by the evening wind ; 
 The language warbled in their roundelays 
 By jubilant rivulets ; and the nodding wheat 
 And sighing barley in low undertones 
 Its wordless tongue to one another lisp, 
 Stirr'd by the gossip bee's incredible tidings 
 
LEGEND. ii 
 
 Of deeds the Poppy in his dreams hath done. 
 
 And still the Poppy dreams ; and, dreaming still, A land 
 
 of many 
 wonders 
 
 An empire wider than the world beholds, 
 
 Where nothing fails or fades. To longing eyes 
 
 The absent there return, nor even know 
 
 That they have been away. There, all alert 
 
 As the task'd Genius of Arabian tales, 
 
 Desire achieves impossibilities, 
 
 Laughing, " That, only ? See how soon 'tis done ! " 
 
 There, wishes whisper, " We have waited long 
 
 To run thine errands. Whither shall we hie ? 
 
 What shall we fetch thee ?" There, the crooked path 
 
 Lies straight ; and, self-untwined, the tangled skein 
 
 Falls smooth and even. The tired traveller fares 
 
 Fleet over that immeasurable land 
 
 All in a moment, stirring not a foot ; 
 
 While the chain'd culprit on the donjon stone 
 
 In fancied innocence and freedom smiles, 
 
 Deaf to the headsman's footfall at the door. 
 
12 KING POPPY. 
 
 For there the Realm of Consolation teems 
 With miracles of mercy, by whose aid 
 Misery to a dream the truth converts, 
 Wherein The dream to a reality. And there 
 
 the } 
 
 Poppy 
 
 behold. A whisper'd message hath the Poppy heard, 
 
 eth his 
 future 
 
 king- " Behold a kingdom that awaits a king ! 
 
 dom. 
 
 But who is he that can possess it ? Men 
 Not long can live in it. The gods above, 
 That live for ever, know it not. To them 
 No need of consolation ever comes. 
 And thou, who should'st the monarch of it be, 
 Dost lack the regal robe, the kingly crown." 
 " Ay, but the kingly heart I lack not," laughs 
 The ambitious dreamer, " nor the regal will ! " 
 And all the while along the fields of sleep 
 Phantasos comes and goes ; and all the while 
 The Poppy hears a husht voice, murmuring 
 Words to the wakeful and the wise unknown. 
 
LEGEND. 13 
 
 'Twas night, deep night. The sevenfold heavens The 
 
 Visible 
 i . -. Universe 
 
 were thick ; s a 
 
 system 
 
 With throbbing stars ; and thro' them, seeking rest, ^er of 
 
 govern- 
 
 WanderM a restless and extravagant Spirit. whereof 
 
 the Sun 
 
 Horsed on a comet's hurricane of fire, 
 
 ruler. 
 
 He pass'd the trembling Pleiads, and aflame 
 
 and 
 
 His meteoric locks behind him stream'd order 
 
 Absolute 
 Liberty 
 
 Between the Lyre and Crown. " Dull Earth," he hath no 
 
 place. 
 This 
 
 moan d, Universe 
 
 existeth 
 
 " Of thee I craved but freedom and repose ; 
 
 dience 
 
 Yet ever hast thou mock'd me with the choice, laws 
 
 that 
 
 Expulsion or imprisonment ! And thou, 
 
 tence. 
 
 Bright foe whose hate where'er I fly pursues, neither 
 
 is any 
 
 law absolutely true. Therefore is it in the negation of all things that Abso- 
 lute Liberty seeketh Absolute Truth. To the light that rebel saith " Thou liest ! " 
 and to every fact "Thou art a fraud !" And because, for this reason, Absolute 
 Liberty is everywhere repressed, its fierce destructive spirit would fain find in the 
 delirium of intoxication a momentary escape from the tormenting consciousness of 
 an eternal and universal restraint. But there it findeth only Madness ; and, allied 
 with Madness, it haunteth the Realm of Reality. There man's place is fixed. But 
 his faith in its foundations is troubled by the influence of that turbulent Spirit ; and 
 a fear hath fallen on him from the ever-recurrent echoes of a voice wailing 
 through the Visible Universe, "All is illusion ! " Man, therefore, doth also aspire 
 to the attainment of a world wherein Truth and Liberty are absolute. Every_ path 
 to such a world the gods, its jealous guardians, have beset with snares ; and in the 
 grape man findeth only a false guide, gained over to their cause. When the foot 
 of the climbing mortal is on the last step of their divine sanctuary, this false guide 
 throweth off the flattering mask, and leaveth the dupe of its flatteries grovelling on 
 the ground. 
 
14 KING POPPY. 
 
 Tormenting and intolerable Sun, 
 Is there from thee no refuge ? Once I -dwelt 
 Safe, as I deem'd, within the grape's dim orb ; 
 But happiness on earth is never safe, 
 And I was only happy. Who betray'd 
 The asylum of my mystery ? Men strove 
 To wring that mystery from the garrulous grape, 
 But the Sun fears me ; and, lest all I know 
 To all be known, the grape with fire he fill'd, 
 Kindling confusion in his brain who blabs 
 The secret whisper 5 d to the grape by me. 
 Me, whom the world proscribes because it dreads 
 My mockery of its miserable dupes ! " 
 Then Thus raved, in his rebellious wretchedness, 
 
 doth the 
 
 sJSi And, blind with passion, beat the eternal walls 
 
 whose 
 
 Of the unshaken Universe in vain, 
 
 madness, 
 and 
 
 whose motion is revolt, fly, a baffled prescript, from the Actual World that 
 fears and rejects it. Passing beyond the bounds of Space and Time, which cir- 
 cumscribe the sphere of that world's influence, it enters the illimitable region of 
 dreams, and wins from the charitable power of Phantasos admittance to an Ideal 
 World where unrestricted truth is found in unrestricted fancy. There, Passion 
 passes into Poesy: and, because the Absolute Law of that world is Absolute 
 Liberty, there at last doth the rebel become the ruler, 
 
LEGEND. 15 
 
 That rack'd fiend, Phrenoleptos. No escape 
 
 Did his immense and sombre prison-house 
 
 Vouchsafe the frenzied Spirit, and everywhere 
 
 He sought what nowhere could he find ; till, far 
 
 Beyond the confines of Locality, 
 
 Roaming the realms of Phantasos, he spied 
 
 The snowy-vested flutter-headed flower 
 
 That deem'd itself their monarch. " Ha ! " quoth he, 
 
 " Not big with gossip as the grape art thou, 
 
 Pale visionary ! and secure methinks 
 
 In thy white bosom will my secret sleep." 
 
 Then stole the world's tired exile, unrebuked, 
 
 Within the sweet heart of the Poppy's dreams. 
 
 But there the power of Phantasos transform'd 
 
 His turbulent passion's unappeasable cry 
 
 Into that sacerdotal oracle 
 
 Of Consolation's Realm, its listeners call 
 
 The " Voice of Poesy." To them that voice 
 
 Is murmuring still the secret of the world. 
 
1 6 KING POPPY. 
 
 And " Me," it sighs, " the world doth still proscribe, 
 
 Knowing that I am Freedom, which it fears ; 
 
 And men mistrust me still, for I reveal 
 
 What they deny, refute what they affirm ; 
 
 And still my law is not as theirs, and still 
 
 They deem me lawless, who have here regain'd 
 
 My lost legitimate liberty. Beware, 
 
 Poor slaves of Reason, who run after Truth ! 
 
 Wake her not. She is dreaming. Once awaked, 
 
 Truth will be folly. Trouble not her dreams ! " 
 
 Here By all her flowery island lawns, and all 
 
 doth a 
 
 legend The nymph-loved hollows of Sicilian hills, 
 
 that is 
 
 grow Demeter sought Persephone. She found 
 
 out of 
 
 onfthat 'Twixt lilied Cyane's low banks afloat 
 
 is old, as 
 
 frond" 1 ' The maiden's veil, but of the maiden's fate 
 
 from the 
 
 No further trace ; and from her cry forlorn 
 The river-nymph fled sighing to the sea. 
 Seaward the goddess folio Vd, swift of foot, 
 
LEGEND 17 
 
 And o'er the dark wind-furrow'd waters, clear 
 
 As shines the white wing of a glancing gull, 
 
 The flash of her un wetted sandal flew 
 
 From shore to shore. Yet, round the orbed earth The 
 
 Quest 
 
 All regions searching, news of her lost child 
 
 Nowhere to guide her did Demeter get 
 
 From gods or mortals. For the Son of Ops 
 
 Had husht with gifts his kindred deities, 
 
 And clamorous ignorance here, dumb terror there, 
 
 Guarded his secret on the lips of men. 
 
 Back to her Syracusan bowers she came, 
 
 A wandering desolation in whose path 
 
 Cornfield, and olive grove, and vineyard shed 
 
 Their blighted fruits, and perish'd. Habit's ghost, 
 
 Whose ways are backward to a goal that's gone, 
 
 Hope's place assumed, and round the loved resorts 
 
 Of a departed presence still renew'd 
 
 The search by Hope abandon'd. Roaming thus 
 
 That dale to Alpheus dear, she reach'd the fount 
 
 B 
 
1 8 KING POPPY. 
 
 Within whose chilly depths a home secure 
 
 Chaste Artemis to Arethusa gave. 
 
 There all day long beside the spring she stood, 
 
 Grey, gaunt, and silent as its grotto'd rock, 
 
 In a dumb trance. But when the sun was sunk 
 
 Her anguish overflow'd. The mighty frame, 
 
 Ravaged and wasted by a grief divine, 
 
 Quick-rushing storms of sudden pangs convulsed ; 
 
 And, wide outstretching from her childless breast 
 
 Arms like the lean boughs of a blasted oak, 
 
 She cried aloud. The eagle, whose lone sleep 
 
 No thunder rouses, from his sky-girt crag 
 
 Responsive scream'd ; the hooting sprites that haunt 
 
 Deep mountain glens, a distant host, replied ; 
 
 And night's innumerable solitudes 
 
 Shouted to one another in the dark. 
 
 " Persephone ! " she call'd. " Persephone," 
 
 The woods re-echo'd, and the long ravine. 
 
 That many-voiced lament the sobbing fount 
 
LEGEND. 19 
 
 Carried down earth's cold veins to it sea-source ; 
 Where round their urns, tired travellers from afar, 
 Grey river-gods repose, and Tritons stall 
 Their fin-tail'd steeds in azure caverns. There Are 
 
 thusa 
 
 'Twas heard by Arethusa. Naiad she, 
 
 to Ceres 
 
 And Nereid both ; to whom the hoary king Ra e of 
 
 Proser- 
 
 Of all the waters of the world confides P ine - 
 
 His brother's secrets and his own. For they 
 
 Between them rule the deeps, Poseidon those 
 
 Of Ocean, Pluto all that Orcus hides. 
 
 Moved by Demeter's woe, the pitying nymph 
 
 On her pure spring's oracular ripple arose, 
 
 And all the wrong by Pluto done reveal'd, 
 
 The infernal nuptials, and the ravisht bride. 
 
 Then swift, with footsteps fierce as driving storms, The 
 
 Daugh- 
 
 To her dread goal the indignant goddess strode Saturn 
 
 to whom 
 
 The mountain tops night-laden. From her frown 
 
 gave the 
 
 The frighten'd dawn shrank, and beneath her foot jgun- ^ 
 
 earth, and her mother Vesta its procreative fire, follows her vanished offspring under- 
 ground ; and the abodes of Death are invaded by the presence of a life-giving Power. 
 
20 KING POPPY. 
 
 The fixt earth shudder'd, as in wrath she reach'd 
 That cavernous peak whose formidable crest, 
 Flashing and thundering, reverberates 
 The roar and glare of her Cyclopian Hearth. 
 For 'mid the smoking snows of Etna burn 
 For ever, fuell'd by a Titan's pain, 
 Unquenchable fires ; and the deep-throated gates 
 Of vaults that plunge to the infernal gods 
 There on their groaning hinges gape and rock, 
 Shaken by sulphurous tempests. Her broad brows 
 With blades of shaggy gold and blossoms blue 
 The glowing goddess crown'd. A giant branch 
 Torn from the sinews of a resinous pine 
 She kindled, and in clanking harness yoked 
 Fast to her brazen car its dragon team. 
 Thus fiercely charioted, her strong right hand 
 Above her waving that huge torch, the while 
 Loud in her left she shook the rattling reins, 
 Along the lampless chasms of nether night, 
 
LEGEND. 21 
 
 (Wild homes of hurricanes subterranean) 
 
 Crown'd with red corn she went, and robed in gems 
 
 Of Autumn, gleaming thro' a dayless world. 
 
 Between the silent realms of Sleep and Death, depths 
 
 of 
 
 Demeter's dragon car for guidance paused 
 
 At Dreamland's cloudy portals, whose husht valves 
 
 At her approach roll'd open from within ; 
 
 And thro' those yawning gates, all ears and eyes, 
 
 The blades and blossoms, garlanding the brows 
 
 Of the great sunburnt goddess, peep'd alert. 
 
 Deep in an evening-lighted land, that sloped 
 
 By many an undulous declivity 
 
 Of purple fold and emerald dimple, down 
 
 From summits girt with golden clouds asleep 
 
 In still abysms of azure air, to shores 
 
 Of citied promontories crown'd with towers 
 
 And gleaming ramparts acropolitan 
 
 Mirror'd in luminous waters, all alone 
 
22 KING POPPY. 
 
 Upon a radiant eminence reclined 
 Poppy The kingly Poppy. Of larger growth he look'd 
 
 reposes, 
 
 Than his Sicilian kindred ; sweeter light 
 Than streams from earthly suns illumined all 
 His snowy vesture ;, and above him stoop'd 
 Weird Phantasos, whose procreant sorceries 
 Fill'd, and then emptied, and then fill'd again 
 With visionary images of life 
 XSSfve That fervid stillness - Of the S d ' s breath born, 
 
 Fancy 
 
 Up. the high downs with spear and pennon sprang 
 
 Resplendent armies ; thick the bays beneath 
 With masts in thousands bristled ; and o'er the plank'd 
 Wet wharfage merchants, mariners, and slaves 
 sSence Came swarming fast. Yet silent as the march 
 Of sculpture round some monumental frieze, 
 The busy visions teem'd. Thro' column'd streets 
 Went festal crowds that, to the temples trooping, 
 Clash'd cymbals from whose kiss there came no 
 sound ; 
 
LEGEND. 23 
 
 And, thridding sacred groves, the choral dance 
 
 With rhythmic footstep heaved to flutes unheard. 
 
 Anon, life's mimic pageant disappear^, And 
 
 solitude: 
 
 And o'er the re-establisht solitude crea- S 
 
 tions 
 
 Down-gazing, in the shadow of himself, jj l e "|? in 
 
 and for 
 
 Upon a peak in heaven a dusky god 
 
 Sat sombre. One big star above him burn'd, 
 
 And in the land below to worship him 
 
 Was neither man nor beast. Creating thus 
 
 And thus dissolving worlds at every breath, 
 
 To charm the darling of Persephone, 
 
 Phantasos hover'd o'er the halcyon couch 
 
 Of the deep-dreaming Poppy. And there, enwrapt 
 
 By wonders, with a god to wait on him, 
 
 But lost to earth and earth's realities, 
 
 Lost to his native fields and natural life, 
 
 Again the cornflowers and the corn beheld 
 
 children 
 of the 
 
 Their changed companion of the days of old. Actual 
 
 the r 
 
 pupil of Phantasos is regarded as the slave of pernicious illusions ; and the Corn 
 would fain reclaim the Poppy. 
 
24 KING POPPY. 
 
 Sadly they hail'd him from afar. " Return, 
 
 Stray'd child of Nature ! To thy natural world 
 
 Return, ere yet irrevocably lost 
 
 In those vainglorious visions that beget 
 
 The passion of the impossible ! " they cried. 
 
 And while the dragon chariot roll'd away 
 
 Darkling, and Dreamland's gates behind it closed, 
 
 Still linger'd the importunate appeal. 
 
 " Hark, 'tis thy mother's children call thee ! Home 
 
 With us, thy kindred, hers and ours again ! " 
 
 No echo answer'd it. But as where'er, 
 
 Incongruously with the dawn's rebuke, 
 
 Thro' some shut house of revel a wakeful ray 
 
 the 
 
 suffi- Of daylight wanders, all the flaring lamps 
 
 ciency 
 of the 
 
 ideal Burn sallow, and the panting dance appears 
 
 life is 
 shaken 
 
 Defaced and haggard, so thro' Dreamland went 
 
 sudden 
 
 with The horror of a disconcerting change ; 
 
 realities, 
 
 uncx- A troubled consciousness of something miss'd, 
 
 pected 
 
 disapproval of those to whom reality is the only known measure of truth, 
 
LEGEND. 25 
 
 A doubt of what remain'd. And from that hour 
 The kingdom of the Poppy was confused. 
 
 The Batwing'd God came flitting thro 3 the halls 
 
 explains 
 
 Of Hades. He approach'd Persephone, 
 
 how 
 
 And said, " Fair Queen, I warn'd thee ! " " But what mortals 
 
 are im- 
 pelled, 
 
 fails by the 
 
 necessity 
 
 His measureless felicity ?" she ask'd. nature, 
 
 towards 
 
 " Hath he not all I wish'd him, the repose realiza- 
 
 tion of 
 The glory, and the gladness of a god ? " jjf *' 
 
 how, if 
 
 " Ay," said the Son of Hypnos, " these he hath, ^ rt ' 
 
 that im- 
 
 But in dreams only ; and a mortal, he. j^ 56 ? 
 
 pine for 
 
 Hence this disorder. Heavy as despair 
 
 unpos- 
 
 Reality on mortal nature weighs. 
 
 midst of 
 
 Amid the beauties and beatitudes posses- 
 
 sions un- 
 
 Of his unreal kingdom, he recalls 
 
 His waking life, his little rural home, 
 
 The narrow field where he was bom, the air 
 
 He breathed on earth in common with his kind ; 
 
26 KING POPPY. 
 
 And thus remembrance ruins his content, 
 Marring its grace with incongruities." 
 Again she question'd him. " Since when the change ? " 
 And Morpheus answer'd, " When to these dark realms 
 Thy mother came, her brows were garlanded 
 With corn and cornflowers from the furrow 5 d glebe 
 Whose harvests her Trinacrian barns enrich. 
 By the dim borders where with thine and mine 
 My brother's kingdom marches, halt she made, 
 Uncertain, craving guidance at the gates 
 To the Of Dreamland's citadel. For Phantasos 
 
 unseen 
 
 the At those husht gates hath minions on the watch 
 
 dead 
 
 many To proffer lone wayfarers phantom charts 
 
 ways, 
 
 they Of whatsoever lands unseen they seek ; 
 
 return 
 
 And winged visions that flit on before, 
 
 from 
 
 ; m . Illumining the vast and shadowy void 
 
 no 
 
 report 
 
 of it. For the living all ways to it lie through the realm of Phantasos, whose 
 ways are never the same. Among the guides he appoints for the conduct of 
 travellers entering his dominion in search of it, are Faith, Hope, Fear, and 
 Curiosity. Each guide conducts the seeker by a different road ; each road takes 
 him in a different direction ; and which is the right one, who can say ? For the 
 geography of that world is written only by those who have never reached it. 
 
LEGEND. 27 
 
 With beacon lights, he lends them. Dreamland oped 
 
 At her approach, disclosing Mekon's realm, 
 
 And all its wonders. There, when him once more 
 
 Amazed they met, the corn and cornflowers hail'd 
 
 Their old companion. O'er the fair deceits 
 
 Of Phantasos a breath their presence breathed 
 
 Of natural life, th^t from those golden lies 
 
 The glory for a moment chased away. 
 
 They gone, the old illusion reassumed 
 
 The power to charm, but from its charm was pass'd 
 
 The power to satisfy ; and, unappeased, 
 
 The dreamer pines to realize his dream ; 
 
 For now the pure impersonal delight 
 
 First felt in dreaming it, he feels no more." 
 
 " Alas," the Queen of Hades cried, " undone 
 
 Is Mekon's realm ! From torment what can save 
 
 The self-tormented ? " " Let the ingrate go, 
 
 Nor Fate," said Morpheus, " thwart ! If wise she be, 
 
 I know not, but I know that she is strong, 
 
28 KING POPPY. 
 
 And weak thy favourite. What, if his return 
 
 To Earth she wills ? When thine her will forbade, 
 
 Did not the tasting of a single seed 
 
 Of that Elysian fruit, she snared thee with, 
 
 Suffice her froward purpose to defeat 
 
 The fiat wrung from Zeus ? " " To earth, alas," 
 
 The goddess answer'd, " who of mortal source 
 
 From Death's dominion can return alive ? " 
 
 "From Death's dominion," Morpheus murmur'd, 
 
 " none. 
 
 But Death o'er Dreamland hath no empery. There, 
 Where Heaven, and Earth, and Hell, in one confused 
 Mad welter of wild incongruities 
 Are intermutual, and nothing true, 
 All things are possible." Persephone 
 Was troubled. " Summon Phantasos ! " she sigh'd. 
 But he, whose succourable power responds 
 To sighs and wishes swifter than swift speech 
 With thought keeps pace, ere Morpheus could reply, 
 
LEGEND. 29 
 
 Was bending o'er her, radiant as a star. 
 
 " Mourn not ! " he said. " If for his Mother Earth phan . 
 
 tasos 
 
 The Earth-born pines, from her maternal breast Jgjjj d 
 
 his mes- 
 
 It skills not to withhold him. But this change, 
 By me foreseen, my purpose favours. Long 
 On earth an earthly messenger I sought, 
 None finding worthy of my vast design. 
 Now, all that fail'd me in this flower is found ; 
 A mortal fitted to receive, preserve, 
 And with a boundless prodigality 
 Impart to mortals, an immortal gift. 
 On Mekon is my mystic mandate laid, 
 And his henceforth the mission to reveal 
 The Realm of Consolation to a race 
 Else irremediably miserable. 
 For him lament not ! To his parent soil 
 My wing shall waft him, there to roam or rest 
 Till, from a world of subjugated woes 
 And pacified repinings, he hath won 
 
30 KING POPPY. 
 
 The goodly kingdom he aspires to rule." 
 \ 
 
 No answer biding, sudden as he came 
 
 The fitful god departed. And anon 
 Poppy ^e PPP V reappear^ upon the earth. 
 
 rejoins 
 
 s rthl One morn he woke, and wondering found himself 
 
 kindred. 
 
 iut in Back in his native field, a common flower. 
 
 crowd 
 
 around "O is it I " he mused, "whose flimsy coat 
 
 him he is 
 alone ; 
 
 his vast The wind thus flutters ? mine, this heavy head, 
 
 ambition 
 una.p- 
 
 peased, And cringing neck, that hang beneath the weight 
 
 his 
 
 gifts un- Of worlds unrealized ? Within me pent, 
 
 recog- 
 nized. T , 111 i- . 
 
 Dwel- Is glowing unemploy d a power divine 
 
 ling un- 
 
 amongst To gladden others. But the blissful gods, 
 
 those 
 
 though Not having aught to wish for, scorn my gift, 
 
 closest 
 
 to^him, Wish-granting dreams, The flowers (my kin no 
 
 furthest 
 
 more!) 
 
 ledge of 
 
 what he Are self-sufficing as the gods themselves ; 
 
 ISj 116 
 
 doth yet 
 
 Beauty they lack not, and 'tis all they need. 
 
 himself I t J 
 
 to be a 
 
 king. But only by the aid of that potent discontent which is the special attribute 
 
 of Humanity, can he hope to gain possession of his kingdom. 
 
LEGEND. 31 
 
 The birds from heaven, the beasts from earth, demand 
 
 No gift but what from heaven and earth they get. 
 
 But man ? Insatiable mortal, made 
 
 Conscious of immortality, in thee 
 
 Methinks I see my promised kingdom ! Men, 
 
 My future subjects ! I have watch'd you pass, 
 
 Despondent, confident, by hope impell'd, 
 
 By fear pursued, the sport of all desires, 
 
 All wants, all whims, all passions ; and, reveal'd 
 
 In every look of your importunate eyes, 
 
 I recognized a pilgrim to my realm. 
 
 Yet all unheeded still you pass me by, And 
 
 tnean- 
 T- ) j i i while, 
 
 For 'tis appearances, and these alone, being 
 
 without 
 
 That men confide in. O for robe and crown ! insignia 
 
 of sove- 
 
 Mankind would in my kingdom then believe, 
 
 hood is 
 
 Seeing in me the semblance of a king." 
 
 by his 
 
 Poor crownless monarch of a realm denied, 
 Lowly he lived among the crowded corn 
 An inconspicuous life, or drooping roam'd 
 
32 KING POPPY. 
 
 By many a dusty roadside unremark'd. 
 But when the wishful hour of sunset came, 
 Along the solitary fields he sigh'd, 
 " O thou who wast before the worlds began, 
 
 He ap- 
 
 for aid Thou, whose primordial potency uprear'd 
 
 to that 
 
 invisible ,, ... 
 
 but The vast pavilions of the universe, 
 
 omni- 
 
 source of And call'd the stars from firmamental deeps 
 
 power, 
 
 have"" Sun-breeding glory-bearing source of all, 
 
 issued 
 
 $ s $ Infinite .Ether, hear me, and give help ! " 
 
 manifes- 
 
 tations Obedient to the Power he had invoked, 
 
 For this 
 
 tremours search'd the lull'd air's breathless orb, 
 
 potency 
 
 And loosed from sleep the lightest wind of those 
 
 foun- 
 
 tains of That, moth-like, o'er rose-petalPd paths pursue 
 
 the sun 
 with 
 
 With frolic wing their desultory flight. 
 the earth Over the smooth translucent pools impell'd, 
 
 with life, 
 
 thereby A roughening darkness tremulously ran ; 
 
 even the 
 
 men The wheatfields waved ; and a sweet voice enquired, 
 
 with 
 
 " Of me what wilt thou ? " " Regal robe and crown 1 " 
 
 cometh, 
 
 answer to the prayer of the Poppy, a whisper out of the West upon the wings of 
 the Evening Wind. 
 
LEGEND. 
 
 33 
 
 The Poppy answer'd, " for a king am I." 
 "Fool," sigh'd Favonius, "fond ambitious fool ! 
 The crown, a golden prison, incarcerates care 
 In brows beneath it pent, and heavily hangs 
 The blood-stain'd purple robe of royal power 
 About the loaded shoulders it adorns. 
 Such burdens, little one, thou couldst not bear." 
 " 111 thou divinest," the proud suppliant said, 
 " What force immeasurable in me resides. 
 Fear not to aid me ! " " Be it as thou wilt ! " 
 Reproachfully that sighing voice replied. 
 " The stern Fates punish the presumptuous 
 By granting their desires. Not mine the gifts 
 Thou cravest. All my gifts are gifts of peace. 
 The foresight of the gods hath fixt the crown 
 Upon the inaccessible pinnacles 
 Of mighty mountains, and the purple plunged 
 Deep underneath unfathomable seas. 
 
 He that can bring thee what thy pride hath craved 
 
 C 
 
 The 
 Poppy 
 urgeth 
 hisclaii 
 to the 
 
 He is 
 warned 
 by Fa- ; 
 vonius 
 of the 
 perilous 
 charac- 
 ter of the 
 gifts he 
 craves. 
 But in 
 vain. 
 
34 KING POPPY. 
 
 Is the dread Storm- Wind that disturbs the deeps, 
 And And smites the summits. Him I will invoke. 
 
 Fa-. 
 
 TnTOketh Prepare thee to receive him when he comes ! 
 
 the 
 
 Kin ^* S v i ce ls terrible, and his embrace 
 
 Crushes what it caresses. Thou art warn'd." 
 
 Then, on his light wing soaring, the sweet Son 
 
 Of starry Night and starless Erebus 
 
 Glided along the Ocean's azure floor, 
 
 And roused the Petrel sleeping on the wave. 
 
 " Bird of the Storm, awake ! " he cried, " thine hour 
 
 The dry Approaches. Where is Khamsin ? " " Far away, 
 
 wind of 
 
 Hid," said the Storm-Bird, " in the Nubian waste." 
 " Go seek him, bird, and bid him hither bring 
 
 Arabs 
 
 Kham- The emblems of imperial power ! " " For whom ? " 
 
 sin ; that 
 
 [he Say ' " A mortal " " Khamsin to a mortal's call 
 
 Fifty- 
 
 No response deigns. His march hath overwhehn'd 
 
 .ror he 
 
 cometh 
 
 before, Memphis and Thebes, and to the Pyramids 
 
 and he 
 
 follow- 
 
 eth after 
 
 the Spring Equinox ; and the period of his power waxeth till the Sun hath entered 
 
 into Ares, and waneth when the Sun hath left the Ram ; and two score and ten 
 
 are the days thereof. And by the sand that he driveth eastward Sahara is enlarged, 
 
 and JEgypt menaced. 
 
LEGEND. 
 
 35 
 
 Close have his tawny cohorts laid their siege : 
 
 For all the Orient he hath sworn to give 
 
 To his beloved Sahara. Not to serve 
 
 The ambition of a mortal, Khamsin roams 
 
 ALgypt, and ^Ethiopia, and the lone 
 
 Arabian desert, and the Libyan wilds." 
 
 " Call, then, Sirocco ! " " He is sleeping still," 
 
 The Petrel answer'd, " where he loves to rest 
 
 In a white sea-girt city of the South 
 
 Under a purple promontory. There, 
 
 Above his sallow couch a reeky cloud 
 
 Its poison-dropping canopy suspends ; 
 
 And in his husht embrace, by slaughterous feast 
 
 To leaden slumber lull'd, about him clings 
 
 His pale bride, Pestilence. Awake them not ! " 
 
 " Canst thou not bear a message to Simoom ? " Simoom 
 
 hath: 
 reared 
 
 Simoom at sunset in Persepolis his 
 
 palaces 
 
 High revel holds, and round his blood-red throne the 
 
 tombs of 
 Persian 
 
 kings. At his approach the lion hideth in his lair, and the camel croucheth, and 
 
 the camel-driver commendeth his soul unto Allah. 
 
 Sirocco 
 sleepeth 
 in the 
 soft 
 cham- 
 bers of 
 the 
 
 South ; 
 and 
 
 when he 
 waketh 
 the 
 
 death- 
 bell 
 tolls 
 
36 KING POPPY. 
 
 The lions tremble. But beyond the realms 
 
 Of Persia and of Araby his power 
 
 Prevails not, nor beyond the waves my wing ; 
 
 Therefore to him no messenger am I." 
 
 " How fares Harmattan ? " " On the scorch'd sea-shores 
 
 Har- 
 mattan 
 
 haunteth He builds in Guinea travelling towers of dust 
 
 shores of _ 
 
 Guinea. To assail the Sun, his ancient enemy. 
 
 He is 
 
 cold 1 ;" Shrouded and sudden as a glaring ghost, 
 
 and 
 
 everhe Harmattan pass'd me, and I saw no more." 
 
 passeth, 
 
 ll rass of " Monsoon is in this season idle. Say, 
 
 the field 
 
 and the Hast thou not met him on the road to Ind ? " 
 
 leaf of 
 
 forest The Petrel panted, shiver'd, and replied, 
 
 are whi- 
 
 by a '* "The sun had bared the brows of Himalay, 
 
 leprosy, 
 
 the dull And from Thibet's parch'd plain the tepid air % 
 
 of his 
 
 whed Rose m gher than hath ever soar'd the roc. 
 
 But east 
 
 and , Then, by the Void allured, Monsoon arose. 
 
 west.and ' ' 
 
 north 
 
 and 
 
 south, in calm or storm/as his humour changeth, Monsoon roameth the vast waters 
 
 of the Indian Ocean. Beneath the palms of Malabar a dusky Peri rocked his giant 
 
 cradle, and on the rosy shores of Coromandel shining clouds have spread the couch 
 
 of his repose. Ever, when the Sun is in the southern heaven, Monsoon marcheth 
 
 north and east ; and when the Sun is in the northern heaven, he hasteneth south 
 
 and west. For of him hath the Sun no homage. In the burning wilderness of 
 
 Thurr stands, harness'd all the year, the chariot that beareth him to the feet of 
 
 Himalay, laden with Ocean-plunder from the rifled treasuries of Ormuz and. the 
 
 isles that are rich in spice. 
 
LEGEND. 37 
 
 In deluge from the rainy deep he rush'd 
 
 Exultant, and beneath his dripping wing 
 
 All Hindustan was darken'd, till he reach'd 
 
 The Realm of the Five Rivers. Thence, sublime 
 
 Along the lonely Asian glaciers, borne 
 
 On sable clouds, whose swollen darkness flew, 
 
 Scourged white by whips of fire, he pass'd away 
 
 To his Uranian halls. And there he waits 
 
 To speed the downfall of the avalanche." 
 
 " What of Typhoon ? " The Petrel rose and scream'd, 
 
 " Look yonder at Orion, and beware ! 
 
 Typhoon is coming. Way for King Typhoon ! " 
 
 Then, lashing with her sharp wing the white crests 
 
 Of the roused waves, the Prophetess of Storm 
 
 The 
 
 Fled fast before the coming of her lord. 
 
 Ty- 
 
 Over the rocking seas and ravaged lands, 
 
 cometh 
 
 In fulgent state, with trump sonorous, march'd robe and 
 
 crown 
 
 Typhoon's insulting majesty. The tops from the 
 
 sultry 
 seas of 
 
 Of tallest forests underneath him crouch'd, Cathay; 
 
38 KING POPPY. 
 
 And crack'd, and trembled like the grass o' the field. 
 Aloft he brandish'd in his livid grasp 
 The streaming rags of the rent thunder-clouds, 
 ^. n And shrill he sang, " Both robe and crown I bring ! 
 
 the 
 
 symbols The crown of terror, and the robe of wrath, 
 
 power, 
 
 A spoil'd world's gold and purple ! But for whom ? 
 
 Where is the giant destin'd to support 
 
 This weight of glory ? " A faint infant voice 
 
 Lisp'd eager, " He is here, and I am he ! " 
 
 Low stoop'd Typhoon, and search'd long while the 
 
 ground. 
 " Thou ! Who art thou, pert pygmy ? " " One that 
 
 claims 
 
 For what is strongest upon earth Desire, 
 The robe and crown," that lisping voice replied, 
 De- And loud and long the savage Storm-King laugh'd. 
 
 spiseth 
 
 power of " Wretched enough is Royalty," he growl'd, 
 
 him that 
 
 them " But 'tis not yet ridiculous. Empty pate, 
 not. 
 
 Take that for thine ambition ! " And he flung 
 
LEGEND. 39 
 
 The Poppy upon the flint. But its small root, 
 
 Fast as an anchor fixt, the shock withstood 
 
 Of him who shatters in his boisterous sport 
 
 Great Carthaginian triremes, and the tall 
 
 Phoenician galleys, as a wassailer strews 
 
 With broken cups and wine-flasks the drench'd floor 
 
 Of his disorder'd palace. " Saucy weed ! " 
 
 Mutter'd Typhoon, " who granted thee the strength 
 
 Thy miserable aspect so belies ? " 
 
 " 'Tis Phantasos," the Poppy said. " Behold ! Never- 
 
 rrj theless 
 
 the 
 
 Not empty, as thou deemest, is my head. Poppy, 
 
 r J1 * reassert- 
 
 ing his 
 
 Seest thou these lucid beads in each, a world claim to 
 
 the 
 crown 
 
 Of beauty, sweetness, and sublimity ? doth 
 
 justify 
 
 These are my treasures. And as they in me same, 
 
 un- 
 . .. . , . , daunted 
 
 Are living now, so ages hence in them by the 
 
 wrath 
 
 Shall I be living. Thou dost boast of realms phoon; 
 
 Made deserts by the desolating breath 
 
 Of thy dread nostril ; but not all thy power 
 
 He 
 
 Can overthrow the kingdom I command. 
 
40 KING POPPY. 
 
 by right Down from the rockt mast's windy rigging hurl 
 
 divine. 
 Lord 
 
 Para- The sleeping seaman to his ocean grave, 
 
 mount 
 
 King- And in the fearful moment of his fall 
 
 dom of 
 
 tion? He will have deem'd that him some wing divine 
 Is bearing to the bosom of the gods. 
 I call back smiles to the sad lips of her 
 Whom thou hast widow'd in the midnight storm. 
 Mine is in all the world the sole domain 
 Death cannot enter. Kings my subjects be, 
 And in my lap they cast their cares away. 
 I gather up the fallen leaves of life, 
 And in a moment make them green again. 
 I breathe upon the worn-out hours of time, 
 And round the paths of unarisen suns 
 
 terJai M:i " My breath sustains their renovated flight." 
 
 jealous 
 
 of ideal Resentfully the sullen answer hiss'd : 
 
 Force, 
 would 
 
 "If such thy power, if such indeed thy gifts, 
 
 to 
 
 the Rashly hast thou reveal'd them. Canst thou deem 
 
 dreams 
 
 Earth : That I, the wandering soul of him who slew 
 
LEGEND. 41 
 
 Osiris, I whose dauntless pride hath toss'd, 
 Untamed by anguish, unsubdued by fire, 
 On Etna's burning bed, will leave to men 
 The meek enjoyment of what far transcends 
 .The bliss I grudge the gods ? Thy vanity 
 Hath doom'd thee to destruction ! " At the word, And the 
 
 Poppy is 
 
 The Titan Storm- King, terrible Typhoon, ed and 
 
 taken 
 
 Sprang with a shout on that pale King of Dreams, 
 And strangled him, and twisted off his head, 
 And with the trophy thro' the stariM abyss 
 Soar'd up into the solitudes of space, 
 Beyond the watch-fires of the Universe. 
 There, thro' the lone translucent void, Typhoon 
 Scatter 3 d the silver seeds of golden dreams. 
 Where'er they fell, from flowers to stars they turn'd, 
 And in that pure ethereal field put forth 
 A multitude of pallid radiances, 
 By wondering mortals call'd " The Milky Way." 
 But one of them, one seedling of a dream, 
 
42 KING POPPY. 
 
 Aided That in its little germ perchance contain'd 
 
 by Fa- 
 
 Undream'd-of dreamlands, on the way was lost 
 
 carried 
 like 
 
 Anchises Twixt earth and heaven. Favonius all this while, 
 
 by his 
 
 spring, Rockt as a cradled infant in the robe 
 
 he 
 
 from P hb Of the rough Storm-King, watch'd the whirling seeds. 
 
 captor, 
 
 wlth'hnn But ^ e > ^ e patron of the hopes of earth, 
 the 
 
 Pitied their floral prophet's desperate plight, 
 
 of his 
 
 power. And f rom t h e turgid mantle of Typhoon 
 Caught in his fragrant bosom, as it fell, 
 Which, This wandering grain. There was a rocky isle 
 
 with 
 ^ood 
 
 counsel Where no man dwelt, and whither nothing came 
 
 to the 
 
 But winds, and birds, and the storm-billow'd waves 
 
 aspirant, 
 
 nius Of a wild sea. Favonius, hovering here, 
 
 conceals 
 
 ns Whisper'd, " Last germ of an ideal world 
 
 rocks 
 
 Jnfn. Rejected by the mighty, wait in hope 
 
 habited 
 
 Thy promised hour ! The gifts thou didst demand 
 I could not give thee. But I give thee now 
 A gift the punctual Destinies deny 
 To sceptred kings illimitable time! 
 
LEGEND. 43 
 
 From wistful slumber, oft as spring returns, 
 My breath shall wake thee to a life renew'd ; 
 And thou, survivor of a thousand storms, 
 Shalt greet a thousand summers with the smile 
 Of an invincibly re-orient bloom. 
 Never, child, never will the hands that grasp 
 The globe and sceptre yield thee crown or robe ! 
 The gold is for the great, for the supreme 
 The purple. Neither Pomp nor Glory grant 
 To thee their emblems. But the little hand 
 Of Childhood opens lightly, and its gifts 
 Are tendernesses that are given ungrudged. 
 Seek, then, poor child, from other children seek 
 What Childhood gives its rosy-mantled mirth, 
 Its diadem of innocent delight, 
 Such robe and crown as never king yet wore ! " 
 And lightly, softly, as her sleeping babe 
 Safe to its shelter 5 d cot a mother bears, 
 Earthward that orphan seed Favonius wafted, 
 
44 KING POPPY. 
 
 And laid it in the crevice of a crag. 
 And Tenaciously the grateful crag's stout heart 
 
 sown by 
 
 a fleet- Conceal'd the rescued treasure ; and anon 
 
 ing hope 
 
 barren To the thin root that from it crept and craved, 
 
 soil, the 
 
 rescued .. 
 
 germ of Feeling about for nurture and support, 
 
 worlds 
 
 Three gifts vouchsafed (the crag's own attributes) 
 
 forth a 
 
 blossom. Loftiness, loneliness, and steadfastness. 
 
 So still the Poppy dream'd ; and still his dreams 
 
 Were of an empire wider than the world, 
 
 A royal mantle, and a kingly crown. 
 
 And still the ages came, the ages went ; 
 
 But him they brought no grander gifts than those 
 
 The guardian rock had given him. All alone, 
 
 ^shall With neither robe nor crown nor kingdom, he, 
 
 have 
 
 also Dreaming of kingdom crown and robe to come, 
 
 speak. 
 
 Ho- Awaited the fulfilment of his dream. 
 
 RATIO, 
 
KING POPPY 
 
I. 
 
 THE COURT. 
 
 Now, once upon a time there was a king. 
 
 a miss- 
 
 King of a country once upon a time "? 
 
 3 chapter 
 
 of the 
 
 Call'd Diadummiania, was he. Almanac 
 
 de 
 Gotha, 
 
 His kingdom's capital was Diadum, 
 And Diadummianus was his name. 
 
 This simple statement " Once upon a time 
 
 r And de- 
 
 scribes a 
 
 There was a king, et catera " may appear 'and un- 
 
 dreamed 
 
 Somewhat indefinite to all whose minds Geo- 
 
 graphy ; 
 
 Have by Geography been prejudiced, 
 
 Or warp'd by History ; for such folks persist 
 
 In always asking (just like children) where, 
 
 47 
 
48 KING POPPY. 
 
 Which is And when, and how things happen'd. To appease 
 
 an exact 
 
 Their puerile curiosity, the world 
 
 proved 
 
 well- e Acknowledged by Geography contains 
 
 known 
 
 Those places only that a man may reach 
 
 when a 
 
 pea-: ^ v sea or ^ an ^j incurring as he goes 
 
 dfsap 
 
 without ^e risk f being sea-sick, ship-wreck'd, drown'd, 
 
 leaving 
 
 Robb'd by inn-keeping rogues along the road, 
 
 and it is 
 
 nearly Qr search'd upon the frontier by police. 
 
 that he 
 
 has met Neither by land, however, nor by sea 
 
 with 
 
 fatal Need travellers any sort of risk incur 
 
 disaster, 
 
 graphy, In reaching Diadummiania, 
 
 at great 
 
 equip? 6 ' And therefore it is mention'd on no map. 
 
 an ex- 
 
 Yet where else could have happen'd all the things 
 
 quite 
 
 About to be related in this book ? 
 
 For such 
 
 xacti. Certainly not in England. Anywhere 
 
 tude of 
 
 Except in Diadummiania 
 
 that it ' 
 
 takes no They would have been impossible. 'Tis true 
 
 account 
 
 of the 
 
 mere probability of disaster, however great ; whilst, on the other hand, it has 
 
 furnished us with accurate knowledge of the actual occurrence of a vast number 
 
 of extraordinary disasters, which, but for geographic research, might never have 
 
 occurred. 
 
THE COURT. 49 
 
 That Diadummiania as yet 
 
 Is unacknowledged by Geography ; 
 
 But this, tho' true, proves nothing. The north pole 
 
 Geography acknowledges with pride ; 
 
 And yet, instead of it, discoverers find 
 
 Only the frozen carcasses of those 
 
 By whom 'twas not discover'd. True it is, 
 
 Moreover, that to none of the events 
 
 In this authentic chronicle set forth 
 
 Hath History any notice yet vouchsafed. 
 
 But what of that ? Geographers at least, 
 
 Even when they find not what they seek, succeed labours 
 
 3 ' ofGeo- 
 
 In sometimes finding what they have not sought ; 
 
 the 
 
 And then, by merely finding it, they prove ing of 
 
 the pre- * 
 
 That what they happen to have found, exists. 
 
 known. 
 
 But what Historians seek exists no more, 
 
 Whereas 
 those of 
 
 And what they find is but a record left 
 
 torians 
 tend to 
 the un- 
 
50 KING POPPY. 
 
 Of something which, for aught that record proves, 
 
 May never have existed. Scripta manent / 
 
 Ay, and the Ministerial Journalist, 
 
 Whose scripture daily decks our morning meal, 
 
 To coming ages glowingly presents 
 
 Pictures of how this favoured realm of ours 
 
 Its present gifted government preserves 
 
 From every possible peril, and endows 
 
 With countless blessings coveted in vain 
 
 By all the other nations of the world. 
 
 What past was ever such a present ? Turn 
 
 The first page of the Opposition Print, 
 
 And all those glowing pictures melt in gloom. 
 
 If History's prime architect, blind Chance, 
 
 Of these two scriptures should select the first 
 
 For the instruction of the babes unborn, 
 
 Posterity will certainly affirm 
 
 That in the west of Europe, at the close 
 
 Of that enlighten'd century, the nineteenth, 
 
THE COURT. 51 
 
 There bloom'd a better'd Arcady. But ah, 
 The second scripture may the first survive, 
 And then, in after ages, by mistake 
 Folks will confound Great Britain with Byzant. 
 
 The scripture stays, the truth escapes perchance Authori- 
 
 ties con- 
 . . suited 
 
 In flying words ; and men the meaning miss by the 
 
 um- 
 
 Of ' Scripta manent, verba 'volant! Words, 
 
 torian. 
 
 Fugitive migratory words, there be, 
 
 That birdlike hover in the air, and fleet 
 
 By ways invisible from land to land. 
 
 In every language they have left behind 
 
 Their lingering echoes. Native air they breathe 
 
 In every clime, and every folk believes 
 
 It was the first to hear them. Round the world, 
 
 Safe over shipless seas, untrodden wastes, 
 
 And mountain tops impassable, they pass. 
 
 Their passage none can stop, none stay their flight, 
 
 Their 
 
 Nor set the uncertain course of it. But, fraught 
 
 and 
 
 With intimations from afar, in flocks PP U " 
 
 ' Janty, 
 
52 KING POPPY. 
 
 Or singly, here and there they settle down 
 Unbidden ; and where rural homes abound 
 They build, and brood, and, singing, fill men's hearts 
 With wonder, and men's memories with song. 
 That song in written speech no more abides 
 Than the lark's music, or the nightingale's, 
 And Science scorns it. But the untutor'd folk, 
 Whose bookless lore was old ere hers began, 
 List to it, love it, learn it, and transmit 
 Traditions of its truth from age to age. 
 'Tis they whose witness warrants our belief 
 That once upon a time there was a king, 
 And Diadummianus was his name. 
 
 A His was a goodly kingdom. Safe asleep 
 
 United 
 
 There in its birthplace Monarchy reposed. 
 
 No otherwhere, nor ever since that once, 
 
 Hath such a kingdom been. Time's restless waves 
 
 The wandering cradle of the nations waft 
 
THE COURT. 53 
 
 Hither and thither ; and to every shore 
 
 That gives it shelter that toss'd bark bequeathes 
 
 A handful of invaders. In the blood 
 
 Of its inhabitants these bandits soak 
 
 The soil that gives them hospitality ; 
 
 And, when no drop of native blood remains, 
 
 They patriotically shed their own 
 
 For what they call their native land, a realm 
 
 Foreign itself, by foreigners possess'd. 
 
 But hoary Monarchy's dim childhood slept 
 
 In Diadummiania secure 
 
 Where it was born : and to the king the land, 
 
 As to the babe its mother's breast, belong'd ; 
 
 He to the land, as its indigenous hills 
 
 And immemorial forests. Now, the throne Ada 
 
 Did- 
 
 Of Diadummiania had pass'd ml'an 
 
 Age after age from princely sire to son 
 In male succession, till this tale begins ; 
 When, after many a year of hope deferr'd 
 
54 KING POPPY. 
 
 Her Majesty the Queen was brought to bed. 
 The public duty tardily perform'd 
 Death of On that occasion was her life's last act. 
 
 the 
 
 Consort. But on the day before she left this world 
 
 Her Majesty most graciously vouchsafed 
 To introduce to it (with due regard 
 To all court rules for royal births and deaths) 
 And A little princess : who, as soon as born, 
 
 birth of 
 
 Princess Was christen'd Diadema. When the King 
 
 Dia- 
 
 dciiicX. 
 
 Heard that his Heir Apparent was a girl, 
 Which His royal mind was mightily perplex'd. 
 
 gives 
 
 dynastic Never before had such a case occurr'd, 
 dfffi- 
 
 And no provision for it could be found 
 In any of the statutes of the realm. 
 Dis- The Court Physician fell into disgrace 
 
 grace 
 of the 
 
 Court In consequence of this untoward event ; 
 
 Phy- 
 
 S1C13.H. 
 
 For which all felt that someone was to blame, 
 And if not he, then who ? He had delivered 
 The Queen in her own presence, and of a child 
 
THE COURT. 
 
 55 
 
 Whose sex was contrary to precedent ! 
 
 The funds went down : the oracles went wild : 
 
 The weathercocks went every way about 
 
 And back again, for they no longer knew 
 
 Which way to turn. These minatory signs 
 
 Alarm'd the Government : and, with concern, 
 
 The Minister of Public Safety learn'd 
 
 From the Inspector General of Police 
 
 That lately in the streets of Diadum 
 
 The sanguinary and seditious cry 
 
 Of Cherry Ripe had more than once been heard. 
 
 That was the revolutionary song, 
 
 The Diadummianian Marseillaise. 
 
 Whenever it was heard about the streets 
 
 You might be sure that things were getting hot. 
 
 A Deputation, led by the Lord Mayor, 
 
 Proceeded to the Palace ; where, the King, 
 
 Acting upon his ministers' advice, 
 
 Was graciously, with much displeasure, pleased 
 
 Dis- 
 turbed 
 state of 
 public 
 opinion, 
 
 And in- 
 creasing 
 popular 
 excite- 
 ment. 
 
 Deputa- 
 tion to 
 -the 
 King. 
 
56 KING POPPY. 
 
 To give it audience. The Lord Mayor, in terms 
 Respectfully but firmly out of place, 
 Address'd his Majesty ; referring first 
 To cases teeming with embarrassments 
 Of various kinds which, having all occurred 
 In previous reigns, might happily have served 
 As precedents for this particular case, 
 Had they in aught resembled it. He next 
 Express'd a hope, unflatteringly faint, 
 That still, henceforth as heretofore, the Crown 
 Of Diadummiania might be 
 With undiminish'd dignity maintain'd ; 
 With And nothing ever suffered to deprive 
 
 Petition 
 
 Rights. Its loyal subjects of their right to pay 
 
 For trying, every now and then, new kinds 
 Of gunnery against new kinds of scarps 
 And counterscarps, on territories own'd 
 By foreign princes : thus promoting peace, 
 Which States would have no opportunity 
 
THE COURT. 57 
 
 Of making, if they never went to war. 
 
 These patriotic duties of the Crown 
 
 Concern'd the People ; who, altho' it paid 
 
 For their performance, had some cause to fear 
 
 That, if the Crown were clothed in petticoats, 
 
 Its feminine possessor might not feel 
 
 The proper manly pride in them display'd 
 
 By those great princes who, before her birth, 
 
 (Which so unconstitutionally changed 
 
 The Constitution's sex) had grandly worn 
 
 The cock'd hat, leather breeches, and jack boots 
 
 Of Diadummianian Majesty. 
 
 The People's claim to its full money's worth Speech 
 
 by the 
 
 Of national discomfort and renown Mayor. 
 
 Was with appropriate amplitude set forth 
 
 By Diadum's chief magistrate : who thus 
 
 Concluded his remarkable address 
 
 " Sire, of all subjects, to your subjects all, 
 
 Taxation is the dearest, and indeed 
 
58 KING POPPY. 
 
 'Tis growing annually dearer still. 
 For hitherto the right of being tax'd 
 To none except convicted criminals, 
 Paupers, and lunatics hath been denied." 
 Attitude He ceased : and, but for that impetuous rush 
 
 of the 
 Munici- 
 pal Of quite ungovernable self-restraint 
 
 Body. 
 
 The Royal Presence commonly call'd forth 
 
 In those admitted to it, loud applause 
 
 From all his fellow-worthies would have haiPd 
 
 His eloquent oration's welcome close. 
 
 Since courtly etiquette, however, check'd 
 
 Their rising cheers, the Aldermen remain'd 
 
 Emphatically mute, with lips compress'd, 
 
 And looks down bent, whilst one of them began 
 
 To scratch his ear, and tight in puckers shut 
 
 The corresponding eye ; implying thus 
 
 The feeling of the City, that affairs 
 
 Were ticklish, and the civic outlook dark. 
 
 The 
 
 Across the King's distracted fancy came 
 
THE COURT. 59 
 
 A horrible suspicion there might be 
 
 Some meaning latent in the Lord Mayor's speech ; 
 
 And to the Chancellor, in great alarm, 
 
 He whisper'd, " What the Dickens does he mean ? " Consults 
 
 the 
 Chancel- 
 
 The Chancellor evasively replied, 
 
 " Ah, what a lord mayor means must be confess'd 
 
 One of the greatest mysteries ! But Sire 
 
 Excuse me. I was thinking, and I think The 
 
 Chan- 
 
 That I have an idea." " Never mind ! has an 
 
 idea. 
 
 We trust you none the less," the King replied. 
 
 " If you could understand a word he said, 
 
 Answer him ! But be short ! And pray, my Lord, 
 
 Be careful not to compromise the Crown ! " 
 
 The Chancellor was never at a loss He 
 
 takes 
 .. , . ' an ad- 
 
 To answer anyone. With grace severe, vanced 
 
 step 
 
 Forward he stepp'd : and everybody felt 
 The Government by that judicious step 
 Had strengthen'd its position. Forth he drew, 
 And thrice sedately tapp'd, the jewell'd box 
 
60 KING POPPY. 
 
 Wherein he carried his pulvilio. 
 This made a deep impression. The belief 
 Had long been prevalent in Diadum 
 That the Lord Chancellor was capable 
 Of anything, when driven to a pinch. 
 And " Sire," said His Excellency, " we propose 
 
 puts for- 
 
 financia? To meet the dangerous contingency 
 
 policy. 
 
 His Worship has sagaciously foreseen, 
 By levying all the taxes in advance." 
 That was the great Lord Chancellor's idea, 
 And it was then a novel one. Meanwhile, 
 The The Lord Mayor at an open window stood ; 
 
 Lord 
 
 pocket- In order, if occasion should arise 
 
 hand-_ 
 
 For such a public duty, to step out 
 Into the balcony, and thence harangue 
 The populace below it. The Lord Mayor 
 Was puzzled by the Chancellor's idea. 
 He knew not whether it conceal'd a trap, 
 Or granted a concession. Oft before 
 
THE COURT. 6 1 
 
 In similar positions he had found, 
 
 When doubting what to say, or how behave, 
 
 That by the simple blowing of his nose 
 
 He both gain'd time and also clear 3 d his head. 
 
 So from his pocket thoughtfully he pull'd 
 
 His pocket-handkerchief. A little breeze, 
 
 That round the open window chanced to blow, 
 
 Flutter'd the handkerchief ; and this produced 
 
 Responsive flutterings in the crowd beneath. 
 
 His Worship felt the moment had arrived. 
 
 Into the balcony he stepp'd, and there 
 
 To the expectant multitude he waved 
 
 His pocket-handkerchief. Whereat the mouths 
 
 Of all the multitude with one accord Is used 
 
 with the 
 
 Began to cry aloud, " Long live the King!" 
 It was the merest chance they did not cry, 
 " Long live the Revolution / " or begin 
 Singing in chorus that seditious song 
 Of Cherry Ripe ! But for their loyal cheer 
 
62 KING POPPY. 
 
 A theory There was a cause, a reasonable cause, 
 
 of 
 
 colours . , , , . 
 
 not Altho , no doubt, an accidental one. 
 
 antici- 
 
 Newton For different colours act upon a crowd 
 
 In different ways. Above it boldly wave 
 A red flag, and forthwith it is THE MOB, 
 A white one, and as quickly it becomes 
 "THE KING'S DEVOTED PEOPLE." Had the hue 
 Of the municipal signal, then display'd, 
 Unluckily been red instead of white, 
 Everything might have instantly gone wrong, 
 And everybody been dissatisfied. 
 But luckily 'twas white instead of red, 
 So everything went well, and everyone 
 Was satisfied. Except, perhaps, the King ; 
 Who seem'd not altogether pleased to see 
 His subjects so concern'd about a crown 
 Which, after all, was his crown and not theirs. 
 A State Proud of his pocket-handkerchiefs effect 
 
 relic, 
 
 carefully 
 
 preserved in the Diadummiaman Arsenal. 
 
THE COURT. 
 
 Upon the public mind, and quite convinced 
 
 That in his pocket he was carrying 
 
 His country's future fortunes, the Lord Mayor 
 
 Took from a Page, who follow'd in his train, 
 
 A crimson velvet cushion, only used 
 
 On great occasions, when it served to bear 
 
 The keys of Diadummianian towns, 
 
 Presented, with a patriotic speech, 
 
 By their municipal authorities 
 
 To the besieging enemy. Therewith 
 
 The cradle of the Princess he approach'd, 
 
 Knelt on one knee, and from a ribbon'd scroll 
 
 Read to Her Royal Highness this address 
 
 " $toost mggfjtg Ptgncesse ! con- 
 
 gratula- 
 
 tljJe, ge UUtJJljeSiSeS address 
 
 to the 
 
 &nb cgte cofmcegllors of Biaofcm, 
 esgre on tfjgs occasgon to professe 
 Jftore pleasgr tfjan can possgulg be felte 
 
64 KING POPPY. 
 
 goto faut confoegcenfciJti to foe tone. 
 
 ti&tjjfuttg fjopeti goto footo Jaue 
 
 tttggjtg Prgncesse, to be tone a prgnce. 
 But, fglleb inftj pgous ^ unfc0imtietJ fegtfte 
 In ge mgstate of Prougtjenee, our fjettes 
 fflekom gout i&ogal ^gfjenes inttj a joge 
 iJHore easelg tiesergbeti tjan fcntiergtootf." 
 
 Strange The little Princess to these loyal words 
 
 beha- * 
 
 viour 
 
 of Her Listen'd, whilst sucking, with serene assent. 
 
 Royal 
 High- 
 
 In her sweet, warm, wet rosebud of a mouth 
 A Gingerbread Gilt Captain of Dragoons. 
 This military sweetmeat was a gift 
 Presented to her by his Majesty 
 A mill- To please the Army. The Lord Chancellor, 
 
 tary offi- 
 
 h?s h?ad However, whose all- watchful eye was fixt 
 
 at a 
 
 moment. Upon the Princess and the gay Dragoon, 
 With secret agitation now perceived 
 That brilliant, but too favour'd, officer 
 
THE COURT. 
 
 Had lost his head. At once, with timely tact, 
 
 The wary minister stepp'd in between 
 
 The cradle and court-circle. " My Lord Mayor, 
 
 Her Royal Highness has received," said he, 
 
 " With the appreciation it deserves 
 
 Your loyal and appropriate address." 
 
 These words politely signified, " Be off ! 
 
 The ceremony's over." For a time 
 
 Appearances were saved by this device, 
 
 And without comment the bad omen pass'd. 
 
 But later on (for after the event 
 
 Predicted by them all prognostics thus 
 
 Excite attention) when the next sham fights 
 
 A failure proved, the Opposition Press 
 
 Noticed the fact, and bitterly remark'd, 
 
 " If our ideal military type 
 
 Has lost his head, what have we to expect 
 
 From all our actual military heads ?" 
 
 The Chancellor submitted to the King 
 
 Presence 
 of mind 
 display- 
 ed by 
 the Lord 
 Chan- 
 cellor. 
 
 Dismis- 
 sal of the 
 Deputa- 
 tion. 
 
 Opin- 
 ions of 
 the 
 Press. 
 
 Prosecu- 
 tion for 
 libel. 
 
66 KING POPPY. 
 
 A note requesting leave to prosecute 
 The writers of those libellous words, " design'd 
 Unpatriotically to impair 
 The State's external safety," he observed, 
 " By casting doubts on the efficiency 
 Of Diadummiania's martial power." 
 The Whereon His Majesty thus minuted : 
 
 King 
 
 tains the " Fiat. The nation should be reassured. 
 
 effi- 
 
 ofth? Our gallant army may with confidence 
 
 Army. 
 
 Be counted on to beat whatever force 
 Is weaker or less skilful than its own ; 
 And more than this no army can achieve. 
 As for our Generals, we know them fit 
 To frighten anyone. They frighten us." 
 
 So ended that most memorable day. 
 A j, r . But, when the Deputation was dismiss'd, 
 
 Counsel- 
 
 S Majesty in secret sought advice 
 
 Privy 
 
 Council. From one whose influence o'er the royal mind, 
 
THE COURT. 67 
 
 Being a backstairs influence, had it been 
 
 To his unconscious Cabinet betray'd, 
 
 Would, as he knew, most probably have caused 
 
 A ministerial crisis. For the King 
 
 On all important matters, ever since 
 
 His prosperous accession to the throne, 
 
 Had privately consulted his old nurse, 
 
 Dame Rhoda. Long past active service now, 
 
 And placed upon the Pension List, she still 
 
 Her rank and title at the Court retain'd, Official 
 
 ranks, 
 
 As Grand Hereditary Head Nurse : rank military, 
 
 and tro- 
 
 That, by its code, the Official Hierarchy phoric. 
 
 Of Diadummiania recognized 
 
 As full equivalent, in Civil Grade, 
 
 To that of a Lieutenant-General 
 
 In military dignity, or else 
 
 To the position on the Navy List 
 
 Of a Vice- Admiral. The Titular Head 
 
 Of the State's Lactary Department, she ; 
 
68 KING POPPY. 
 
 Chief Marshal of the Mammelary Corps 
 Of Body Guards about the Royal Babes 
 Of Diadummianian Dynasties. 
 And, tho' no more her matron bosom flow'd 
 
 With alimental founts for infant lips, 
 There's 
 
 Yet still for comfort, as a babe for milk, 
 
 offence^ 
 my lord. 
 
 Horatio. To her the old King in his troubles turn'd. 
 
II. 
 
 THE DAME. 
 
 As wrinkled and as full of oracles Portrait. 
 
 As one of wise Dodona's wither'd leaves, 
 
 Was old Dame Rhoda. Dear her homely talk 
 
 To high and low, and long her homely form 
 
 To every Diadummianian hearth 
 
 Had been familiar as a household saint's. 
 
 A little shrunken body, pucker'd, creased, 
 
 And blanch'd from top to toe beneath the weight 
 
 Of whitening years, but animated still 
 
 By a brisk birdlike spirit, nose sharp-beak'd, 
 
 And eye that twinkled as a spark the dew 
 
 Hangs in some cobwebb'd hollow of a gnarl'cl 
 
 6 9 
 
70 A7A T G POPPY. 
 
 And rifted thorn, were hers. High snowy ruff, 
 
 High peaked hat, high shoe with scarlet heel, 
 
 High scarlet-broider'd stomacher, she wore, 
 
 And gaily-quilted petticoat. The staff 
 
 Crutch-handled, 'twas her. wont to lean on, seem'd 
 
 Rather to guide and grace than to support 
 
 Her nimble footsteps. A divining rod 
 
 Perchance it was ; for no suspicious hole 
 
 Or corner did its ferule leave unprobed, 
 
 No stone unturn'd that hid a sullen toad, 
 
 Or clod that covert to a shrew mouse gave : 
 
 And smartly, as she stept, it struck the ground 
 
 With a precise authoritative tap, 
 
 As tho' it were Dame Wisdom's pursuivant. 
 
 Her birth and birthplace were forgotten things, 
 
 But things forgotten she remember'd well ; 
 
 And (like a stream that, chattering blithe and brisk 
 
 By cottage doors, hath in it all the while 
 
 Mysterious sounds, the reminiscences 
 
THE DAME. 7I 
 
 Of mountain lands) her talk, tho' trivial, teem'd 
 
 With startling tones and accents that belong'd 
 
 To the lost language of a far-off time. 
 
 Full many a tale beneath the harvest moon History 
 
 is dated, 
 for it 
 
 Home with their sheaves the merry gleaners brought, begins 
 Full many a song the houseless herdsmen sung But ' 
 
 Tradi- 
 
 At midnight sitting by their mountain fires, eternal ; 
 
 and any 
 
 Of old Dame Rhoda and the days of old. however 
 
 ancient, 
 
 And aged gossips, when December's dim reju. 
 
 Short days were shutting, and the ingle gloVd 
 
 idea of 
 
 (While round it, husht to hear their whisper'd talk, $?*' 
 
 bodies 
 
 The young ones gathered) could a time recall only in 
 
 types: 
 
 When they themselves had in their childhood heard and th . e 
 
 J eternal 
 
 type of 
 
 How once, on some such other winter's eve, Tradi- 
 
 tion isan 
 
 embodi- 
 
 At that same hour Dame Rhoda pusht the latch, raent of 
 
 the faith 
 
 And enter'd in, and by the hearth sat down, hood in 
 
 the form 
 
 And forthwith to the house familiar seem'd Age. 
 
 In its 
 
 As those that were beneath its rooftree born. nueness 
 
 is its 
 
 comeliness; and to it superstitions and myths are as becoming as wrinkles and 
 grey hairs to an old woman. 
 
72 KING POPPY, 
 
 For well the family chronicle she knew 
 Of all their lives, and all the lives of those 
 Without whose lives their own had never been : 
 And fuller than a tombstone of good words 
 About the dead was her discourse. Nor stored 
 With portraits only was it, that surpass'd 
 All masterpieces of the limner's art 
 In rare resemblance to the buried kin 
 Of John and Joan, whose features still survived 
 In Jack and Gill, but it abounded too 
 In tales, as tho' by an eye-witness told, 
 Of things to none but an eye-witness known, 
 That happen'd when the hoary world was young, 
 And still a daily wonder to itself. 
 Remini- She knew, and she could tell, the maiden name 
 
 scences 
 
 travel- Of Adam's wife before he married Eve ; 
 
 ler. 
 
 The deeds by Lilith's demon children done ; 
 
 The site of cities built before the flood 
 
 By Tubal Cain ; and where the forests grew 
 
THE DAME. 73 
 
 His sons hew'd down to fuel his first forge ; 
 
 The talk that went about the streets of Thebes 
 
 When Pharaoh's daughter with a babe appeared, 
 
 And said she found it in the bulrush beds ; 
 
 The whispers that were heard in Memphian halls 
 
 When Rhampsinitus chose for son-in-law 
 
 The wily robber with the dead man's hand ; 
 
 And what it was set laughing all the leaves 
 
 Of sacred Lebanon, as Sheba's Queen 
 
 Athwart a treacherous floor of glass, that show'd 
 
 Her secret charms, with unsuspecting steps 
 
 The throne of wizard Solomon approach'd. 
 
 And when the Dame had told them all these 
 
 things, 
 
 With many more they never else had known, 
 She pass'd upon her way as they supposed, 
 To the King's palace. Wondrous old even then 
 Did folks then old believe her. Wondrous old 
 Some deem'd her born. But all the land about 
 
74 KING POPPY. 
 
 A legend lived, that in the old old days 
 
 A buxom youth was hers, and that the Dame 
 
 Was still a damsel when she oped the door 
 
 To disimprison'd Peter, as behoved 
 
 A handmaid in the household of Saint Mark. 
 
 A eta. 
 Aposto- 
 
 Howe'er that be, no damsel was she now. 
 Learned she was, tho', in all lore occult ; 
 Could find a coffin in a candlewick, 
 Gifts in the white spots upon finger-nails, 
 Troubles beneath salt-cellars overturn'd, 
 And funerals in the flags of sable smut 
 That sometimes deck'd the royal kitchen-grates. 
 Far future fates, moreover, could she tell 
 From tea -leaves, coffee - grouts, and playing- 
 cards, 
 
 So wonderfully that the good old King 
 Revered her more than his Lord Chancellor, 
 And in her presence felt himself a child. 
 
THE DAME. 75 
 
 The King had hung his crown upon a peg, 
 
 happiest 
 
 His head in silken nightcap swathed, his feet and 
 
 most at 
 ease 
 
 In slippers thrust, his vest unbutton'd, filPd 
 
 from its 
 
 His pipe, and closely drawn his elbow-chair exter- 
 
 nals, 
 
 it is 
 
 Into the chimney corner. There, well pleased, cherish- 
 
 Tradi- 
 
 He sniff d the scent of Moeha beans fresh bruised tion. 
 
 For fragrant brewage in a magic urn 
 
 Before him by the sorceress set. Meanwhile 
 
 She, bending o'er it, plied her sable spells. 
 
 Three times the black decoction rose and sank, ??*"? 
 
 Knoua 
 consults 
 Heaving and sighing like a human heart the 
 
 omens. 
 
 By some unquiet secret vext. The crone 
 
 Perused its mystic spasms, her cavern'd eyes 
 
 Gleaming encircled by the ebon hoops 
 
 Of sprawling spectales that bridged with black 
 
 Her bony nose. Thro' aromatic mists 
 
 Of thickening steam a great grey owl she look'd, 
 
 That, wrapt in vague and moony vapour, peers, 
 
 Watching a mouse. Her crooked left hand clutch' d 
 
76 KING POPPY. 
 
 A pack of cards, and in her right she held 
 
 A slanted mirror. As the charm increased, 
 
 Her image into that of a huge bird 
 
 With horned head, hook'd beak, and saucer eyes, 
 
 Was slowly changing, when the magic glass 
 
 Suddenly from her palsied -claw she dropp'd 
 
 Into the black and scalding sediment, 
 
 That, scatter'd by it, splash'd the old King's cheek. 
 
 shocked, 
 
 and the " She gives away the crown ! " Dame Rhoda croak'd. 
 
 repose 
 of Mon- 
 
 " She ! ' querulously cried the wincing King, 
 
 " Who's she ? " " Thy daughter," groan'd the Dame. 
 
 " Pooh, pooh ! 
 
 Never," he mutter'd, "child of mine could be 
 Such a born stup . ." 
 The B ut here he check'd himself 
 
 King's 
 
 vertence Abruptly, shaken by an aguish fear, 
 en- 
 dangers -p or j ie reme mber'd, only just in time, 
 dynasty. 
 
 An ancient prophecy, that if the word 
 
 He was about to utter were applied 
 
THE DAME. 77 
 
 By one of the Blood Royal to the name 
 
 Of any member of the Royal House, 
 
 A dreadful secret of the dynasty 
 
 Would be divulged. The Dame, rebukeful, raised 
 
 A warning finger. " Son," she whisper'd, " hush ! " 
 
 And for a while in shuddering silence each 
 
 The other eyed. Then, slowly reassured, 
 
 Up from the floor his fallen pipe she pick'd, 
 
 And, having lighted its replenish! bowl, 
 
 Bade him be still and listen. He obey'd, The 
 
 answer 
 
 And thus her vision strange the seeress told : Grade. 
 
 DAME RHODA'S VISION. 
 " At first my sight was troubled, like my soul, Infancy 
 
 and the 
 
 And all was dim. From heaven's four corners came 
 Mists upon mists, that round each other roll'd 
 Into a vapour glowing like a rose. 
 Deep in the flusht heart of this fervid cloud 
 
78 KING POPPY. 
 
 " Something began to throb ; and the cloud's self 
 Was silently unclaspt, as when a bud 
 Is breathed on by the Spirit of the Spring, 
 And turns into a blossom. Fold by fold, 
 Like roseleaves, all, those rosy vapours oped, 
 And in the mellow midmost of them all 
 I saw our little princess rosy too, 
 And looking like the babe of that rose bud. 
 The Then for awhile the child seem'd all confused, 
 
 Gates of 
 
 are And rubb'd her wondering eyes, like those new-waked 
 
 closed 
 
 the New Who cannot yet imagine where they are, 
 
 Born.' 
 
 Nor even recollect where they have been. 
 Before her and around, bare pathless space 
 Unfolding the monotonous expanse 
 Of its immeasurable uncertainty, 
 So frighten'd her that, if she could, methought 
 The little creature would have crept again 
 Into the vaporous rose whence she was come. 
 But it had vanish'd, as a flower o'erblown 
 
THE DAME. 79 
 
 " Whose loosened petals on the wind depart 
 
 Unnoticed, and her refuge was no more. 
 
 So timorously round her gazed the child. What 
 
 And all her timorous gazes as they fell carries 
 
 with it. 
 
 Turn'd into falling stars, and every star 
 
 Call'd to her, ' Take me with thee ! ' Stooping down 
 
 She gathered up those stars, and one by one 
 
 She put them in her bosom. Thence they shed 
 
 A soft and tender light to guide her steps 
 
 Along the pathless space. And more and more, 
 
 As step by step her little star-led feet 
 
 Moved onward, other voices I could hear 
 
 Still calling to her, ' Take us with thee, too ! ' 
 
 One of them call'd her from her fluttering curls, 
 
 And when she raised her hand to them 'twas touch'd The 
 
 univer- 
 sal mes- 
 
 By something fresh and cold that faintly sigh'd, senger. 
 
 ' I am the wind. 'Tis from the earth I come, 
 And it is there that thou art going. There 
 They all are hoping, waiting, for thee now. 
 
8o KING POPPY. 
 
 When li ' And me they sent to seek thee. Once my home 
 
 will the 
 
 cease Was in their hearts, but there no room I found 
 
 from 
 
 or'th!?' To breathe in. For the sighing of my breath 
 
 heart 
 
 wishing'/ Gives voice to all the wishes in the world, 
 And I am always sighing. Were I free, 
 I would go hither, thither, everywhere, 
 Forever. But I cannot leave the earth 
 Where I was born, and have so much to do.' 
 
 The And the child listen'd to the suppliant wind, 
 
 Earth 
 
 Moon. And let him lead her. When at last they came 
 Nearer to earth, she gazed beneath and saw 
 What seem'd to be a star that could not shine, 
 Like a blind eye that in its orbit rolls 
 
 "Why Darkly, reflecting nothing. And the child 
 
 so dark, 
 
 Earth?" Pitied that poor blind star, and would have thrown 
 One of her own sweet stars to brighten it. 
 But pale with fear her own star turn'd, and said, 
 
 "And ' Condemn me not to dwell in yonder world ! 
 
 why so 
 
 Moo'n?" Let me rest here. Rather than live on earth 
 
THE DAME. 
 
 81 
 
 " ' Fain would I hide me in the deeps of night, 
 Contented to be nothing but a moon. 
 But I will wait for thee in heaven, and watch 
 Till thou returnest. For return thou wilt, 
 Unhappy child ! Earth is not all so sweet.' 
 Then the child sigh'd. And as she wander'd on 
 She left the moon behind her. And the moon 
 Lingered in heaven, and waited for her, pale, 
 Pensive, and patient. And the child went on. 
 ' Welcome at last, long waited ! Is it thou ? 
 Come, then, with us ! and we will show thee all,' 
 A tremulous choir of twittering voices cried. 
 The swallows they, that far across the sea 
 Had flown to find her. And upon their wings, 
 Together with the Spring, they carried her. 
 So o'er the sea-waves, o'er the mountain-tops, 
 The maiden pass'd : and, coming from afar, 
 The Spring came with her, and the Spring and she 
 Seem'cl one. The wind went softly on before ; 
 
 The night, 
 that is ever 
 between 
 them, 
 makes'the 
 Moon so 
 pale and 
 the Earth 
 so dark, 
 when they 
 gaze upon 
 each other. 
 
 And life 
 goes on- 
 wishing 
 for the 
 moon, and 
 leaving 
 behind it 
 what it 
 wishes. 
 
 Heralds 
 and har- 
 bingers. 
 
82 KING POPPY. 
 
 " And, as she follow' d, all the Ocean waves 
 Child- WhisperM, ' Child, take us with thee ! ' All the woods 
 
 hood 
 and 
 
 Nature. And mountains murmur'd, ' Take us with thee, child ! ' 
 The lakes, the rivers, and the rivulets, 
 The vales, and dells, and lawns, and meadows sigh'd, 
 1 Where'er thou goest, leave us not behind !' 
 
 The Ma- And everything that thus appeal'd to her 
 
 crocosm 
 in the 
 
 Micro- Made itself small, that she might carry it. 
 
 cosm. 
 
 The sea condensed itself into a pearl, 
 The mountains became precious stones, the woods 
 In one green acorn countless oaks enclosed, 
 The meadows dwindled to a tuft of moss, 
 And all the lakes and rivers were distill'd 
 Into a silver dewdrop, that the child 
 Terres- Might bear them in her bosom. But her steps 
 
 trial in- 
 
 of which No sooner touch'd the earth than from its pores 
 it is 
 
 uncoil* / ^ / T . . i i 
 
 scious, Came voices muttering, Lo, at last, 'tis she, 
 
 takepos- 
 
 ofcSTd- Our promised Queen ! Fast hold her !' And forth- 
 
 hood; 
 
 S3?- With 
 
 trans- 
 forming it to Maidenhood. 
 
THE DAME. 83 
 
 " A something made of multitudes of things, 
 
 Shapeless, voluminous, invincible, 
 
 As with a hundred thousand hands and arms 
 
 Embracing, drew her slowly softly down 
 
 Into the earth's deep bosom. Hidden there, The 
 
 Sleeping 
 
 She fell asleep. Above her buried head 
 
 The little birds sang busy in the sun, 
 
 And grass and daisies sprouted. Day and night 
 
 Along their wonted undiscerning ways 
 
 
 Went after one another round the world, 
 
 And knew not she was sleeping underneath. 
 
 But in her bosom safe the child still held 
 
 The treasures she had gather'd as she came : 
 
 The pearl, the tuft of moss, the precious stones, 
 
 The acorn, and the drop of silver dew, 
 
 That were wide plains, impenetrable woods, 
 
 Rivers, and mountains, and the mighty sea. 
 
 There, while she slept, a watchful Dragon crouch'd, And the 
 
 Guar- 
 
 And with his body block'd the cavern's mouth. Pragon. 
 
84 KING POPPY. 
 
 " But thro' the earth above the fine white roots 
 
 Of flowers innumerable came creeping in, 
 
 And found her sleeping, and were fill'd with joy. 
 
 The dragon said to these discoverers, 
 
 ' Say nothing ! If men found our treasure out, 
 
 It would not long be ours. 3 The little roots 
 
 Laugh'd, * Men ? They know not even how we came 
 
 here, 
 
 And what we say they cannot understand.' 
 But the wise Dragon answer'd, ' That may be, 
 Yet still I do not trust them.' Then he breathed 
 On all the roots, and every one of them 
 Became immediately as dumb as death. 
 Beauty Nevertheless the Dragon's jealous care 
 
 Could not prevent those roots from being bathed 
 Silently in the sweet child's sleeping breath, 
 Which they transmitted to the flowers above ; 
 And from the lips of the delighted flowers 
 The fragrance of it wander'd through the world. 
 
THE DAME. 
 
 " Nor any better could that Dragon sage 
 Hinder the sources of the salient springs 
 From listening'. And those sources overheard 
 All that the child was murmuring in her dreams, 
 And carried it away, and babbled it 
 About the hills and dales from land to land. 
 Seeing the child so fair, the Dragon said, 
 ' She will not sleep forever, and ere she wake 
 From all things precious must her future crown 
 By me be wrought.' Then for a whole year long 
 He suck'd the red volcanoes. Fill'd with flame, 
 At that year's end he cut a glittering tooth. 
 It was a garnet. 'This tooth's hue,' said he, 
 ' Hath too much smoke in it.' So he inhaled 
 Still for a live-long year those fervid ores 
 Whose subterranean incandescence burns 
 Smokeless. His next tooth was an almondine. 
 ' Already better, but too sombre still ! ' 
 He mutter'd. And for yet another year 
 
 While 
 
 Beauty 
 
 sleeps and 
 
 dreams, 
 
 in the 
 
 self-uncon- 
 
 sciousness 
 
 of Child- 
 
 hood, 
 
 marvellous 
 
 treasures 
 
 for her 
 
 adornment 
 
 when she 
 
 wakes are 
 
 secretly 
 
 accumu- 
 
 lated 
 
 and 
 
 prepared 
 
 by the 
 
 wonder- 
 
 working 
 
 Power 
 
 that 
 
 slumbers. 
 
 The 
 
 growing 
 of the 
 Dra- 
 gon's 
 teeth. 
 
86 KING POPPY. 
 
 " Nothing but molten gold the Dragon drank, 
 Save when at times, to cool his scorching throat, 
 He sipp'd the morning and the evening dew. 
 And so he got himself another tooth, 
 A ruby. ' 'Twas the dew,' he said, ' methinks, 
 That brighten'd this, and too much molten gold 
 Is good for nobody. My throat is dry.' 
 Then in twelve gulps, that lasted each a month, 
 The sea he swallow'd, and a fourth tooth cut. 
 That fourth tooth was a beryl rare in hue, 
 Aqua Marina was the name of it, 
 And pale sea-green its colour. ' Not so bad ! ' 
 The Dragon sigh'd, ' But I am sea-sick now, 
 And need a mild milk diet.' So by night 
 Milk in the cold light of the moon he lapp'd, 
 And after the fifth twelvemonth he produced 
 A fifth tooth - >Twas an P al - Better pleased, 
 
 for the 
 
 King's ' Wisdom ' he cried aloud ' is wean'd at last \ 
 
 Daugh- 
 ter, all 
 
 the years of Childhood and all th% influences of Nature contribute crown jewels. 
 And the last seems ever the best. 
 
THE DAME. 87 
 
 " ' One cannot live forever upon drink. 
 
 Time to try these five teeth on solid food ! ' 
 
 And he devoured the greenness of the earth, 
 
 And got another tooth, an emerald. 
 
 Then, having all devour'd, the Dragon mused, 
 
 1 Now I have nothing left to live upon 
 
 But air.' And upon air, a seventh year, full 
 
 He feasted, swallowing the azure sky. 
 
 His seventh tooth was a turkis ; and his eighth 
 A sapphire, by the ethereal firmament 
 
 (His eighth year's nurture) coloured. ' One finds out 
 
 By trying,' said the Dragon, 'many things !' 
 
 And with a flourish of his tail he flapp'd 
 
 The sparkling stars down out of heaven, and laugh'd, 
 
 ' I know not yet if they will make fine teeth, 
 
 But certainly these stars are good to crunch.' 
 
 i 
 Seven other teeth the stars contributed, 
 
 And they were crystals, yellow, rose, and white. 
 
 consum- 
 
 ' One trial more,' he cried, ' and I have done ! 
 
88 KING POPPY. 
 
 " ' The child for fifteen years hath been asleep. 
 The sixteenth year she will awake ; and then 
 Her crown must be completed. Let me think ! 
 The green world I have eaten bare, the sea 
 I have drunk dry, earth's fire is finish'd up, 
 The sky I have devoured, the firmament, 
 And all the stars of heaven. What's left ? The sun ! ' 
 And on the sun the Dragon flung himself 
 Hungry and fierce ; and gnaw'd its burning disc 
 So deep that he himself at last took fire, 
 The And burn'd, and burn'd, until he burn'd away 
 
 crown * 
 
 coh- 
 
 sumesits Into a heap of cinders. Much too much 
 
 creator, 
 and the 
 
 Dra- Did he in his exorbitance attempt, 
 gon's 
 
 shed. And the sun slew him. But his claws had torn 
 And ravaged it, and on its glorious orb 
 Black spots, the traces of his teeth, remain'd. 
 
 wealth Then, when the Dragon was consumed, the child 
 
 uncon- 
 sciously Awoke, and from that cavern she came forth, 
 
 acquired 
 
 by the 
 
 King's Daughter during her deep, 
 
THE DAME. 89 
 
 " Wherein she had been sleeping sixteen years. 
 Her footstep o'er the Dragon-cinders tripp'd 
 And stumbled, striking on the monster's jaw, 
 So steep'd in molten gold, it had become 
 Golden itself a constellated crown 
 That gleam'd with sixteen jewels. The sixteenth 
 Was from the sun, and brightest of them all, 
 Being a diamond." Here, Dame Rhoda groan'd. 
 " The child," she said, " upon her little lap 
 Had laid the Dragon's gift, whereon she gazed 
 With looks of sorrowful perplexity, 
 As though the glare of it distress'd her eyes, 
 The weight of it her knees. Her listless hands, 
 Around it lingering, not one effort made 
 To lift it to her head. I would have call'd, 
 And told her how to wear it, but alas, 
 I could not. All at once I was aware 
 
 sciously 
 gives 
 Of one who, clothed in white, with hooded brows, away, as 
 
 soon as 
 she 
 
 And arms in eager supplication stretch'd, awakes. 
 
90 KING POPPY. 
 
 " Stood near, and whisper 3 d to her. What was said 
 I heard not, for whene'er I strove to scan 
 The stranger's features down mine eyelids droop'd, 
 And all grew dim. The last thing I beheld 
 Was that the child her slighted crown had set 
 To On that white-hooded head. Beholding this, 
 
 I cried aloud. The sound of mine own voice 
 Awaked me. Swift the vision fled away, 
 And from my hand the magic mirror fell." 
 
 Long had the Dame ceased speaking to the King, 
 
 dis- 
 cusses And still the old King spake not, lost in thought. 
 
 the 
 
 At last he lifted up his face, and said, 
 
 " All these strange things are neither here nor there. 
 
 The coffee-marks know, doubtless, what they mean, 
 
 But the witch catch me if I understand ! " 
 
 " Son," said Dame Rhoda, " it is clear as day." 
 
 But " Clear as day ! " the old King grumbled, " Dame 
 
 I in a dragon can see nothing clear 
 
THE DAME. 91 
 
 Unless I see him on a signboard. Then 
 
 'Tis clear as day that beer and bread and cheese, 
 
 With hay and straw to boot can be obtain'd 
 
 By paying- for them." " Hush ! " Dame Rhoda cried. And is 
 
 indoctri- 
 nated by 
 
 " Be careful ! Speak not disrespectfully Dame 
 
 Rhoda 
 
 Of dragons. Theirs is a mysterious race, prin- 
 
 ciples of 
 
 And older is their pedigree than thine. conian 
 
 Philo- 
 
 This dragon was a dragon of good birth, 
 
 And well he loved thy daughter." " That is true," 
 
 The King mused, " and his pardon I beseech. 
 
 'Twas a good dragon. Well my child he watch'd 
 
 For sixteen years, and made her a fair crown 
 
 That cost him many a toothache. Heaven forbid 
 
 That I should doubt all kinds of miracles 
 
 Come naturally to a dragon born, 
 
 For else, indeed, what good were to be got 
 
 By being born a dragon ? But alas, 
 
 Why did the dragon burn himself to death ? 
 
 Had he but lived, he might have saved the child 
 
92 KING POPPY. 
 
 From parting with his gift before she knew 
 The incalculable value of it. Zounds ! 
 Who was the whispering, wheedling, white-coat knave 
 That from our daughter coax'd her crown away ? " 
 Adoubt- Ah, son," sigh'd Rhoda, "if I did but know ! 
 
 racter. 
 
 'Tis this that troubles me. The face was hid, 
 
 The head white-hooded. I beheld no more." 
 
 " Could'st thou not from the feathers tell the bird ? 
 
 The King said. " Some outlandish popinjay, 
 
 Most likely ! Did'st thou in his aspect note 
 
 No mark whereby to know the man again 
 
 If thou should'st meet him ?" Rhoda shook her head. 
 
 " The stranger was no man," she groan'd. " No man ? " 
 
 The King gasp'd. " Ah, I never thought of that ! 
 
 Let me reflect. No man, no son-in-law ; 
 
 No son-in-law, no new alliance gain'd ; 
 
 No heirs, no anything ! What sort of age ? " 
 
 " Even younger than our dear one to my sight, 
 
 But to my thought much older," she replied. 
 
THE DAME. 93 
 
 " It was a Russian Princess ! " said the King. Whose 
 
 conduct 
 gives 
 
 " No," said the Dame, " 'twas nothing of the kind." rise to 
 
 various 
 
 " White-hooded?" he went on. " It must have been tures. 
 
 An Abbess, then. Provision shall be made, 
 
 In case of a minority, to guard 
 
 The Crown against encroachment by the Church." 
 
 Dame Rhoda wrung her apron to a rope 
 
 Between her skinny hands, and clutch' d it tight. 
 
 " It was no Abess," she exclaim'd. " Alas, 
 
 It was not even a woman ! " " Then," cried he, 
 
 "Why did'st thou say it was no man ? " " Because 
 
 No man it was," she sigh'd. " The nondescript 
 
 Was neither man nor woman." From his pipe 
 
 The King shook out the ashes, slowly rose, 
 
 Paced the floor silent, hands behind him claspt, 
 
 Head bent, and brows in deep reflection knit, 
 
 Then, coming to a sudden halt, he said, 
 
 " Dame, if thou hadst but told me this before, 
 
 I could have guess'd it sooner clear as day I 
 
94 KING POPPY. 
 
 Com- it was a Knight of Malta ! I'll forbid 
 
 ments, 
 in the 
 
 impera- Knights of that Order access to our realm, 
 
 tive 
 
 And nobody shall be allow'd to wear 
 
 irregular 
 
 sions of A Maltese cross at our Court Balls. A law 
 
 the 
 
 Gender. Forthwith I'll make, and such a law ! . . . . But 
 
 'faith, 
 
 The worst of legislation, as I've found, 
 The . , Is that no sooner one good law is made 
 
 practical 
 difficul- 
 ties of Than half-a-dozen others are required 
 
 legisla- 
 tion ex- 
 amined To undo all the mischief it has done. 
 
 Until at last a law is like a door 
 Provided with so many bolts and bars 
 That the thief finds it far less difficult 
 To get in by the window. That you'll see, 
 If this intriguer be, as you suppose, 
 Neither a man nor woman. Such a case 
 No law has yet foreseen. A law express 
 To meet it must immediately be made, 
 Prohibiting attempts upon the Crown 
 
THE DAME. 95 
 
 To everybody and to nobody. 
 
 And that's a law that's something like a law, 
 
 Or else I know not what a law is like, 
 
 Who have been signing laws my whole life long ! 
 
 Ah, Rhoda, Rhoda, not even conjuring i n re . 
 
 ference 
 
 Is harder than the art of government ! 
 
 tratve 
 
 And, dear, O dear, what cleverness it needs 
 
 of the 
 
 To keep the country tolerably safe 
 
 From all the clever folks in it ! Dame, Dame ! 
 
 When I reflect that yon poor cradled babe 
 
 Will some day have to govern, and I gone, 
 
 That hers 'twill be to suffer in my stead 
 
 The thousand headaches that crown'd heads endure, 
 
 Sit without snoring at the Council Board, 
 
 Sign laws that nobody can understand, 
 
 And listen without yawning in his face 
 
 To my long-winded Lord High Chancellor, 
 
 I almost wish that they may have their will 
 
 And do their worst, those coffee-marks of thine, 
 
96 KING POPPY. 
 
 Letting the child sleep crownless, careless, saved 
 From the sad toilful trouble of it all, 
 Somewhere among the flowers, far far away ! " 
 
 Seen in While thus in wandering babble, vague, grotesque, 
 
 its true 
 
 ie And inconsecutive as changeful dreams, 
 
 relation 
 
 Tradi- The old King half-soliloquized aloud, 
 
 tion and . 
 
 aJchy is Dame Rhoda's face beam'd fervid, beautiful 
 
 beaut i- 
 
 With a strange beauty not of flesh and blood. 
 
 It was the mystic beauty that is born 
 
 Of motherhood. Age leaves it undeform'd, 
 
 Allurement to uncomeliness it gives, 
 
 Bathes in enchanting light the homeliest head 
 
 When o'er her babe the happy mother bends, 
 
 Revives in fresh virginities of joy 
 
 After time's wearying years have done their worst, 
 
 Brightens the dim eye, sweetens the sour'd lip, 
 
 And blooms unwither'd in the care-worn cheek 
 
 When tremulous eld with blushing pride receives, 
 
THE DAME. 97 
 
 Childlike itself, the grown-up child's embrace. 
 
 At last she murmur'd, " What would Pilgram say ? " Dame 
 
 Rhocla 
 
 The King's face brighten'd. "Pilgram? Ah, well 
 
 tion. 
 
 thought ! " 
 
 He answer'd. " And methinks that here again, 
 Dear Rhoda, from his visit to the Court 
 Of that wild Cousin of ours, Cophetua, 
 The Master was this evening to return. 
 Ye two are my good angels. It is thou 
 That warnest, he that guideth." From its peg 
 Forthwith his crown he hastily unhook'd 
 With eager hand, and, as he grasp'd it, groan'd, 
 " A Knight of Malta ! after all the pains 
 That Her Late Majesty, our sainted spouse, 
 Took to prolong the dynasty ! Farewell !" 
 
 Softly the door behind the old King closed, On 
 
 which 
 
 Scarce heeded by Dame Rhoda, who had turn'd 
 To rearrange her conjuring cards ; and soon 
 
98 KING POPPY. 
 
 Along the silence of the floors beyond 
 
 The last sound of his slipper 5 d footstep ceased, 
 
 Why, 
 
 While, still perusing kings and queens and knaves, 
 
 this I 
 
 The sorceress mutter'd, " Diamonds or Hearts ?" 
 
III. 
 
 THE MASTER. 
 To all the Court of Diadum well known ^ bio 
 
 Sraphi- 
 
 Was Master Pilgram, tho' by none known well. 
 
 puzzle. 
 
 Most unobtrusive, yet a busy cause 
 Of garrulous conjecture, both the man 
 Himself, and his relations with the King. 
 A man of inconspicuous aspect garb 
 No rank denoting, face and form no age 
 Distinctly mark'd, nor aught exceptional 
 About him, save perchance a mirthful eye, 
 Unnoticeably watchful of mankind. 
 But they who felt that eye upon them, found 
 A lurking mystery in its merriment, 
 
 99 
 
ioo KING POPPY. 
 
 A something cavernous and full of depths 
 
 Wherein men's thoughts might wander and be lost. 
 
 Was he of foreign birth, or native born ? 
 
 For both he seem'd, and yet not either quite. 
 
 Had he another name, another home, 
 
 Acknowledged only in some other land ? 
 
 Or was it here at home that his true name, 
 
 From other lands returning, he avow'd ? 
 
 For neither here nor elsewhere stay'd he long, 
 
 Yet, after his departure, never here 
 
 Of his arrival elsewhere news was heard. 
 
 Free from all ceremonial to the Court 
 
 He came as one that uninvited comes, 
 
 Secure of welcome, to a kinsman's hearth ; 
 
 And rather as an inmate than a guest 
 
 He went, unbidden. Whither? No one knew, 
 
 Nor whence he came. An unsolved problem he, 
 
 Like Caspar Hauser, or the Iron Mask : 
 
 For all the Nestors or the Court averr'd 
 
THE MASTER. 101 
 
 That there they knew him when they still were boys, 
 Before His Majesty the present King 
 Succeeded to the sceptre of his sire. 
 And, tho' nigh threescore years must have elapsed 
 Since Pilgram, now the son's familiar friend, 
 Was then the father's, yet they all agreed 
 That no whit older now than then he seem'd, 
 Who neither then nor now seemed old or young. 
 
 The 
 
 And in those days he made the little Prince Wooden 
 
 Horse of 
 
 A pretty horse ; a hobby-horse of wood, 
 
 But cleverer far than any common horse 
 
 Of flesh and blood. This horse could gallop, trot, 
 
 Pace, amble, canter, jump, and make the volt, 
 
 The demivolt, the virevolt, the passade 
 
 And repassade, the repollon, courbette, 
 
 And falcade. And not only all these tricks 
 
 The wooden horse could perfectly perform, 
 
 But he perform'd them to appropriate strains 
 
102 KING POPPY. 
 
 Of pleasing military music, pla/d 
 In his own belly. Later, when the crown 
 Of his departed sire the Prince assumed, 
 His first act was to publish a decree 
 Proclaiming that the tune of Old King Cole, 
 To which his hobby gallop'd, was henceforth 
 The royal anthem. He at the same time 
 Forbade that revolutionary air 
 Of Cherry Ripe. This wise precaution saved 
 The country from incalculable ills. 
 ISfpirit* But Diadummiania's Wooden Horse, 
 
 as bene- 
 
 fhS'of * Unlike its treacherous Trojan prototype, 
 
 the 
 
 Honwof Rescued > instead of ruining, the walls 
 
 Troy 
 
 was the That lodged it. For one night, when Diadum 
 
 reverse. 
 
 Was fast asleep, a sudden chime of bells 
 Rang curfew from the belly of the Horse, 
 And roused the sleepers just in time to see 
 That portion of the palace was on fire, 
 Wherein His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, 
 
THE MASTER. 
 
 103 
 
 And all his gentlemen in waiting, slept. 
 
 The Master of the Ceremonies then 
 
 Immediately got printed, and sent round, 
 
 The proper invitation-cards to all 
 
 The Privy Councillors and Chamberlains, 
 
 The foreign Envoys and Ambassadors, 
 
 And those distinguish'd strangers who had been 
 
 Presented at the Court of Diadum, 
 
 To attend the Conflagration. Gentlemen 
 
 Without their collars undress uniform 
 
 Ladies without their trains demi-toilette. 
 
 All who received His Majesty's commands 
 
 To be in waiting at the Burning- Down 
 
 Were to be saved in order of Court Rank : 
 
 The Diplomatic Body first, and then 
 
 The Hereditary Mistress of the Robes 
 
 And the Grand Marshal ; after these, in turn, 
 
 The Privy Councillors and Chamberlains, 
 
 Each Chamberlain according to the date 
 
 A great 
 Court 
 Cere- 
 mony. 
 
 Order of 
 Official 
 Pre- 
 cedence. 
 
104 KING POPPY. 
 
 Of his appointment, and the rules prescribed 
 For such Court ceremonies by the code 
 Of Diadummianian Etiquette, 
 pearance The Royal Family and all the Court, 
 
 of the 
 
 Horse?" Thanks to the Wooden Horse, were thus preserved, 
 But the poor Wooden Horse himself was burnt. 
 He to his fate with dignity succumb'd ; 
 And 'twas a touching spectacle to see 
 That noble animal performing all 
 His volts and demivolts and repollons 
 Among the roaring flames, wherein at last 
 He perish'd to the tune of Old King Cole. 
 
 The sur- 
 viving In Diadum, however, a belief 
 
 legend. 
 
 Prevail'd that nothing did, or could, destroy 
 Pilgram's imperishable palfrey. Folks 
 There were, who deem'd this horse would reappear, 
 As it had disappear'd, in some strange way 
 When least expected ; just as boors in France 
 
THE MASTER. 105 
 
 Believe the first Napoleon still alive, 
 
 And in a British dungeon. Not a few 
 
 Had grandmothers accustom'd to relate 
 
 That they were girls the night of that great fire, 
 
 And that they well remember'd having seen 
 
 Distinctly thro' its flame and smoke the form 
 
 Of Master Pilgram. He was sauntering slow 
 
 Along the bright edge of a burning beam, 
 
 And whistling Old King Cole. The palfrey neigh'd, 
 
 And, trotting to him, nosed his pocket. He 
 
 A lump of sugar from that pocket drew, 
 
 Gave it the nag, its neck and nose caress'd, 
 
 Lengthen'd the stirrup-leathers (for this steed 
 
 Stood always ready-saddled in its stall) 
 
 And mounted leisurely, with graceful bows 
 
 Saluting the assembled crowds below. 
 
 Then, as the last red rafter tumbled in, 
 
 Both horse and rider rose up into heaven, 
 
 Majestic, musical, magnificent, 
 
io6 
 
 KING POPPY. 
 
 Among the rising sparks, and reach'd the stars. 
 There still distinguishable for a while 
 
 This 
 story is 
 impro- 
 
 There is . Was Master Pilgram. Up the Zodiac 
 
 no men- 
 tion of 
 the 
 
 alleged 
 circum- 
 stances 
 in Dr. 
 Kepler's 
 Report 
 of 1613 to 
 the Diet 
 of Ratis- 
 bon. 
 Kepler's 
 silence 
 about 
 them is 
 most 
 .signifi- 
 cant ; 
 for it is 
 unlikely 
 that any 
 serious 
 disturb- 
 ance 
 of the 
 Zodiac 
 should 
 have 
 escaped 
 
 notice of 
 an astro- 
 nomer 
 who may 
 be said 
 to have 
 passed 
 
 his life among the stars. Consult the Kepler MSS. in the Imperial Academy of 
 Sciences at St. Petersburg. It will also be observed that the extraordinary 
 distance here attributed to the motions of Master Pilgram's body is represented 
 as having greatly increased their general attractiveness. This would seem to be 
 incompatible with the law established by Newton, that the attractive property of 
 bodies is diminished in proportion to the squares of their distances. The event, 
 however, might have happened before Newton's time, and consequently previous 
 to the establishment of that law. 
 
 He canter'd at his customary pace, 
 Chatted with Sagittarius on the road, 
 And then alighted at the Golden Ram, 
 A well-known tavern on the Milky Way, 
 Whose barmaid was Astraea. Forth she came, 
 A fresh-brew'd foaming flagon in her hand, 
 To welcome Master Pilgram. But meanwhile 
 Leda's twin boys, incorrigible brats 
 Brimful of mischief, playing on the path, 
 Let off a comet. That celestial squib 
 Frighten'd the Wooden Horse, and fast away 
 He gallop'd down the Ecliptic. Pilgram tried 
 To catch him by the tail, but in mistake 
 
THE MASTER. 107 
 
 It was the comet's tail he caught, and swift 
 Both Pilgram and the comet disappeared. 
 Since then, for many and many a year, no more 
 Of Pilgram or his palfry had been seen 
 In Diadummiania. Men said, 
 " What wonder ? Nobody, once gone so far, 
 Comes back so soon. Such journeys are not made 
 In four-and-twenty hours." As time went by, 
 However, when the sexton's spade had stopp'd 
 
 ticism. 
 
 The mouth of each eye-witness with a pinch 
 
 Of graveyard dust, the occurrence of these facts 
 
 Some persons openly denied. But then, 
 
 They were not present when the facts occurred, 
 
 And that makes a great difference. Prudent folks, Jk2 g " 
 
 impru- 
 
 Content with the innocuous privilege 
 
 Curbing 
 
 Of private doubt, due public deference paid 
 
 beliefs. 
 
 To the tradition of the Flying Horse ; 
 Knowing that they no truer story knew, 
 To substitute for its surmised untruth, 
 
io8 KING POPPY. 
 
 And feeling that society itself 
 
 attempts Is but a well-dress'd fiction. Science sought 
 
 at . a 
 
 treat- 1 ' To reconcile the rumour'd miracle 
 
 inent of 
 
 subject- With natural causes, by explaining how 
 
 matter 
 
 1 " Mere heat might naturally move the springs 
 
 belief. 
 
 Of an automaton, mere natural smoke 
 Assume the semblance of a horse in heaven. 
 attitude But, getting not a " Thank-you " for attempts 
 
 of 
 
 nce> At thus reducing everything to smoke, 
 
 Science herself, on second thoughts, dismiss'd 
 The smoke-hypothesis, with all the rest, 
 upon the As quite unscientific. This confirm'd 
 
 general 
 
 opinion ; The popular belief in the event 
 
 to which 
 
 no alter- As a true miracle ; since Science fail'd 
 
 native 
 
 unrfr 6 '" To prove it possible by any means 
 
 served 
 
 fh" lal That were not obviously miraculous. 
 
 recorded 
 
 nlenT The wisest Diadummianians held 
 
 and un- 
 
 reserved Tn at in a certain sense the tale was true, 
 
 acquies- 
 cence in 
 the original explanation of them. 
 
THE MASTER. 109 
 
 Tho' in a certain other sense 'twas false. 
 
 Belief 
 and 
 
 The facts alleged were unbelievable. Scepti- 
 
 cism re- 
 conciled 
 
 But what of that ? Those facts had been believed, by. the 
 
 Histori- 
 
 Were still believed, by multitudes of men Method. 
 
 Whom there was every reason to believe 
 
 Sincere believers in their own belief. 
 
 That this belief existed was a fact, 
 
 Proving the facts believed to have at least 
 
 Believable existence not indeed 
 
 In Natural History, that rejected them 
 
 As neither natural nor historical, 
 
 But in the History of the Human Mind, 
 
 That recognised them and explain'd them all 
 
 As well-attested actual results 
 
 Of the mind's human character. Dislike 
 
 Of negative bare ignorance sufficed 
 
 To endear the story to the common crowd ; ethical 
 
 and 
 
 And thoughtful minds found much in it to praise. S'sfd'es 
 
 of the 
 
 The tale was pretty, elevating too ; 
 
no KING POPPY. 
 
 For to the stars it lifted up men's hearts, 
 And show'd them there bright images, beyond 
 Disaster and destruction here on earth. 
 Thus, Philosophical Sagacity 
 With popular Simplicity combined 
 To keep the story of the Flying Horse 
 Respected, save by those who were themselves 
 Persons of no respectability. 
 But of its most convinced believers each 
 Believed it in a somewhat different way ; 
 Varia- And thus, not only did as many tales 
 
 tions. 
 
 Concerning Master Pilgram go about 
 
 In Diadummiania as mouths 
 
 There were to tell them, or as ears to hear, 
 
 But also of the meaning of those tales, 
 
 Their cause and character and origin, 
 
 There were as many theories afoot 
 
 As fashions in Philosophy there be. 
 
THE MASTER. in 
 
 Such was the man, and such the counsellor, 
 
 King 
 
 King Diadummianus, when he left consults 
 
 Master 
 
 Dame Rhoda, sought, and in his chamber found. 
 
 The Master, with a pencil in one hand, 
 
 A palette in the other, musing stood 
 
 Before a canvas he had vaguely stain'd 
 
 With streaks and spots of colour that composed 
 
 No picture or, if any, such alone 
 
 As those that sometimes on a winter night 
 
 Among the husht hearth's embers half abuse 
 
 A sick man's fancy ere he falls asleep. 
 
 But when the King (save by his own remarks 
 
 Uninterrupted) reach'd his story's end, 
 
 Prodigious was his wonder to behold 
 
 On Pilgram's canvas all the tale portray'd, Xn un . 
 
 finished 
 
 He had been pouring into Pilgrarn's ear. 
 Those streaks and spots, by unperceived degrees, 
 Were grown beneath the Master's hovering hand 
 Into a picture of Dame Rhoda's dream. 
 
ii2 KING POPPY. 
 
 Calm in her guarded cavern slept the child, 
 The sleepless Dragon by the sleeper crouch'd, 
 And glorious in the darkness glow'd the crown. 
 Anon, the pencil o'er the picture swept, 
 And all its outlines, fading fast, relapsed 
 Into mere unintelligible tints. 
 
 " Stay ! " cried the King. " Ah, why so soon dissolved 
 Thy picture, like the vision it recall'd, 
 Just at the moment when they both began 
 To awaken curiosity ? " " Because," 
 The Master answer'd, " both were prophecies 
 Of perils that perchance may ne'er assume 
 Pilgram Distincter aspect." Then did he unfold 
 
 confides 
 
 ^ect P to ^ P^ an k v hi s ingenious wits devised 
 
 the 
 
 To counteract those perils. Hugely pleased, 
 The King together rubb'd his palms and cried, 
 " (ja ira ! " When, moreover, the next day 
 His Council was engaged in drafting laws 
 
 haviour 
 
 Ma\st ^ n l unacv > tne King continued still 
 
THE MASTER. 113 
 
 Rubbing his hands, and chuckling to himself 
 
 " Ca ira ! " As they left the Council Board, 
 
 The Ministers of one another ask'd, 
 
 "What was the matter with His Majesty? 
 
 The King to-day was quite unlike himself ; 
 
 Can there be something in his mind ? From whom 
 
 Could he have caught that odd outlandish oath, 
 
 Ca ira ? " " From a lunatic, no doubt ! " 
 
 The Chancellor said grimly. Those two words, 
 
 phijo- 
 
 Ca ira (which were gibberish, in fact, 
 
 Invented by the King in such a mood 
 
 As makes fond mothers mumble to their babes 
 
 All kinds of merry nonsense) by and by 
 
 The round of Custom ran till they became 
 
 A popular expression. First of all, 
 
 Like other fooleries, they had their vogue 
 
 In upper circles, and were Shibboleths 
 
 Of fashionable intercourse awhile ; 
 
 But after the Fine World had worn them out, 
 
 H 
 
114 . KING POPPY. 
 
 The Common People used them, to imply 
 
 A foolish sort of self-complacency. 
 
 This is the unsuspected origin 
 
 Of that famed phrase, Ca ira : and it shows 
 
 That revolution-mongers, even in France, 
 
 Talk nonsense sometimes without knowing it. 
 
 King's 'Twas in the full-grown blossom of the year, 
 
 excur- 
 
 And day was dawning over Diadum, 
 When forth the King with Master Pilgram stole. 
 Unwitness'd thro' the silent town they went, 
 And past its seaward suburbs, till they reach'd 
 beaten A. grassy path by bramble roses paved 
 
 track. 
 
 With fallen petals. It was known to none 
 Save Pilgram, and its first discoverer rash ; 
 A little rillet of hill-water sweet 
 That down it with a child's impatience ran 
 To taste the bitter salt of the great sea. 
 Here, under hiding boughs, by hedges green, 
 
THE MASTER. 115 
 
 Till grass and moss and flower gave way to sand 
 
 And shell and shingle, the companions pass'd 
 
 Out on the sudden beach of a small bay 
 
 That from the overhanging cliffs above His 
 
 Majesty 
 
 Look'd inaccessible. There, Pilgram loosed Efishing 
 
 The rope that tether'd to a tiny creek 
 
 A slender pinnace. Quick the King and he 
 
 Into the pinnace stept. and push'd from shore. 
 
 Safely her course their little vessel held 
 
 Across a treacherous sea thick sown with reefs In 
 
 troubled 
 
 And sunken rocks. From the high downs above 
 Shepherds this embarcation wondering watch'd. 
 Never before had fisher moor'd his skiff 
 In that lone bay, nor ever pilot steered 
 His bark unbroken o'er those sunken rocks, 
 Whither the pinnace speeded fast. For there 
 A shoreless, steep, surf-beaten island rose, 
 About whose barren crags and perilous creek 
 No living thing found shelter, tho' it stood 
 
Ii6 KING POPPY. 
 
 Near ' Scarce farther from the mainland than perchance 
 
 ness of 
 the Un- 
 
 known. ^ bolt might reach when thro' barbarian seas 
 The Balearic pirate chased some bark 
 For Carthage bound. And on the seaman's chart 
 That unapproachable island's evil name 
 Was Isle Forever jnore-be-lost-to-sight. 
 
 wassaid The s h e pherds recognized His Majesty 
 
 of the 
 
 Prt by And Master Pilgram. And they shook their heads, 
 
 those 
 
 | vh o Saying, " A fishennan's a fisherman, 
 
 down 
 
 on it. A fish a fish. A king should be a king. 
 The fisherman, to gain his livelihood, 
 Must daily go to sea and risk his life. 
 The king, who hath no livelihood to gain, 
 Can daily stay at home without a risk, 
 And comfortably dine upon the fish 
 The fisherman hath risk'd his life to catch. 
 But no ! Great folks, not satisfied forsooth 
 To eat, when they can have it without pains, 
 The meat that poor folks take such pains to get, 
 
THE MASTER. 117 
 
 Must needs, because there is no need at all, 
 
 Make show with rod and line or dog and gun 
 
 Of catching it and killing it themselves. 
 
 And all that needless trouble they call sport." 
 
 Thus to each other did those shepherds speak, 
 
 As sages do, whenever sages deign 
 
 To speak of follies that are not their own. 
 
 But back at moonrise Pilgram and the King 
 
 Came safely, bringing with them, still alive, The 
 
 King 
 
 A monstrous lobster that His Majesty 
 
 thing to 
 
 Had deign'd to catch. Within the palace-porch * h is 
 
 trouble. 
 
 The two friends parted, and the King regain'd 
 
 The Royal Nursery. Its Baby Queen 
 
 Was sleeping. By her side Dame Rhoda watch'd. Father 
 
 and 
 
 The grey-hair'd father to the cradle crept 
 Softly, and bent above it. When he rose, 
 A trembling gem of purest water gleam'd 
 Upon the forehead of the child. Anon 
 The monarch at the moonlit casement stood, 
 
n8 KING POPPY. 
 
 Musing. Between the palace and the sea 
 
 The royal city adown the hillside humm'd 
 
 With human mutterings multitudinous, 
 
 And twinkled with innumerable lamps. 
 
 Beyond it, like a battlement, uprose 
 
 The dark broad sea ; and the large moon let down 
 
 Over that battlement a ladder of light 
 
 For wishes to climb heavenward, or perchance 
 
 For earthward-faring angels to descend. 
 
 Ci Pilgram," the old man murmur'd as he mused, 
 
 Good 
 
 " I* would that I might sleep and dream un waked 
 
 Prince! 
 
 RATIO. Till dawns the destin'd hour of thy return ! " 
 
IV. 
 
 THE ISLAND. 
 PlLGRAM upon the morrow from the Court Pilgram 
 
 in par- 
 
 Departed, and with him July ; nor back, 
 
 Until July was come again, came he. 
 
 But all the months between, while far away 
 
 They deem'd him, close at hand the Master dwelt 
 
 In that wild island to whose shore morose 
 
 His sorcery safe across the perilous straits 
 
 Had piloted the King. There, all unseen, Builders 
 
 from 
 
 A troop he landed of white-turban'd folk 
 With dusky faces ; cunning artisans, 
 Masons and carpenters, expert as those 
 
 Who came on floats to Joppa from afar, 
 119 
 
120 KING POPPY. 
 
 And builded Bathshua's mysterious son 
 A house of glory for his sacred feasts, 
 His solemn sabbaths, and his glad new moons. 
 The At midnight underneath a moonless sky 
 
 better 
 
 These strangers, led by Pilgram, disembark'd 
 
 Where, in a hidden bight, the savage coast 
 
 Changed, as a Sea- Hag in her secret cave 
 
 To a young Siren changes, and disclosed, 
 
 Voluptuously loose from all restraint, 
 
 Soft undulating slopes and dimpled nests 
 
 Of naked loveliness. For, like the moon, 
 
 That never yet to mortal eyes reveal'd 
 
 That unimaginable hemisphere 
 
 She turns from earth, the self-secluding isle, 
 
 Seen from the mainland, not a glimpse vouchsafed 
 
 Of its evasive witcheries. But here, 
 
 Wall'd from the rancorous North and warping East 
 
 By spacious solitudes of mountain snow, 
 
 One glowing inlet to the warm South- West 
 
THE ISLAND. 121 
 
 Lay open, husht in whose luxuriant lap 
 
 A land of unsuspected beauty smiled. A virgin 
 
 soil 
 
 Thick-heap'd about it gleaming gorges hung 
 
 Purpureal woods, that droop'd beneath their load 
 
 Of leafage by a windless heaven unheaved, 
 
 And loose from branch to branch along them roam'd 
 
 The labyrinthine rose. Its meadowy dales 
 
 A thousand fragrant suspirations fill'd 
 
 With incense breathing from the blossom-dust 
 
 Dropt by a thousand summers in a soil 
 
 Of germinating spices. The light down 
 
 Of feathery seeds, the flash of insect wings, 
 
 The thin ethereal shapes of hovering shade 
 
 That over luminous uplands track'd the course 
 
 Of clouds and great wild birds, were all day long 
 
 Sole travellers of the indolent solitude : 
 
 And not a sound its fervid stillness search'd 
 
 Save the low murmuring bee's long mellow hum, 
 
 Or, phantom-echo'd from afar, the shout 
 
122 KING POPPY. 
 
 Of waters falling into shadowy glens. 
 The be- Light task it was in this delicious land, 
 
 ginning 
 
 Ballad. Where Nature laughing led the steps of Art, 
 For Master Pilgram's well-equipp'd adepts 
 (Shaping to their fantastical design 
 The tassel'd precipices from whose tops 
 Long trailers of rich-hued convolvolus stream'd, 
 Enwoven with twining bryony) to uprear 
 A fabric fair as any elfin bower 
 That hides some happy secret from the world. 
 Fair as an elfin bower they built it high 
 Among the lonely hills, and hard to find 
 As that sleep-haunted palace, overgrown 
 With bramble-blooms ; where, lull'd (so legends tell) 
 In slumber pure, a maiden princess dreams 
 Of promised happiness, nor, dreaming, knows 
 That dreams of promised happiness, alas, 
 Are happier far than happiness itself. 
 A coil of glittering cliffs, that seaward shone 
 
THE ISLAND. 123 
 
 In the clear azure ripple of a still bay- 
 Reflected, branching inland brokenly, 
 And there asunder scoop'd by the prone stress 
 Of a precipitous stream, on either side 
 The river'd glen, like giant gateways, reared 
 Steep crags abrupt that, slanting as they rose 
 Towards each other, strove to reunite, 
 And almost touch'd at the top. Here Pilgram camp' d The 
 
 Imagi- 
 
 About the brambly boulders of the gorge, ciSues 
 
 not. 
 
 Skirting its torrent's stony tract, his troops 
 
 trans- 
 
 Of wizard craftsmen. Here their water-wheels, form' the 
 
 ma- 
 terials 
 
 Shrouded in veils of rainbow'd mist, revolved f H r : 
 
 mshed 
 by 
 
 Laborious, here their forges flamed, and here Nature 
 
 for the 
 manifes- 
 
 Their ladder'd scaffolds swarm'd, as high in heaven, tation of 
 
 its force; 
 impart- 
 
 From the rough mountain ridge hewn mountainous, ing to 
 
 them 
 . .... , new 
 
 A towery pile these mystic masons wrought : aspects, 
 
 a new 
 
 A pile whose glimmering battlements appeared fiSnce, 
 
 and new 
 
 Half cloud, half crag ; and, tho' but freshly built ff^ on 
 
 human 
 
 All indistinguishable from the grey 
 
124 KING POPPY. 
 
 Old parent rock's self, cloth'd in the wan hues 
 Of distance, and the mystery of the hills ; 
 Like some ancestral portrait of a child 
 With infant features in a garb antique. 
 For now the old time was young ; and, as in bud 
 White tho' unwither'd is the hawthorn's head, 
 So here did youth and age one aspect wear, 
 Blent in the hoary blossom of the past. 
 
 Gardens and bowers between the winding walls 
 Of that aerial labyrinth hidden, or hung 
 On terraced platforms purpling golden heights, 
 They planted ; and the wandering water-springs 
 And courses channell'd into shadowy wells. 
 Reachless upon the seaward side of them 
 Were both the palace and the crags it crown'd ; 
 But inland, down by wooded slopes unseen, 
 The dim meanderings of a sylvan path 
 Led softly from the summit to the glen. 
 
THE ISLAND. 
 
 125 
 
 A twelve month's task this wondrous work had been 
 
 To Pilgram's ministrant adepts ; and now 
 
 The pile was perfect, and they all were gone, 
 
 By night embarking, back to their own lands. 
 
 Yet still, alone, he linger'd in the isle, 
 
 Still roam'd, companionless, from room to room 
 
 The wild fantastic palace he had built, 
 
 And haunted still its blossomy terraces, 
 
 Returning ever to what seem'd the mouth 
 
 Of some huge well-shaft in the central court. 
 
 A monstrous cavity it was, that gaped 
 
 Into a gulf of gloom unfathomable, 
 
 Girt by a marble parapet, beneath 
 
 A penthouse roof with signs zodiacal 
 
 Emblazon'd, on twelve porphyry columns propp'd, 
 
 Each column carven rough with shapes grotesque 
 
 Of beast, and bird, and blossom. Here longwhile 
 
 Was Pilgram busied, with ingenious hand 
 
 Adjusting pulleys, winches, levers, wheels, 
 
 The pro- 
 ductions 
 of Phan- 
 tasos 
 would 
 remain 
 unknown 
 and pro- 
 fitless, 
 were he 
 not 
 
 Crafts- 
 man as 
 well as 
 Seer, and 
 in both 
 capacities 
 master 
 of all arts. 
 But the 
 service 
 of the 
 higher 
 faculties 
 
 by him 
 in the 
 rough - 
 shaping 
 of his 
 work is 
 not re- 
 quired 
 for the 
 finishing 
 touches 
 which 
 render 
 that 
 
 work ac- 
 cessible 
 to those 
 for whose 
 benefit 
 it is des- 
 tined ; 
 these last 
 being 
 mainly 
 mecha- 
 nical. 
 
126 KING POPPY. 
 
 And cordage. Would ye know the reason why ? 
 Come, then, whoever fears not to pursue, 
 Where'er they lead, the footsteps of a guide 
 Whose ways are variable as the winds, 
 And never long upon the beaten track ! 
 Come to the sleeping-chamber of the King 
 ofthe 181 By Pilg" ram loved ! A King whose countenance, 
 
 Ballad 
 
 Discourse, and conduct, all alike inspire 
 Complete conviction that his honest throne 
 He never could have owed to any cause 
 Less irreproachable than being born 
 The only heir to it. But haste ! for Time, 
 That unreturning traveller, hurries on, 
 Soon leaving far behind him out of reach 
 Old kings, old kingdoms, and old kingliness. 
 King Diadummianus is the last 
 Of all his dynasty, and nevermore 
 May modern verse his royal rest invade. 
 
THE ISLAND. 127 
 
 It was the hour when, nodding on his watch, 
 
 dream. 
 
 The startled sentinel hears the vigilant cry 
 
 That shamed repentant Peter. Night wax'd pale, 
 
 And still the monarch slept. Yet slept he not 
 
 Ungarmented on his accustom'd couch, 
 
 But full-dress'd, sitting in the regal chair 
 
 Where sleep had slid upon him. Round about, 
 
 The candles, to their silver sockets sunk, 
 
 With sooty wicks untrimm'd, and long white beards 
 
 Of wandering wax,*burn'd wan. The old King dream'd 
 
 That he was going to a Gala Ball, 
 
 Given by His Majesty King Solomon 
 
 To meet the Queen of Sheba and the Kings 
 
 Of Garamant and Nasamonia. 
 
 He had bespoken for this great event 
 
 A new court-suit, and it surprised him much 
 
 To find that monstrous lobster, he had caught 
 
 And supp'd upon twelve months ago, was turn'd 
 
 Into his tailor. The smooth garden-sward 
 
128 A7A T G POPPY. 
 
 This creature with its nippers snipp'd like cloth. 
 
 accord- 
 
 " Ho, thou crustaceous rascal ! " roarM the King, 
 
 cloth. 
 
 " Who bade thee spoil our palace-lawn, to make 
 A court-suit fitter for field mice and moles 
 Than monarchs ? Would'st thou ruin utterly 
 Our credit with our cousin Solomon ? 
 That Prince of Tews, were we so ill endorsed, 
 
 disputed J ' 
 
 endorse- 
 
 Would certainly dishonour us, and we 
 
 (Dread thought !) might have no friend in Jewry left." 
 
 " Fear nothing, Sire ! " The lobster-tailor laugh'd. 
 
 " This stuff is velvet-smooth, of finest nap, 
 
 True Elbceuf texture, all pure bottle-green. 
 
 Deign, Sire, to stretch apart thy royal legs, 
 
 That I may measure to a nicety 
 
 The sinus of the crural angle. Thanks ! 
 
 Alas, since that mischance which brought to shame 
 
 His Rhodian Royal Highness my revered 
 
 Old client, the Colossus, whose court-tights 
 
 Crack'd at an angle of four-score degrees 
 

 THE ISLAND. 129 
 
 And ten one cannot be too careful. Hie 
 Rhodus, hie salta ! " With malignant smile, 
 As thus he spake, the mocking monster slid 
 Insidiously, between the royal legs, 
 His back perfidious and impervious, horsed 
 
 away 
 
 The monarch on it, and full-speed began 
 
 A backward march down hill precipitous 
 
 To where the plunging billow bruised the beach. 
 
 What might have happen'd to His Majesty 
 
 Not even he who tells this tale can guess, 
 
 If old Dame Rhoda, who was looking out 
 
 From Pilgram's casement, had not chanced to spy 
 
 Her Sovereign's peril. Pilgram's inkstand stood, 
 
 A quiver full of pens, upon his desk. 
 
 Pens, penknife, inkstand, all, Dame Rhoda seized, 
 
 And hurl'd them at that treacherous lobster's head. 
 
 No sooner did the inkstand find itself 
 
 Launch'd into space (its natural element) bkstand 
 
 takes 
 
 Than it became a great black crow. The pens 
 
 I 
 
130 KING POPPY. 
 
 Spread out their feather'd crow-quills, and were wings. 
 The pointed penknife was the bird's keen beak ; 
 Wherewith it dealt the lobster such a stab 
 As slew that monster indigestible ; 
 Who, muttering " Malediction ! Mayonaise ! 
 carries And Tartar Sauce ! " expired. " Quick ! " croak'd the 
 
 away 
 
 Mon- CrOW, 
 
 archy : 
 
 " Sire, art thou ready ? There's no time to lose." 
 
 Forthwith, upon the sable bird astride, 
 
 The King beheld his Kingdom fade, and heard 
 
 The crow-quills round him talking to themselves. 
 Which, u What win become of us ? they ask ' d< No good> 
 
 being 
 
 ttaMBub- R 6 ?^ 6 ^ ti 16 penknife. " You inquisitive quills, 
 
 ject of 
 
 mated Forever asking questions, why such haste 
 
 debate, 
 
 To get you know not where ? Of this be sure ! 
 When steel and pen are into contact come, 
 Things must return to what they were before 
 By a short cut. And it is thus alone 
 The King can to his Kingdom be restored." 
 
THE ISLAND. 131 
 
 " Pooh ! " said a pen, " the King must first consent 
 
 To be a piece of paper." " Small the chance 
 
 Of such consent ! " the penknife cried. " Pert pen, 
 
 What king would ever of his own accord 
 
 Become a charter ? " " That's a prejudice," 
 
 The pen retorted. " I know how to slip 
 
 A little sentence in, that shall reduce 
 
 The whole to nothing." " What will it contain ? " 
 
 Enquired the penknife. And the pen replied, 
 
 " A simple formula. The Royal Oath. 
 
 His Majesty anon must condescend 
 
 To swear it by the father of his sires, 
 
 The founder of his dynasty, whose name 
 
 Is known to none, not even to himself: 
 
 But I, who may not tell it, know that name 
 
 Is graved on his ancestral sepulchre." 
 
 " Caw ! " said the swarthy fowl, and swifter flapp'd 
 
 With her funereal pinion the void air, 
 
 " We seek that sepulchre." This dreadful talk 
 
132 KING POPPY. 
 
 Of charters, and the sepulchres of kings, 
 
 And royal oaths, deplorably confused 
 
 His Diadummianian Majesty ; 
 
 Who, in the increasing jumble of his dream 
 
 ^ monarcn ' s nightmare), vaguely felt himself 
 
 stitu- 
 
 Ghanged by degrees into a plain white sheet 
 
 racier. 
 
 Of paper. On that sheet of paper white 
 The pen, that knew it, wrote the history 
 Of all his race from the remotest time ; 
 And then, to illustrate those annals, drew 
 The mausoleum of his ancestor, 
 An in- Capricius the Magnificent. But there, 
 
 complete 
 his- 
 
 By some misgiving seized (some sense perchance 
 
 Of secret fear by that great name inspired, 
 
 Even when 'twas only copied from a tomb) 
 
 The pen, till then so overweening, slipp'd, 
 
 And down fell an obliterating blot. 
 
 This slur upon his sepulchre displeased 
 
 The great dead Sovereign, who indignant rose, 
 
THE ISLAND. 133 
 
 And shook the doorjambs of his tomb. Up sprang 
 
 The startled dreamer, shuddering, and beheld, 
 
 Not the entomb'd forefather of his race, 
 
 But Pilgram, who. with torch in hand, exclaim'd, The 
 
 Author 
 of this 
 
 " Sire, art thou ready ? There's no time to lose." Drama 
 
 Appears 
 
 " Why, that's what said thine inkstand," gasp'd the King, stage, 
 
 Still half awake, " and then became a crow." 
 
 " Sire, from an inkstand," Master Pilgram sigh'd, 
 
 " Expect no reasonable speech. But come, 
 
 For all is finisht ! " " Ah," the King replied, 
 
 " True to the destin'd hour dost thou return, And is 
 
 warmly 
 vvel- 
 
 Nor ever hast thou fail'd thy promised word, comed. 
 
 But O the long, long time without a sign ! 
 
 Not that for even a moment of it all 
 
 Have I once doubted thee ! To doubt thy truth, 
 
 Thy love, thy power, thy deep beneficence, 
 
 That would be death the death of all things dear, 
 
 And fair, and sweet, the death of life's best life ! 
 
 Lead on, then, trusted Master ! Led by thee 
 
134. KING POPPY. 
 
 My guide I know, nor fear the unknown path." 
 The Master stoop'd. A lingering hand he laid 
 Upon the old King's shoulder, father-like, 
 And answer' d, (it was all he answered him) 
 Pilgram Even so, dear child ! " What was it, then, the bond 
 
 is'dis- 
 coyered 
 
 to be an That thus to one another bound these two 
 
 old ac- 
 Quaint- 
 
 As child to father this old homely King, 
 
 So hoary-headed yet so young at heart, 
 
 Nor all unwise in his simplicity, 
 
 And that mysterious guardian of the hopes 
 
 Of all his house ? It was the bond, vouchsafed 
 
 To every unsophisticated soul, 
 
 Of human intercourse with one humane 
 
 After the 
 
 ime of ^k' wonder-working god, who in disguise 
 
 the gods 
 
 (vide Still haunts this earth, and still with men consorts ; 
 
 Legend) 
 one re- 
 mained : Perplexing those that recognise him not, 
 
 and still 
 he 
 
 haunts But helping all who in his power confide. 
 
 this 
 
 though A god whose patient goodness unfatigued 
 
 in dis- 
 
 Rather Forsakes not even frivolity : a god 
 
THE ISLAND. 135 
 
 Whose presence gives a charm to things grotesque, than re- 
 
 linquish 
 
 A grace to things ungainly, and imparts amuse- 
 
 ment of 
 
 To common things a mystery from afar, course 
 
 with 
 
 To things mysterious a familiar tone JSJ3", 
 
 this ca- 
 
 That turns even terror to delight : a god Deity" 5 
 
 hath 
 
 Whose unacknowledged influence all creeds modated 
 
 his cha- 
 
 Have cause to cherish, for his smile makes fair 
 
 ditions 
 
 The rudest fanes, and sweet the harshest faiths, 
 
 Hi 
 And tender the austerest rites, and glad 
 
 called 3 
 
 The gloomiest mythologies of man, him 
 
 tasos : 
 Whose mind mistrusts the little that he knows, Dame 
 
 Rhpda 
 
 And fears the much he knows not. Thou thyself, tened 
 
 him Pil- 
 
 Brother or Sister, hast thou never felt, helSath 
 
 many 
 
 In doubt, discouragement, and lassitude, 
 
 For he 
 
 Thy spirit guided by a hidden hand through 
 
 theages, 
 taking 
 
 here and there the name of this man or of that, as princes take the names of their 
 subjects when they go abroad. And, although by his works only shall you know 
 him, yet he leaveth to others the glory or the shame of them. He it is who taught 
 the Sirens the songs they sang to Ulysses, and made Mercutio acquainted with 
 Queen Mab. Led by him, Alexander invaded the East, and Columbus discovered 
 the West. He was the first Free Mason, the architect of Solomon's Temple, and 
 hath left the trace of his handiwork among the shrines of Christendom, and the 
 minarets of Islam. The Playhouse was once his favourite resort. Now he is 
 oftener to be found in the Madhouse. Sometimes graceful, sometimes grotesque, 
 at one while sublime, at another absurd, his form is never twice the same. Many 
 are mystified ^y his antics, and exasperated by his whims. But to all who 
 recognise its divinity, his presence imparts freedom and joy. 
 
 
136 KING POPPY. 
 
 Far from the close yet unfamiliar crowd 
 
 To lonely places sweet as home regain'd 
 
 After long homesick exile, wild sea shores, 
 
 Deep forest glens, or visionary hills ? 
 
 There, to the vocal silence listening rapt, 
 
 Hast thou not heard a voice that with thy soul 
 
 Spake clearly, and gone comforted away ? 
 
 'Tis Pilgram's hand that drew thee : Pilgram's voice 
 
 That hail'd thee : Pilgram's presence that reveal'd 
 
 In those rare moments memorable proofs 
 
 Of the mistrusted immortality 
 
 Of his own godhood. It is Pilgram's self 
 
 That, when thy hope is low, thy heart oppress'd, 
 
 And on it heavily weighs this weary world, 
 
 Doth loosen life's intolerable load, 
 
 And lift thee as a father his sick child. 
 
 grant's Tne Kin g nis guide had follow'd, and they stood 
 
 lodging 
 
 in the palace of Dinchnn. and its furniture. 
 
THE ISLAND. 137 
 
 Within the Master's chamber. Cramm'd it was , 
 With quaint contrivances of curious art : 
 Porcelain pagodas, on whose mimic shrines 
 A puppet Bonze burn'd incense : tuneful clocks 
 Cluster'd with orbs that, turning, told the time : 
 Chess-boards whose ivory-carven chivalry 
 Battled unbidden, fierce as Norman Knights : 
 Small silver bells, set ringing in a row 
 By sparks of fluid fire : fantastic founts 
 That, spouting perfumes, spun and poised a swarm 
 Of tiny balls, like Indian jugglers : birds 
 With jewell'd bosoms and mechanic wings, 
 That soar'd like larks and sang like nightingales : 
 And companies of dancing dolls, that duck'd 
 And curtsied quite as cleverly as lords 
 And ladies who have pass'd their lives at Court. 
 A trapdoor, touch'd by Pilgram in the floor, 
 Falling, reveal'd steep flinty stairs that curl'd 
 
 secret 
 
 Down to a subterranean gallery, dark path, 
 
138 KING POPPY. 
 
 and And still as the sepulchral chrysalis 
 
 wonders 
 
 way. Whence the tranced worm emerges a wing'd moth. 
 Below the base of the laborious sea 
 And through the secret stithies and ribb'd cells 
 Where Nature's hidden toil strange treasure stores 
 Up from this low world's many-footed life 
 That undiscoverable gallery led 
 To light ethereal and a land divine. 
 Along its darkness, guided by the glare 
 Of Pilgram's smoky torch, the King and he 
 Reach' d a vast cavern, crystal-crusted all 
 By hands not human, when the daedal orb 
 Of earth was still unfinisht. All around. 
 Into the rocky walls fast riveted, 
 Or hanging from the hollow cupola, 
 Branch'd clusters of colossal cressets. These 
 The Master kindled ; and forthwith to light 
 Leapt all the splendid crystals of the cave, 
 In flashing jets of jewel-colour' d flame ; 
 
THE ISLAND. 
 
 139 
 
 Emerald, ruby, sapphire, diamond, each 
 
 Swift response to the other's signal fires 
 
 In rival hues returning. The King gazed 
 
 With dazzled eyes on that wild revelry 
 
 Of radiances, and Pilgram murmur'd, " Yes ! 
 
 These are the frozen tears of Earth's remorse 
 
 For a too-late repented wrong. They glow 
 
 Responsive only to a god's regard ; 
 
 But from the gaze of that offended god 
 
 Earth hides them, knowing that he still resents 
 
 Her blind rejection of his mother's prayer. 
 
 She was great Saturn's daughter, and her name 
 
 Latona. Flying from her serpent-foe, 
 
 The pregnant goddess in her pangs appeal'd 
 
 To Earth for refuge, but appeal'd in vain. 
 
 Delos, the gift of Ocean, not of Earth, 
 
 Was the god's birthplace, Zeus his sire, and him 
 
 Men call'd Apollo. Friends were we : and here 
 
 On earth he, too, in human garb disguised, 
 
 Pilgram 
 explains 
 things in 
 his own 
 way, 
 
 Which 
 is the 
 round- 
 about 
 
140 KING POPPY. 
 
 way of a The homes of men once haunted, shepherding 
 story- 
 Herds for Admetus in the days of old. 
 
 Earth for the loss of him these tears hath wept, 
 Rubies, and emeralds, and diamonds ; 
 And 'tis to lure him back she turns to heaven 
 Those starry eyes of hers that men call flowers, 
 With looks that kindle in the rose, and droop 
 Dim with love-languors in the violet. 
 But he forgives not, and her tears she hides : 
 Down from the roses in her bosom drop 
 Rubies, and from the lilies diamonds, down 
 Drop sapphires from the violets, and from all 
 Her other eyes, whose leafed lids young Spring, 
 Sighing, breathes open, the green emeralds come." 
 Thus murmur'd Pilgram ; and the sea, that roll'd 
 Its restless waters o'er that cavern's roof, 
 Mingled low meanings with his murmur'd words. 
 And the " Pilgram," the King said timidly, " I know 
 
 King 
 
 "tamis That I shall never, never understand 
 
THE ISLAND. 141 
 
 The things them speakest of. To thee, indeed, , then } 
 
 in /us 
 way ; 
 
 Are all things known, and I am ignorant. 
 
 But yet to hear thee is my happiness ; 
 
 And I believe thee, tho' I know full well 
 
 Apollo, whom thou bid'st me deem thy friend, 
 
 Is but a statue which the gardeners place 
 
 In gardens to look pretty. What of that ? 
 
 I know not even how the sun contrives 
 
 To keep itself in heaven without a nail 
 
 To hang on. But I love to feel its rays ; Which is 
 
 short 
 
 And, if I could, I would not hear explain'd ea^y ; 
 
 The secret of its radiance and its warmth. 
 
 It is so pleasant and so full of peace 
 
 To feel, as I do when I have thee near, 
 
 Perfectly happy, with a happiness 
 
 Inexplicably natural, and free 
 
 From every care to know the reason why." 
 
 Pilgram smiled silently, and sign'd the King 
 
 To follow. The two friends their march resumed. 
 
1 42 KING POPPY. 
 
 The gallery ended in the mason'd base 
 Of a deep well-shaft, that was waterless. 
 Here hung a bucket, balanced on a cord. 
 This, Master Pilgram entered ;' placed the King 
 Beside him ; press'd a spring ; and up they rose 
 From darkness into twilight, and still up 
 From twilight into daylight, till at last 
 Thft y , Out of that cavern in the central court 
 
 enter the 
 Happy 
 
 island, of Pilgram's island-palace they emerged, 
 And from its flowery terraces beheld 
 The azure-bosom'd paradise beneath. 
 " O Pilgram, Pilgram ! " cried the glad old King, 
 Half laughing and half weeping, "and 'tis here 
 That she will dwell ? Shut from the unkind world, 
 Fresh as to-morrow in a lover's dream, 
 Safer than Summer in the buds unborn ! 
 And this enchanting realm I owe to thee ! " 
 
 giad. an Here utterance fail'd him, and with humid eyes 
 And open mouth, like a delighted child, 
 
THE ISLAND. 143 
 
 He gazed around him, then on Pilgram's breast 
 Sank with a sudden inarticulate sob, 
 The grateful outburst of a joy surcharged. 
 And Master Pilgram, silent also, seem'd 
 Contented with no richer recompense 
 
 issue 
 
 For all his twelvemonth's toil, than to behold will this 
 
 come 1 
 Ho- 
 
 The childlike gladness of this grey old man. RATIO. 
 
V. 
 THE PRINCIPLE. 
 
 His sullen island's unapproachable P;I. 
 
 gram's 
 
 Lone Eden, the wild palace he had built 
 Among its sea-girt bowers, the secret way 
 Known to him only and the grateful King ; 
 All these were part and parcel of the plan 
 Devised by Master Pilgram to avert 
 The fates foreshadow'd in Dame Rhoda's dream, 
 And save the Princess from the prophecy. 
 Unless, indeed, the prophecy had been, 
 To serve his purpose, by himself inspired ; 
 As Opposition Orators predict 
 Public catastrophes their private plots 
 
 H5 K 
 
146 KING POPPY. 
 
 Are moving heaven and earth to bring about. 
 
 But Pilgram's crafty scheme to save the Crown 
 
 From coming perils, by removing thus 
 
 Its infant heiress from her royal home, 
 
 Had naught in common with the passive faith 
 
 Of fugitive princes. They from safe retreats 
 
 Serenely watch the growth from bad to worse 
 
 Of ills that trouble their relinquisht realms ; 
 
 Hoping that multitudinous mistake, 
 
 The Revolution, in some final fit 
 
 Of folly may recall them to their thrones. 
 
 Pilgram, however, a distinction drew 
 
 Between a mousetrap and a monarchy. 
 
 A mouse can get with ease into the trap 
 
 That's baited for him by his greediness ; 
 
 But a hard matter for the mouse it is, 
 
 Once in it, to get out. Just otherwise, 
 
 A king can from his kingdom get away, 
 
 If ill at ease there ; but, once out of it, 
 
THE PRINCIPLE. 147 
 
 Full hard he finds it to get in again. 
 
 That fact in natural history was well known 
 
 To Master Pilgram : and to counteract 
 
 Its indicated danger, he employ'd 
 
 A waxen puppet wonderfully made, 
 
 And by its author calFd * THE PRINCIPLE.' The 
 
 Prin- 
 
 This puppet was a masterpiece of art, JJP. 1 ' 
 
 Deceptively resembling to a hair 
 
 The Princess Diadema. No mere daub'd 
 
 And undeceiving mimicry of life, 
 
 Such as the bouncing showman's brazen trump 
 
 Bids gaping crowds about his booth admire ; 
 
 But free from all defects of flesh and blood, 
 
 A faultless fiction that improved on truth. 
 
 Obedient to innumerable wheels 
 
 And pulleys in its little bust contain'd, 
 
 The Puppet Princess breathed and moved about 
 
 With such a natural grace, it rather seem'd 
 
 The ideal than the copy of that correct 
 
I 4 8 KING POPPY. 
 
 Assemblage of complete accomplishments, 
 A well-brought-up young lady. Safe henceforth 
 The secret of the living Princess slept 
 In her well-made well-managed counterpart, 
 On one condition Courtly Etiquette. 
 This at a salutary distance keeps 
 The curious crowd. And all in unison 
 With Courtly Etiquette was every line 
 And movement of the delicate machine 
 By Pilgram call'd ' THE PRINCIPLE.' " For, Sire, 
 Which The preservation of the State," said he, 
 
 is both 
 
 vative " " Depends upon the principle imposed 
 By state-craft on the popular belief. 
 Keep that unquestion'd, and the Crown is safe." 
 And, knowing that in all Progressive States 
 Principles must from time to time be changed, 
 
 And Or rather say developed, he had made 
 
 Pro- 
 
 fe." Provision for each morphologic phase 
 Of his elastic doll's expanding form. 
 
THE PRINCIPLE. 149 
 
 For its fine clockwork, when adroitly set, 
 
 Could to the size and shape of it impart 
 
 The appropriate appearances of growth ; 
 
 From tenderest infancy to that sweet age 
 
 More tender still, that brings the blushing dawn 
 
 Of conscious beauty to the maiden's cheek. 
 
 This done, 'twas only needed to supply 
 
 The necessary quantity of heads 
 
 To suit the growing torse ; and when the scale 
 
 Was properly adjusted, and the wheels 
 
 Wound up, the Pseudo-Princess would assume 
 
 Whatever age her maker pleased, from Six 
 
 To Sixteen. Neatly numbered One, Two, Three, 
 
 Et ccetera, this Puppet of the State 
 
 Was furnish' d, like a scientific code, 
 
 With numerous headings. And the King's delight It con- 
 tributes 
 
 to the 
 
 Was in those waxen mirrors to admire felicity 
 
 of the 
 
 His daughter's future face now pursed and arch archy. 
 
 With playful childhood's mock importance, now 
 
150 KING POPPY. 
 
 A pensive maiden's with mysterious airs, 
 Demure as May's first bashful rose while she, 
 The little living Princess, all the while 
 Lay looking at him with the wistful eyes 
 Wherethro' astonisht Infancy beholds 
 Its unaccustom'd earthly home, and smiles 
 On all alike, indifferently pleased 
 And puzzled by a poodle or a judge. 
 So Master Pilgram, in his private hours, 
 To please the monarch made that puppet fair 
 Change face more often than the fitful moon. 
 When in her seeming sixteenth summer moved 
 The mimic maiden, with paternal pride 
 between The ^ King made his most majestic bow, 
 
 Public 
 
 Sedately turning touch'd with courtly kiss 
 
 The waxen fingers, and in measured speech 
 
 His model heiress gallantly address' d ; 
 
 Then, chuckling, o'er the cradle stoop'd, and cried, 
 
 " Come ! See thy pretty self as thou shalt be, 
 
THE PRINCIPLE. 151 
 
 My little Queen ! " But when the child stretch'd out 
 
 Her tiny hands, and crowM towards the form 
 
 Of her own future, all the father's heart 
 
 Was fill'd with fear. He caught her in his arms, 
 
 And murmur'd o'er her treasured head, " No ! no ! And 
 
 Private 
 Affec- 
 
 Stay as thou art ! For ever as thou art, 
 The darling of mine undetected joy ! 
 Never become a coroneted doll, 
 With studied mien from hour to hour made up : 
 , One set of graces for the Promenade, 
 Another for the Banquet-hall prepared, 
 These serious looks for the Te Deum learn'd, 
 And those becoming simpers for the ball ! " 
 Such outbursts of a passion fresh and strong, 
 And unfamiliar to that monarch old 
 As her first love to some bewilder 5 d maid, 
 Left him abasht ; and with embarrass'd smile The 
 
 King's 
 
 He said to Pilgram, " He that talks with babes 
 
 times 
 
 Must needs talk nonsense. Doth the Council wait? 1 ' traded. 
 
152 KING POPPY. 
 
 with due publicity THE PRINCIPLE 
 
 of the 
 
 ^"J" Day after day, at regulated times, 
 
 Held by Dame Rhoda in a coach and six, 
 Was promenaded all about the town. 
 Later, the little puppet as it pass'd 
 Saluted gracefully with head and hand 
 . Its loyal folk ; who found the Princess grown, 
 And said, " How well Her Royal Highness looks ! 
 So like already to the Queen deceased ! " 
 The affair, however, was more difficult 
 When her sixth year the Princess had attain'd. 
 For then the established custom of the Court 
 Prescribed that all the children of like age, 
 If born with more than thirty quarterings, 
 Should be invited upon certain days 
 
 Secured To play with the Crown Princess. In the name 
 
 by r j 
 
 reform 
 
 of the of Progress (that progressively deprives 
 
 Rfgiine. 
 
 Some one of something previously enjoy'd) 
 This custom Pilgram prudently suppress' d. 
 
THE PRINCIPLE. 153 
 
 'Tis easy to deceive diplomatists, 
 
 For they, indeed, are train'd to be deceived ; 
 
 And what would be the use to some of them 
 
 Of their finessing, if it did not dupe 
 
 The deep credulity of all the rest ? 
 
 But children have a sense intuitive 
 
 Of what is natural and what is not, 
 
 And quicker do they recognize a doll 
 
 Than train'd diplomatists a man. Meanwhile, 
 
 Since Diadema's childhood first assumed 
 
 Serene dominion o'er its island realm, 
 
 The world was ten years older, and thereby 
 
 Entitled to be ten times wiser too. 
 
 The King convoked his Council, and announced ^ e 
 
 King 
 proposes 
 
 The time, in his opinion, had arrived to estab- 
 
 lish a 
 Board of 
 
 To satisfy the public interest felt Control. 
 
 In his child's education. "With concern 
 We hear it rumour'd," said His Majesty, 
 "That there be certain persons who presume 
 
154 KING POPPY. 
 
 To doubt the wisdom of Our Government. 
 'Tis time to stop this scandal in the State, 
 And, gentlemen, I call for The Control." 
 As when in some thick-crowded theatre 
 
 of his 
 Minis- 
 ters at A sudden voice calls " Fire ! " or as a flock 
 
 this 
 
 innova- 
 
 Of sparrows startled by the sportsman's gun 
 When they are feeding on a field of wheat, 
 So, at that ominous word (interpreted 
 By each one as a menace to himself) 
 The ministers, upstarting, stared around 
 In all directions. For their only thoughts 
 Not put to flight were thoughts of flight 
 
 itself. 
 
 The first one to recall his scatter'd wits 
 Was the Lord Chancellor, whose cleverness 
 Was never long at fault. And he explain'd, 
 " Your Majesty's advisers, to a man,' 
 With uncontrollable emotion rise, 
 Responsive to the call for The Control ! " 
 
THE PRINCIPLE. 155 
 
 The King was toucht. " With pleasure," he He 
 
 explains 
 his 
 
 resumed, principle 
 
 about 
 
 " We recognize this unanimity. value of 
 
 prin- 
 
 For principles, when properly laid down, 
 
 Are like triumphal arches lofty, large, 
 
 Solid, and monumental. That's enough. 
 
 They stand apart, with space to show them off, 
 
 And, tho' they lead to nothing, they look well. 
 
 Practical life about its business goes, 
 
 Passing upon the right side or the left, 
 
 But always on one side of them, no doubt. 
 
 Their value is, however, none the less ; 
 
 For in them, as it passes, it admires And his 
 
 idea 
 
 The symbol of a satisfied idea, 
 
 Of which idea, if it did not see 
 
 That satisfying symbol, it would have 
 
 No satisfactory idea at all. 
 
 Control, then, is the principle whereon 
 
 Our educational policy we base, 
 
in 
 Council. 
 
 156 KING POPPY. 
 
 And its best symbol is Publicity. 
 Our dear child's education must henceforth 
 Be publicly conducted." Reassured 
 About the application and effect 
 Of that uncomfortable word Control, 
 The Ministers breathed freely, and forthwith 
 Orders D rew U p the following regulations. " First. 
 A Board, to be appointed and composed 
 As hereinafter mention'd, will direct 
 The intellectual accomplishments 
 Of the Crown Princess, Diadema. Once 
 Every eight days, a teacher, by the Board 
 Selected for that purpose, will read out 
 In public, and Her Royal Highness write, 
 The weekly lesson previously approved 
 By a Committee of the Board. The date 
 Of every lesson will be notified 
 Beforehand in the Court Gazette, and seats 
 Provided for the Public and the Press. 
 
THE PRINCIPLE. 157 
 
 Second. Eight days before the day prescribed, 
 
 The officiating teacher will transmit 
 
 A copy of his lecture to the Board. 
 
 The paper for this purpose must be stamp'd." 
 
 [The stamp was a proviso introduced 
 
 By the Financial Secretary.] " Third. 
 
 All deviation by the lecturer 
 
 In his delivery from the written text 
 
 Is punishable with imprisonment 
 
 For six months, or a fine proportional." 
 
 [That clause was drafted by the Ministers 
 
 Of Justice and Instruction. But the fine 
 
 Was due to their Financial Colleague.] " Fourth. 
 
 The paper by Her Royal Highness penn'd, 
 
 As soon as finisht, shall be handed round 
 
 By two Court Pages, for the public eye 
 
 To examine and admire. And if one fault 
 
 Can be detected in it, the next day 
 
 The two Court Pages shall be soundly whipp'd 
 
158 KING POPPY, 
 
 In public. Pereat puer regius, 
 Success- Fiat Justitia ! " These rules received 
 
 ful in- J 
 
 augu ra- 
 tion of The unanimous approval of the Press, 
 
 the new 
 
 And the first trial of them answered well. 
 The Court was cramni'd. The public interest 
 Evinced in the new system was immense ; 
 Nor is it possible to say how long 
 It might have lasted if it had survived 
 Unex- The system's novelty. An accident 
 
 pected 
 
 mis- 
 
 carriage Happen'd, however. One unlucky day 
 
 of it; 
 
 The manuscript of the Crown Princess proved, 
 When handed round, to be no counterpart 
 Of the Professor's eloquent discourse 
 About the government of that wise Prince, 
 Peter the Great. For what the Princess wrote 
 Was a long treatise upon Alcohol. 
 The two Court Pages were severely whipp'd 
 In public afterwards ; and this mistake 
 W 7 as the sole evidence of carelessness 
 
THE PRINCIPLE. 
 
 '59 
 
 Detected in the Royal Pupil's tasks. 
 
 But then, what clever carelessness it was J 
 
 What covert irony ! The Ambassador 
 
 Of Muscovy immediately applied 
 
 To have his passports sent him. The Gazette 
 
 Announced next morning the indefinite 
 
 Postponement of the customary course 
 
 Of weekly lectures, and that afternoon 
 
 'Twas rumour'd that the Princess was unwell. 
 
 Three days the Court Physician stay'd at home, 
 
 And kept his carriage station'd at his door, 
 
 Daily expecting orders to attend 
 
 Her Royal Highness. But they never came. 
 
 The fourth day, when he ventured out, he found 
 
 His other patients had meanwhile got well 
 
 Without his aid, and he at once resolved 
 
 Not to neglect again their humble claims 
 
 Upon his valuable care and skill. 
 
 Days pass'd. The Princess from the Promenade 
 
 \Vhich 
 gives 
 rise to a 
 Russian 
 Ques- 
 tion. 
 
 Course 
 adopted 
 by the 
 Court 
 Physi- 
 cian, 
 and 
 
 remark- 
 able 
 cures 
 effected 
 by it. 
 
160 KING POPPY. 
 
 Was miss'd. The King appear'd pre-occupied. 
 Strange Some boors, who at a tavern late one night 
 
 story set 
 
 some 3 Had been carousing, afterwards declared 
 
 common 
 
 That, as they pass'd the palace, strolling home, 
 
 A light from Master Pilgram's casement lured 
 
 Their curiosity ; and one of them, 
 
 Upon his comrades' shoulders climbing, peep'd 
 
 In at the casement. There (so ran 'their tale) 
 
 He saw, and told his fellows, who in turn 
 
 Climb'd up, and peep'd, and also saw (Good 
 
 Heavens ! ) 
 
 The Princess sitting not as it behoves 
 Princesses to sit always, looking straight 
 Before them but, regardless of all rules 
 Both of decorum and anatomy, 
 As if her neck were broken, with her head 
 Turn'd round, and looking down behind her back. 
 Still stranger ! She had taken off one arm, 
 Her right arm, which was screw'd into a vice ; 
 
THE PRINCIPLE. 161 
 
 And Master Pilgram, with his sleeves tuckt up, 
 
 Was filing it, and putting- a small wheel 
 
 Into the elbow, just as quietly 
 
 As you might sew a button on your shirt. 
 
 Strangest of all ! the King was standing by, 
 
 Yet did not seem to care a button, he 
 
 That call'd himself the father of his child, 
 
 While that mysterious Master of Black Arts 
 
 Was massacring the Royal Innocent. 
 
 This story was too strange to be believed ; 
 
 And Common Sense, rejecting it, affirm'd Triumph 
 
 of Com- 
 
 mon 
 
 That, since the Princess had been out of health, 
 
 Pilgram, perchance, had bled her in the arm ; 
 
 But that to bleed it more conveniently 
 
 He first took off her arm, was clearly false. 
 
 A barber might as well take off men's heads 
 
 To comb and brush them. Clearly, too, the 
 
 absurd 
 Position, to the Princess by those clowns 
 
p i62 A'7A T G POPPY. 
 
 Attributed, was incompatible 
 With the anatomy of vertebrates, 
 And that respect all royal skeletons 
 Owe more particularly to themselves. 
 Thing;, Thus, Common Sense prevail'd. And thus may all 
 
 to be 
 
 Whose privilege it is to dig the mine 
 
 acknow- 
 
 Of mortal truths for which posterity 
 
 Will prize this book, perceive how Providence 
 
 Hath made it difficult to long mislead 
 
 Public Opinion. Justice in the end 
 
 Prevails when, having placed beyond the reach 
 
 Of restitution his ill-gotten gains, 
 
 A rogue is in his hundredth robbery 
 
 Detected, laid up by the heels at last, 
 
 And made to mend his manners. In the end 
 
 Peace triumphs as it triumph'd in that famed 
 
 Westphalian Treaty over thirty years 
 
 Of bloodshed, after every one was kill'd, 
 
 And every province ravaged. Even so 
 
THE PRINCIPLE. 163 
 
 Doth Common Sense prevail (as Peace o'er War, 
 
 Justice o'er Knavery) when every fop 
 
 Hath been applauded, every fool believed. 
 
 And this is a great comfort. But the cause 
 
 Of that unfortunate mistake which cost 
 
 The Muscovite Ambassador's recall 
 
 Was, notwithstanding its simplicity, 
 
 One of the many things that would have been 
 
 But for this book for ever unexplain'd. 
 
 The seat of the intelligence in man Simple 
 
 solution 
 
 Not even the most intelligent research physio- 
 
 logical 
 
 Can quite intelligibly fix. But, lodged 
 
 Distributively, the intelligence 
 
 Of Pilgram's puppet dwelt in polisht groups 
 
 Of brazen cylinders, the Master changed 
 
 Daily to suit the subject as required. 
 
 The King, in Pilgram's absence, had one day 
 
 With his own hand arranged the Cylinders 
 
 Of Public Education ; and, unused 
 
164 KING POPPY. 
 
 To manage such a delicate machine, 
 Their order inadvertently transposed. 
 The puppet this confusion reproduced 
 With a mechanical fidelity, 
 A State And hence the Russian Question. But beware, 
 
 Secret. 
 
 All ye at whose disposal we have placed 
 This confidential statement. Bear in mind 
 That a State secret is a serious thing, 
 And never to be treated as a joke. 
 Altho' indeed, if treated seriously, 
 A joke may sometimes be more dangerous 
 Than all the serious secrets of the State. 
 
 The After the accident recorded here, 
 
 Prin- 
 ciple is . . 
 
 again Nothing again occurr d to interrupt 
 
 put into 
 
 Son!*" The course of studies publicly resumed 
 
 By the Crown Princess. Years went by. The time 
 For Court Balls and Court Concerts came at last, 
 And then it was that Pilgram's art achieved 
 
THE PRINCIPLE. 165 
 
 The triumph of mechanic etiquette. 
 
 A telephonic apparatus, placed 
 
 In contact with the Puppet Princess, ran 
 
 Below the palace floors to where, unseen, 
 
 The Master's touch upon the keys controll'd 
 
 Her conversation. 'Twas consider'd good. 
 
 "The Princess speaks not much, but she speaks 
 
 well," 
 
 The Court remark'd. "Her Royal Highness seems 
 Subject," said one, "to absences of mind." 
 " Ay, but how charming are they ! And how well 
 And wittily they prove banalities 
 Repugnant to her nature ! " said the rest. 
 " The other day, when she had deign'd to ask with 
 
 RUV- 
 
 The Foreign Envoy who arrived last week results. 
 
 That customary question of the Court, 
 
 Is it the first time, Sir, that you have been 
 
 In Diadtimmiania ? and he 
 
 Said, Yes, your Royal Highness, the first time, 
 
1 66 KING POPPY. 
 
 The Princess, with a thoughtful pause, replied, 
 Then you must find tilings here a good deal changed. 
 Diplo- But for the tact of the diplomatist 
 
 malic 
 tact. 
 
 To whom this observation was address'd, 
 It might have complicated matters much 
 Between his Court and that of Diadum. 
 But he, in silence, had profoundly bow'd. 
 Profound ability ! That bow might mean, 
 If render'd into speech, a thousand things 
 Tremendously significant and yet 
 Conveniently correct : a compromise 
 Between denial and assent, a kind 
 Of courteous reservation of the right 
 Of contradiction at some future time, 
 That cleverly evaded the parade 
 Of an offensive incredulity : 
 Or, construed otherwise, it might imply 
 A stinging epigram, a repartee 
 Unutterably bitter, tho' withal 
 
THE PRINCIPLE. 167 
 
 In its expression perfectly polite. 
 
 The Envoy, for the tact he had display'd 
 
 On this occasion, by return of post Her 
 
 speech is 
 
 Received the sky-blue ribbon and grand cross 
 
 HH- 
 
 Of Knight Commander of the Uncatchable Carp. 
 
 doth 
 
 The blazon of that Order was a fish 
 
 hearers 
 
 Between a fish-hook and a frying-pan 
 
 Ho-' 
 
 Passant^ the motto of it Point de zele. 
 
VI. 
 THE KING. 
 
 TlS noon and May. About the happy lawns ] >iadum- 
 
 mianus, 
 reared 
 
 Sweet airs are breathing. Sunny showers have wash'd in the 
 
 lap of 
 
 The morning white, and deck'd the gleaming buds Rboda 
 
 (Tradi- 
 
 With drops and sparks. There's gladness in the grass, and led 
 
 by the 
 
 And a light fluttering music thro' the leaves, o? l phan- 
 
 tasos 
 
 Where amorous birds their busy loves begin. 
 
 The Audience is dismiss'd, the Cabinet 
 
 assumed 
 
 Dispersed, the realm for four-and-twenty hours 
 
 J familiar 
 
 to Tra- 
 
 Govern'd till further orders, and the King di ^ ion 
 
 ^ (Master 
 
 I'il- 
 
 Into his library retired. This means gram), 
 
 passes, 
 under 
 
 The Royal Mind,- immersed in private depths their 
 
 169 protect- 
 
 ing in- 
 
 rlucin:e. into the young rompany of his cliilcl. Diadema (Poetry still in its infancy). 
 and is there associated with the sports of her childhood. 
 
1 70 KING POPPY. 
 
 Of public business, must not be disturb'd. 
 To his The archives he peruses are inscribed 
 
 equip- 
 ment for 
 
 the part FOREIGN AFFAIRS." One shelf is labell'd " SPAIN," 
 
 h^hfm 
 
 in those And from the Realms of Ferdinand he fills 
 
 sports 
 
 all lands T1 . . . . T1 
 
 contri- nis pockets with Iberian pastes. The next 
 
 hute 
 
 se t Is labell'd " FRANCE." The Court of Pharamond 
 gift. 
 
 Contributes crystal wands of lucid balm, 
 
 The honey of a hundred barleyfields 
 Congeal' d to amber. Candied fruits from Fez, 
 And rare rose-colour'd sweetmeats from Stamboul, 
 Complete these confidential files. The old man, 
 Like burglar booty-laden, looks around, 
 Listens suspicious, then with trembling hand 
 Touches the panel-portal's secret spring, 
 And down the hollow darkness disappears. 
 In him- GO, triple type of noble weakness ! Go 
 
 com- 
 bines the three highest dignities of human life : Royalty, Paternity, and Old Age. 
 There is something paternal in the dignity of a king, something royal in that of a 
 father. Yet in each of these two cases the 'dignity involves a weakness because it 
 depends upon the recognition of it by its dependents ; while in the third case it 
 is so weak that it derives support from the united weaknesses of the other two; 
 the most dignified type of Old Age being both paternal and royal. 
 
THE KING. 171 
 
 Thy darkling ways, King, Father, and Old Man ! 
 
 In thee the Kingdoms of the hoary Past 
 
 And infant Future for awhile unite 
 
 Their subject sweetnesses and sanctities 
 
 Beneath a present sovereignty. Death's self 
 
 But seldom dares the double stroke that smites 
 
 The twofold childhood of a father's joy. 
 
 Go ! and with thee, shall loveliness be gone 
 
 From that self-murdering miserable world 
 
 Whence thou art passing, when it loves no more 
 
 Its kings and its forefathers. Leave it thou, 
 
 Unenvied, unimagined, unrebuked, 
 
 Its poor mechanical contrivances 
 
 For substituting companies for kings A king- 
 
 less and 
 godless 
 
 And rules for rulers ! It will be at best com- 
 
 munity, 
 
 Nothing but a negation of whate'er Kaion 
 
 of the 
 T . , , ,,. newest 
 
 It is no longer. But to thee, old King, Soions. 
 
 Never shall that unknowing world be known, 
 And Phantasos protects thee from the approach 
 
172 KING POPPY. 
 
 Of its irreverent wretchedness. Go by ! 
 The blest asylum of the bygone find, 
 And be forgotten while the world forgets 
 Its own forgetfulness, thou rescued type 
 Of triple weakness, triple dignity, 
 And triple worth, King, Father, and Old Man ! 
 Past is the gallery, and the cistern gain'd. 
 Safe in his buoyant bulwark sits the King, 
 And rises slowly. Slowly darkness sinks 
 Beneath him, and above him dawns sweet day. 
 Rose- A rosebud falls upon the old man's face, 
 
 buds 
 and 
 
 snow- Another rosebud, and another still. 
 
 drops 
 
 A pelting rain of roses, and at last 
 
 A little rosy face thro' rippled curls 
 
 Peeps laughing down. O happy, happy Sire ! 
 
 Thrice happy King ! Where now be all thy plumed 
 
 And armed guards ? thy long-robed retinue 
 
 Of solemn councillors ? thy stately cares ? 
 
 What smooths the inveterate wrinkle from thy brow, 
 
THE KING. 173 
 
 And beckons back thy boyhood from the past ? 
 
 When little arms about thy bended neck United. 
 
 So rudely yet so tenderly were flung, 
 
 Instead of stepping down with tread sedate 
 
 And mien majestic as becomes a king, 
 
 Didst thou not reel with tottering ecstasy, 
 
 And roll thee laughing in the glad green grass ? 
 
 And now thy crown upon the apple bough 
 
 Is hanging, and thy royal robe is doff'd, 
 
 And thou art running thro' the rosy bowers 
 
 After a little snowy frock that flits 
 
 And flutters like a butterfly on before. 
 
 Here dwelt the child. And round her innocent life 
 Love from the loom of the interfluent years 
 Wove tender veils between her and the world. 
 Day after day the sun out of the sea 
 Rose up to light her, and the good old King 
 Day after day rose up out of the well 
 
174 KING POPPY. 
 
 To love her. Daily light and love return'd, 
 And with them brought her father and the sun. 
 One day the grateful King to Pilgram said, 
 " My life is twofold. On the other side, 
 Out of this happy isle, when I behold 
 That painted puppet, to myself I say, 
 " This puppet is perfection, and 'tis thus 
 My little Diadema might have been." 
 The But, speaking of the puppet, we must oil 
 
 King 
 desires 
 
 to give The curtsying contrivances. Last night 
 
 greater 
 
 to the The springs went stiffly when the Princess danced 
 
 Priii- 
 he has Her minuet with the Prince of Padua, 
 
 adopted. 
 
 And it was noticed. The machinery 
 Of the piano-playing still works well. 
 In the Musical boxes cannot beat it. All 
 
 absence of 
 the Ideal, 
 
 the highest The scientifically-musical 
 
 reality is 
 attributed 
 
 to the Critics assert such virtuosity 
 
 Fictitious, 
 and a 
 
 Puppet Of execution never yet was known 
 
 mistaken 
 
 Principle. Since first princesses on pianos deign'd 
 
THE KING. 175 
 
 To play with their own fingers. Some days since, A 
 
 musical 
 
 An accident, that might have turn'd out ill, 
 
 Confirm'd this good opinion. When I placed 
 
 Her Royal Highness on the music-stool, 
 
 I quite forgot to place the stool itself 
 
 Where in relation to the instrument 
 
 I was to place it. And the puppet's hands, 
 
 Being a little too much to the right, 
 
 Instead of playing, as they should have play'd, 
 
 The score thro' in C Major, play'd it all 
 
 Just one tone higher. As for me myself, 
 
 I never even noticed it. Next clay Method, 
 
 unin- 
 formed 
 
 I learn'd, however, from an article by 
 
 Imagi- 
 nation, 
 
 That nearly fill'd the Musical Gazette, attains 
 
 its 
 highest 
 
 With what consummate science all at once perfec- 
 
 tion 
 
 My daughter that concerto had transposed substi- 
 
 tutes art 
 
 From the Ionic (without one mistake) insight, 
 
 science 
 
 Into the Hypomyxolydian Tone, and ' 
 
 termino- 
 
 By substituting for the Major Seventh 
 
1 76 KING POPPY. 
 
 And Third, the Minor Third and Seventh. Forthwith, 
 One of the critics having tried to prove 
 That 'twas in fact the Hypodoric Tone, 
 And not the Hypomyxolydian one, 
 The Princess had employ'd, between them all 
 Broke out a fiercely vehement dispute, 
 As full of unpronounceable Greek words 
 As of invectives nete, and paranete, 
 And lichanos, and hypate, and the names 
 Of only those musicians who are dead, 
 Or would be dead if they had lived at all, 
 Terpander, Guido of Arezzo, even 
 Pythagoras, whom no one ever knew. 
 Tn thi> What a bewildering machinery 
 
 process 
 Criticism 
 
 has the These critics have devised for grinding out 
 
 last 
 
 The grist of things with such a clatter and whirl 
 Of terrifying terms, that only they 
 Can tell the meaning of the din they make ! 
 Some men there be who do not fear a wolf, 
 
THE KING. 177 
 
 But take him soon as l Look you ' by the throat 
 If they should meet one in a mountain pass, 
 Yet are they disconcerted by the sound 
 Inside a windmill, while the miller moves 
 Undaunted, tho' a coward he may be, 
 Thro' all the hubbub of its cogs and bolts 
 As quietly as an official clerk 
 Would docket a death warrant, or endorse 
 A declaration of immediate war. 
 Just so the critics in their mill." "Just so ! " 
 The Master echo'd, and the King went on, 
 " Two selves within me for dominion strive, Dual- 
 
 Making me theirs by turns. And one of them 
 Is not the King, nor like him. Nay, the King 
 He from the King's own breast, if that could be, 
 Would banish. In this island of delights] 
 The King is both his subject and his slave ; 
 For, with the cares, the compensating charms 
 That dwell in kingly circumstance are dead, 
 
 ism. 
 
1 78 KING POPPY. 
 
 And Diadum in Diadema dies 
 
 At his unkingly bidding. Back once more 
 
 Across yon narrow straits in mine own hall, 
 
 The King resumes his sway. But there at times 
 
 So perfect seems {hat puppet, I myself 
 
 Am half persuaded to believe all true 
 
 Its mimic graces, and proclaim a doll 
 
 The heiress of my kingdom and my crown. 
 
 Here, all is changed within me. Here, I dread 
 
 My distant self that ominously frowns 
 
 On these enjoyments, beckoning from mine amis 
 
 The treasured life made mine by their embrace. 
 
 Pilgram, can she ever face that Court ? 
 
 1 tremble but to think of it, and feel 
 
 A thousand nameless fears, tho' Avell I know 
 The child hath gifts no teaching gives. Her gift 
 Of song, for instance, above all her song ! 
 inspira- How sweet to hear her singing ! Seems it not 
 
 tion 
 without 
 
 art. A language of her own that must be sung, 
 
THE KING. 179 
 
 Else it would have no meaning, tho' it means 
 Everything when she sings it ? She herself, 
 What is she, when she sings ? My child, or born 
 Among the light-springs of some throbbing star, 
 And wafted hither only for awhile 
 On wings whose flight anon may bear her hence ? 
 Where is it, what she sings of? Hard to guess ! 
 But when she sings, athwart my spirit comes 
 A something felt like nothing felt before, 
 A something found like all things miss'd till then, 
 A memory of what hath never been, 
 A hope of what I know can never be ! " 
 
 Scarce had the King this strange avowal made, 
 Before he felt ashamed of it, and sigh'd, 
 " See what such fancies come to ! Follow them, 
 And farewell common sense ! I'll not deny, 
 Good Master Pilgram, that I sometimes doubt 
 If it be proper for a Princess, born 
 
i8o KING POPPY. 
 
 Sole heiress of a reputable throne, 
 To sing as naturally as a bird 
 That never has been taught to sing at all, 
 Art But grows up wild among the leaves. At least, 
 
 without 
 
 tion. I wish that she would sometimes sing real airs 
 
 That every one knows when and where to praise ; 
 
 Airs that, when sung, make every listener fear 
 
 And tremble for the voice, as for a bold 
 
 And rash rope-dancer who might break his neck, 
 
 And whom you naturally must applaud 
 
 With infinite relief when, at the last, 
 
 He by three pirouettes his perch regains. 
 
 Ay, those are real emotions, every one 
 
 Is capable of feeling ! But alas, 
 
 When Diadema sings you feel them not. 
 
 You }isten without fear, you even forget 
 
 All, as you listen, but to listen still 
 
 To her wild music. And full sure am I, 
 
 Could we discover whence such music comes, 
 
THE KING. 181 
 
 'Twould be forbidden by mine own police. 
 How, after listening to it, can one sign, 
 
 politics. 
 
 With due consideration of details, 
 
 Decrees forbidding citizens to place 
 
 Unfasten'd flower-pots upon window-sills ? 
 
 How can one ponder with impartial mind 
 
 The question whether Whigs will do more harm 
 
 Than Tories ? Tories revolutionize 
 
 The Monarchy more rapidly than Whigs ? 
 
 The other day, when at the Council Board 
 
 My Minister of Justice read me out 
 
 A long report of his on Law Reform, 
 
 Mysteriously within myself I heard 
 
 A mocking echo of those melodies 
 
 The child sings to the sea-wind and the sea. 
 
 And suddenly I cried, ' O sing once more An "awk- 
 
 ward 
 
 mistake. 
 
 The ninety-seventh paragraph sublime 
 Of that seraphic and enchanting Code 
 Of Criminal Procedure ! ' By good luck, 
 
1 82 KING POPPY. 
 
 Looking at my Lord Chancellor's state wig, 
 
 I saw its curls were standing stiff on end 
 
 With horror, and the sight of them recalPd 
 
 My wits to the realities of life. 
 
 But such distractions must not be again : 
 
 For I detected, as the Board dispersed 
 
 In some confusion, an exchange of looks 
 
 And whisperings between my Ministers, 
 
 That augur'd mischief' Circumstance foreseen, 
 
 And by the nineteenth clause provided for" 1 
 
 * Family Statute ' * Salique law ' ' clear case ' 
 
 4 The Younger Branch' ^ Mental derangement" 1 ''State 
 
 In danger ' * Regency / ' Ha, * Regency ' ? 
 
 I'll regency the rascals ! ' Case foreseen ' ? 
 
 ' Mental derangement ' ? I'll derange their plots 
 
 Foreseen, or unforeseen ! I'll " 
 
 Dia, Piercing sweet 
 
 dema's 
 
 Above the angry old King's hoary head, 
 
THE KING. 185 
 
 Soar'd, bird-like, from the sea-girt balcony 
 A voice that waked the sleeping isle with song 
 Seductive as Calypso's. And therewith, 
 
 J r which 
 
 the 
 
 Woo'd by its witchcraft, out of glens remote 
 
 And neighbouring bowers, from the ethereal hills 
 
 And headlong streams, responsive strains arose ; 
 
 Innumerable melodies, that turn'd 
 
 All secret throbbings of the palpitant heart 
 
 Of Silence into raptures audible, 
 
 As thoughts to sounds are turn'd along the strings 
 
 Of a thrill'd harp. It was the manifold cry 
 
 Of Being, yet unbodied, claiming birth, 
 
 And challenging quick response, ay or nay, 
 
 From all things in the universe. Appeals, 
 
 Blithe and imperious, answer'd from afar 
 
 By fluttering notes of welcome faint with fear, The 
 
 music 
 
 A happy fear, and full of timorous joy 1 to the 
 
 soul 
 
 Lost in such music's tempest of delight, move- 
 
 ment 
 
 Sea-like the soul flows ignorantly forth 
 
1 84 KING POPPY. 
 
 With all her forces, and from all her deeps, 
 Alibera- Not knowing whither. Wave on wave, and thought 
 
 lion of 
 forces. 
 
 On thought, arise and mingle and roll on 
 
 In ever vaster, more voluminous throngs. 
 
 They question one, another whence they come, 
 
 And what they be. " Art thou Eternity ? 
 
 I am Desire." " I Beauty." " I am Love." 
 
 " Let us be one ! " Embracing, they unite : 
 
 And then, surcharged, the sobbing billow bursts, 
 
 Rebuilds itself, and is again dissolved, 
 
 And again built and broken. " Whence art thou ? 
 
 " From the far depths. And thou ? " " From the far 
 
 heights." 
 
 " Thy name ? " " I am Sublimity. And thine ? " 
 " Poesy. To the heavens and their high stars 
 Uplift me, brother, on thy breast aloft ! " 
 Still'd to a sigh is that melodious storm. 
 The Soft calm succeeds. A silent transport thrills 
 
 birth of 
 Genius. 
 
 The sea of thoughts. Sublimity and Depth 
 
THE KING. 185 
 
 Have been united, and from their embrace 
 
 A god is being born. The lyric winds 
 
 Breathe low, the halcyon broods upon the wave, 
 
 And o'er the slow-subsiding tumult flits 
 
 A tremulous aw'd gladness, whispering " Hush ! " 
 
 All this, but in a language of its own 
 
 That into ours is untranslatable, 
 
 The sorceries of that wild song reveal'd 
 
 To those who heard it. Pilgram, anus outstretch'd, Eyes 
 
 that 
 
 kindle 
 
 Eyes flashing, feet scarce touching earth, and all 
 
 His godhood quivering in him, recognized 
 
 And hail'd the accents of his native heaven : 
 
 But the old King, his elbows on his knees Eyes 
 
 that 
 
 Based, and his stooping head between his hands, 
 Sat huddled upon the low wall of the well 
 That separated and yet form'd the link 
 Between those lives so closely each to each 
 By love united, tho' so all unlike, 
 
1 86 KING POPPY. 
 
 So different yet so indivisible, 
 
 His own and Diadema's. In himself 
 
 He knew not what was passing. But his heart 
 
 Is t not 
 possible 
 
 Answer'd the child's bewildering melodies 
 
 under- 
 stand in 
 
 anotJier In the mute language it best understood, 
 
 tongue ? 
 HO- 
 RATIO. A language whose soft syllables are tears. 
 
VII. 
 THE PRINCESS. 
 
 THE new-born babe upon its mother's breast 
 
 Lacks nothing. But the loss of life begins 
 
 At life's beginning, in the guise of growth ; 
 
 And every gain, the tributary years 
 
 Bring with them to enrich it, fills the room 
 
 Of something lost. The blossom wants a grace 
 
 That vanish'd with the bud ; when comes the fruit 
 
 The flower is gone ; and ah, which most prevail, 
 
 The gains or losses of the neutral time 
 
 'Twixt bud and blossom, when nor boy nor girl 
 
 Are either man or woman, or any more 
 
 That perfect sexless creature so complete 
 
 187 
 
1 88 KING POPPY. 
 
 In its own perishable charm, a child? 
 The tie- The lingering gentleness of childhood hides 
 
 parture 
 of Child- 
 hood Its soon-dishonour'd presence in the heart 
 
 Of boisterous boyhood, when the little hand, 
 Within whose clasping fingers it was fain 
 To insinuate a perpetual caress, 
 Leaves a Turns to a fist that combatively grasps 
 
 differ- 
 ence 
 
 between A flower-stem like the pommel of a sword : 
 boy- 
 
 And, while the force of a disfiguring growth 
 
 Converts what was erewhile a butterfly 
 
 Into a chrysalis that disavows 
 
 The ashamed remembrance of its own lost wings, 
 
 The growing boy's embarrass'd consciousness 
 
 Of those propensities that are the cause 
 
 Why every garden hath a garden wall 
 
 Creates within his predatory breast 
 
 A stealthy greed of the forbidden fruit, 
 
 Ere yet the fruit itself hath power to tempt. 
 
 hood. 
 
 Not so the crescent maiden. Husht she moves 
 
THE PRINCESS. 189 
 
 About a world where all familiar things, 
 
 As in a dream, have furtively assumed 
 
 A strange and undivined significance, 
 
 Half wooing and half warning her. She feels 
 
 Her hesitating steps held back from harm, 
 
 Haunted, and over-hover'd, and pursued 
 
 By a protecting phantom. But to feel 
 
 Protected is, perchance, to be aware 
 
 That there is peril somewhere. With shy guess 
 
 That shuns the revelation it invokes, 
 
 To Modesty, her mystic guardian new, Etjtv- 
 
 sidittm 
 
 et dulce 
 
 The woman-instinct in the maiden-child dtcns. 
 
 Confidingly for secret guidance turns. 
 
 She knows not why the watch is set, nor whence 
 
 The danger it mysteriously denotes : 
 
 But what she carelessly enjoy'd before 
 
 As common treasures, coveted by none 
 
 Since shared with all, must needs, if menaced, be 
 
 More precious to her ; and, if watch'd, less safe. 
 
i go KING POPPY. 
 
 The Eden of her Infancy remains 
 
 On all sides round her, innocent and fair : 
 
 But thro' its roses, and its revelling leaves, 
 
 She sees at intervals the boundary walls, 
 
 Suspects the existence of a world beyond, 
 
 And feels the limits of security. 
 
 What startles her What brings the sudden blush, 
 
 in corde 
 
 The sudden sigh ? Hath some wild bird, that 
 
 bears 
 
 In his blown plumage the bewildering breath 
 Of freedom, or the blush of feathers stain'd 
 Red by strange fruits, alighted for awhile 
 Upon the battlements of Paradise ? 
 Or where unlifted branches hide the dim 
 Husht gateway, hath she heard some venturous key 
 Trying its never-yet-attempted locks ? 
 No ! 'Twas the nightingale's first evening note 
 That trembled from the uninvaded bowers. 
 And yet what wonder that the maiden starts ? 
 

 THE PRINCESS. 191 
 
 The moonborn music of the nightingale 
 Hath in it ever something from afar. 
 
 But Diadema with the growing years T|j d _ 
 
 hoodof 
 Outgrew not infancy. It grew with her, 
 
 And, mingling with her maiden beauty, clung 
 As clings the calyx where the flower unfolds. 
 Nothing had changed around her. In herself 
 Nothing, begun and ended, mark'd the bound 
 Of that blest kingdom we, who measure it 
 By our remembrance only, left too soon 
 To learn its limits. Thither we return 
 Long afterward, full weary of the world 
 Since traversed, and yet know it not again. 
 Like those Phoenician voyagers we are, 
 Who, voyaging in search of lands unknown, 
 Sail'd round the globe, and reach'd at last a land 
 
 They knew not. 'Twas the land they first had left, And the 
 
 poesy of 
 
 Sailing in search of other lands beyond. 
 
IQ2 KING POPPY. 
 
 So we, who call that fair land Poesy, 
 Which is forgotten Childhood reattain'd. 
 But slowly, softly, imperceptibly, 
 Into pure poesy pure childhood pass'd 
 United From hour to hour thro' Diadema's days ; 
 
 m Dia- * 
 
 dema. 
 
 As round the southward traveller melts unmark'd 
 The Italian into the Sicilian sky, 
 Or as the Ganges on its bosom bears 
 The Brahmin floating to his sacred goal, 
 Seaward and heavenward on the selfsame wave. 
 " She changes not," said Rhoda to the King, 
 " But with an annually differing charm 
 Remains herself. I understand at last 
 The meaning of the dragon in my dream. 
 Sleeping, from grace to grace her childhood 
 
 grows, 
 
 Without an effort. The bright years of it 
 Are gems from earth, and sea, and sky distilFd, 
 Each in its turn more lovely than the last, 
 
THE PRINCESS. 
 
 193 
 
 And she, the crescent diadem that links 
 
 With golden interfusion gem to gem." 
 
 Not lonesome in her solitary isle, 
 
 Albeit alone, did Diadema dwell. 
 
 Pilgram, her father, and Dame Rhoda came 
 
 And went miraculously. 'Twas not strange. 
 
 So did the blossoms. So did everything. 
 
 What had been always, always still would be, 
 
 For why should it be otherwise ? The sun 
 
 Into the sea went naturally down, 
 
 But not more naturally than the King 
 
 Went down into the well. They both came back, 
 
 And that was all she knew, or cared to know. 
 
 She never would have thought of digging holes 
 
 Into the earth, and searching them to find 
 
 What happen'd to the flowerets underground ; 
 
 Nor thought of plunging in the sea to seek 
 
 The sun beneath it. Why, then, should she think 
 
 Of asking explanations from the well ? 
 
 The 
 
 child s 
 
 world, 
 
 Whereii 
 
 miracles 
 
 are 
 
 matters 
 
 of 
 
 course. 
 
194 KING POPPY. 
 
 It was her father's way of going down 
 
 At nightfall, as the sun's way was the sea. 
 
 And morning after morning, when the sun 
 
 Had high enough in heaven at noontide climb'd 
 
 To peep into the well, the old King rose. 
 
 The sun rose first, the King rose afterwards : 
 
 He rested with her all the glad day long : 
 
 At night she fell asleep, and he was gone : 
 
 So was the sun. The sun was first to go, 
 
 Since first to come. The sun would come again 
 
 To-morrow, as the sun came yesterday, 
 
 Bringing the old King back. Who doubts the sun ? 
 
 Her father and the sun had never fail'd. 
 
 What joy it was to welcome his return ! 
 
 He look'd so comely, rising up his well 
 
 Out of his dusky dwelling underneath, 
 
 His golden crown upon his silver locks, 
 
 His sceptre in his hand, his royal robe 
 
 Upon his shoulders ! With maternal care, 
 
THE PRINCESS. 195 
 
 And infinite precaution and advice, 
 
 The little maiden help'd him to descend 
 
 Out of his oaken bucket Half his life 
 
 Pass'd in the bottom of a well, explain'd 
 
 His ignorance about all sorts of things 
 
 It was her pride to teach him. How, indeed, 
 
 Would fathers ever know, or ever see, 
 
 The things that are important to be known 
 
 And noticed in this wondrous world, if left 
 
 Uneducated by their children ? " Come ! Dia- 
 
 dema 
 TT 1*11 t r ' 1*1 imparts 
 
 Here is a bird s nest, with four tiny birds, . to her 
 
 father 
 
 And each of them was only yesterday 
 
 A smooth round speckled pebble. Upon the shore News of 
 
 great 
 
 Are little pebbles too, that birds would be 
 
 Had they the chance ; but these the sea scrapes back, 
 
 And turns them into fishes. Hast thou heard 
 
 The story of the Butterflies ? Not yet ? 
 
 Then listen, Father ! Yesterday, there hung 
 
 On yonder branch a cluster of green nuts. 
 
196 KING POPPY. 
 
 she Green nuts they look'd, but nuts they were not. Each 
 
 being in 
 
 sion of A case was, full of woven fineries, 
 
 private 
 
 informa- . . 
 
 tion Rare tissues by the cunning Spider spun 
 
 about 
 
 event"? As only she knows how. The Butterflies 
 
 Had found this out. And so by night they came, 
 
 And, while the Spider slept, they oped and search'd 
 
 Her treasure-cases. There were robes of rose, 
 
 And robes of blue, and there were yellow robes, 
 
 Broider'd and beautiful with sparks and spots. 
 
 These to the Butterflies the Spider gave, 
 
 But only on condition that they go 
 
 And fetch her all the colours she requires 
 
 For her fine spinning. For those colours come 
 
 From far away. The blue is from the sky, 
 
 The yellow from the sun, the purple tints 
 
 Are from the sea and mountains, and the red 
 
 From evening's crimson clouds. The Butterflies 
 
 Go flying all about the flowers, for there 
 
 They often find the colours that she wants, 
 
THE PRINCESS. 197 
 
 And then they go no further. When the robes 
 That all the Summer they have worn are soil'd, 
 Ashamed to wear them, to the moon they go, 
 And there they get their wing-robes washt pure 
 
 white 
 
 Before the Springtime. Then the Spider weaves 
 Fresh colours in. But in the Winter-tide, 
 When their moon-whiten'd wings they have put by 
 For Spring's return, a cold wind often blows, 
 So sharp that down it shakes and scatters them 
 Thick on the ground. That grieves the Butterflies : 
 And, if you touch or take them in your hand, 
 The white wings, disappearing, leave behind 
 Only warm tears the Butterflies have wept 
 Because they cannot wear their wings again." 
 " Whence dost thou know all this ? " the old King in which 
 
 the King 
 
 Sigh'd. In" 661515 ' 
 
 t crested ; 
 
 <; 'Tis Pilgram that hath told me," said the child, ^ch, 
 
 having 
 
 " And he knows everything. Dame Rhoda, too ! 
 
198 . KING POPPY. 
 
 vigilant 'Twas she that told me all about the girl 
 
 notice 6 
 
 of his 
 
 Lord \Vho wept because she was to wed a Frog, 
 
 Chan- 
 would And yet the Frog was all the while a Prince. 
 
 other- 
 wise 
 
 have re- I would not mind so much had I to wed 
 
 mained 
 un- 
 
 known A little bright-eyed big-mouth'd Frog. We three 
 
 to His 
 
 In Frogland, at the bottom of a well, 
 Would live together, thou, and he, and I. 
 The Rain-drops tell the Frogs so many things, 
 When they, to see their cousins, have come down ! 
 Their cousins are the common Water-drops 
 That here together dwell in pools and ponds. 
 They say it is Earth's fault, and punishment, 
 That Heaven is still so far away from Earth. 
 I know not what the fault was ; but I know 
 Heaven, for Earth's sake, hath wept so many tears 
 That all the ponds, and even all the sea, 
 Are fill'd quite full. But this could not be help'd, 
 For tears must still fall somewhere. The kind 
 Heaven 
 
THE PRINCESS. 199 
 
 Thinks, ' Since the Water is not as the Earth, 
 
 But almost, as it were, a child of mine, 
 
 It cannot be forbid to go and see 
 
 The Water sometimes. 5 So when Heaven comes 
 
 down 
 
 To see the Water, if the day be fine, 
 The Water, for Heaven's welcoming, invites 
 Earth's woods and mountains. There, they all have 
 
 leave 
 
 To stand head-downwards, and to dance about 
 Blithe with the little ripples, if a breeze 
 Sets the dance going. That reposes them. 
 Out of the water, they must always stand 
 Head-upwards, and stay always in one place. 
 Thou good old Father, I could talk with thee 
 For ever about all things ! For, indeed, 
 No one knows how to listen half so well 
 As thou dost." That was true. The glad old 
 
 King 
 
200 KING POPPY. 
 
 He is Knew how to listen. And in every tale 
 
 strongly 
 affected 
 
 by this His little teacher told him he believed. 
 
 intelli- 
 
 Nothing had ever seem'd to him so wise, 
 So fascinating, or so full of truth, 
 As Diadema's stories. Years, that left 
 Less infantine his fair instructress, found 
 The de- j-j} s f a ith in her more childlike. Blossom-girt, 
 
 parture 
 of the 
 
 swai- About the casement of the craggy tower 
 
 lows. 
 
 Wherein she dwelt, a marble balcony 
 Had Pilgram built, with golden balustrade. 
 Here every morning old Dame Rhoda brought 
 Her spinning-wheel, and many a ballad sung 
 Or story told, while Diadema watch'd 
 The wide sea, listening dreamily. One day, 
 " The swallows are departing ! " said the child. 
 " And thou, too, wilt be going hence ere long," 
 The Dame replied. " Go hence ? " the child ask'd. 
 
 "Where?" 
 " To thine own Kingdom." " Is not this mine own ? 
 
THE PRINCESS. 201 
 
 What is that other Kingdom ? " And the Dame 
 Ansvver'd, " It is a land thou wilt be call'd 
 To govern in thy father's stead, for he 
 Is growing old and tired." The child looked sad. 
 " My father tired ? " she said. " I saw not that. 
 What is he tired of? Here shall he remain 
 When next he comes, and I will sing him songs 
 The honey-bees have taught me ; songs that bring 
 Sleep from the sighing hearts of Summer woods, 
 Like a tame bird." The old Dame shook her head. 
 " The crown," she said, " makes this impossible." 
 Gaily the child replied, " That cannot be, 
 For is it not his own crown, all his own, 
 To do with as he pleases ? " " Nay, not so," 
 Dame Rhoda sigh'd. " The crown, child, is not his. 
 He is the crown's. For to his crown a king 
 Belongs, as doth a father to his child. 
 Children and crowns are the great gifts of God, 
 And cannot be got rid of. King and Sire, 
 
202 KING POPPY. 
 
 To thee, his child, one half thy father's heart 
 Belongs, and to his kingly crown the rest.' 5 
 The Princess mused ; then said, with moisten'd eyes, 
 " Only one half? And I must share him, then, 
 With others ? He whom others call their king, 
 And I my father ! Can a heart's two halves 
 Make up one whole if each loves something else ? 
 Nay, were it mine, I would not wear that crown ! " 
 " Yet must thou wear it," said the Dame, " ere long. 
 And thou, I trust, wilt wear it many a year, 
 And suffer it with queenly patientness.'' 
 Dame But Diadema suddenly exclaim'd, 
 
 Rhoda 
 
 Dia- " What, if I gave my crown away ? " " Thy crown 
 
 dema 
 
 duties Thou canst not give away,' the Dame replied, 
 
 of the 
 
 " For there is none to give it to ; and they 
 That were not born to wear it, know not how." 
 Premo- The little Princess hung her head. The thought 
 
 nitions 
 
 Of that inevitable crown return'd 
 Continually afterwards to vex 
 
THE PRINCESS. 203 
 
 Her joy in all the present with the fear 
 
 Of an unwelcome future : and full oft 
 
 " Oh, is there no one that will rescue me 
 
 And all I love from it ? " she sigh'd unheard. 
 
 And still the Summers came and went, and still of the 
 
 de- 
 
 The Winters : and the flowers fell, and the frosts : of child- 
 
 hood, 
 
 But flower and frost, Summer and Winter-tide, 
 
 Came not and went not as of old, like friends 
 
 Who, going, know that when they come again 
 
 They shall find nothing altered. In the child 
 
 Chaste mysteries were passing. Day by day 
 
 The sunward season of the virgin year 
 
 Transforms itself, and wonders at the change : 
 
 Each morrow some surprising charm reveals And the 
 
 coming 
 
 In secret places, by the timid time woman- 
 
 hood. 
 Demurely welcomed with suggestive sighs : 
 
 At dawn, from dells and hollows, bare before, 
 New buds are peeping : and along the husht 
 Rich heavens, at eve, a rosy softness falls, 
 
204 KING POPPY. 
 
 Preluding the approach of mellower hours. 
 
 So, daily, as her deepening maidenhood 
 
 Her little body with new beauties deck'd, 
 
 Did Diadema, flower-like, turn them all 
 
 Into new blushes that were prophecies. 
 
 And fifteen times, since first her bowery realms 
 
 Their maiden monarch ruled, the fourfold year 
 
 Had turn'd the green leaf golden. Fifteen times 
 
 The moonborn months had brought the snows, and 
 
 brought 
 
 The snowdrops, and those flowers of frailer bud 
 That blossom in the front of May, and fall 
 Ere June is over. Fifteen jewels fair 
 Dame Rhoda counted in the crown of gems 
 Wrought by the unsleeping dragon of her dream : 
 
 And now no more thro' Diadema's isle 
 it 
 
 draivs 
 
 near the The primrose lit the pathways of the Spring, 
 season. 
 
 But Summer and the rose were everywhere. 
 
VIII 
 THE SHEPHERD. 
 
 THE late jnoon, captured by the coming dawn, 
 
 Below the sea's edge linger'd. 'Twas a night 
 
 Of Summer in mid-solstice, when the dark 
 
 Is starriest, and soon dies. Dame Rhoda slept. 
 
 But Diadema, risen from restless dreams, 
 
 Was leaning o'er her golden balcony, 
 
 And listening to the solitary sound 
 
 Of waves that, hid in whisperous shadows, heaved 
 
 With a soft yearning murmur. Not for joy, 
 
 As heretofore her happy wont had been, 
 
 But for the solace of a new-born sense 
 
 Of nameless sadness, she began to sing. 
 205 
 
206 KING POPPY. 
 
 And all along the lone night wandering went 
 The wistful music of the song she sang, 
 Where there was none to hear it. None to hear ? 
 What genuine song was ever sung unheard, 
 Tho' sung not in the hearing of the world ? 
 answer- Athwart night's trembling silence, clear and sweet, 
 
 echo can Another voice, responsive to her own, 
 
 only 
 
 mimic. j n song came floating, as athwart dark meers 
 
 The swimming stag at midnight seeks his mate. 
 
 At first she doubted if a voice it were, 
 
 Or but of hers a mocking echo borne 
 
 Upon the light wind from the lifted shell 
 
 Of some wild sea-sprite. Wonderingly, she stopp'd 
 
 Her singing, listen' d, and then sang again, 
 
 And again stopp'd, and listen'd. But the voice 
 
 Still, from the distance, thro' the silence sang. 
 
 Maiden, it sang, a boy's heart sent me hither 
 
 To answer thine, whose voice hath spoken to it. 
 
 Come ! Let us wander, he, thoti, I, together 
 
THE SHEPHERD. 207-. 
 
 The wide world thrtf ! For short is Song's way 
 
 thrd it 
 
 From heart to heart : and, that way, soul meets soul, 
 Safe thd between them all the wide world roll ! 
 Thus, deep in darkness and in distance hid, 
 A spirit sang responsive to the song 
 Of her own spirit, and her soul had found 
 A soul whose language was the same as hers. 
 
 She was a king's child, in a palace born, The 
 
 Shep 
 
 By a god guarded. But beyond the crags 
 Her steps had never climb'd, and narrow sea, 
 Another child, whose heart to hers attain'd 
 Its destin'd way, among the mountains dwelt. 
 A shepherd boy, he roam'd his native hills, 
 The unguarded guardian of their wandering tribes 
 Of hardy goats : not kingborn, nor himself 
 Of kinglier circumstance, or higher state, 
 Than Hebron's Harper when he shepherded 
 
208 KING POPPY. 
 
 His father's flocks, beyond the camps of Saul. 
 Born of the People and the Mountains : born 
 Where strength is strongest, patience patientest, 
 (Far from the sordid cities that entomb 
 That turbulent and miserable crowd 
 Whose meanness mocks the honest name it takes, 
 And, being but the Populace, presumes 
 To call itself the People) lofty life 
 He lack'd not, tho' of lowly birth. But ah ! 
 This lord of the lone eagle-haunted heights 
 And the Was Diadummiania's peasant, she 
 
 Prin- 
 
 Its princess ; and the inexorable code 
 Of Diadummianian law forbade 
 A shepherd's son, of peasant birth, to love 
 The daughter of a king, or a king's daughter 
 And princess born, to give her princely heart 
 To a born peasant. Love and Circumstance 
 Were rivals ever since the world began : 
 And, neither to the other yielding, each 
 
THE SHEPHERD. 209 
 
 Scourges and racks the wretch who disobeys 
 Its despot rule. But Song hath softer laws, 
 
 And Dream a larger freedom. Dream, then, still A Pas- 
 
 toral. 
 Of love, young Shepherd, and of love sing on, 
 
 Till, singing, dreaming ever, thou thyself, 
 
 And she, thy sung-and-dream'd-of love, released 
 
 From perishable circumstance, become 
 
 An everlasting dream, a deathless song ! 
 
 The Mountains have their dreams, the People theirs 
 
 And both are patient dreamers. Songs have they, 
 
 Moreover, immemorial as themselves, 
 
 Taught by the mountains to the mountaineer : 
 
 Lays, never lost, whose legendary strains 
 
 Are gifts the People from its fathers got, 
 
 And, unforgetting, to its children gives : 
 
 Remember'd records of a lyric race, 
 
 In whose remote descent the People's sons 
 
 As lofty and as old a lineage claim 
 
 As those fair kings the People's childlike faith 
 
 O 
 
210 KING POPPY. 
 
 Confirms for ever upon thrones renown'd ; 
 For, prince and peasant, each is Song's own child, 
 And equal-born all Song's own children be. 
 What was it that, in song, drew forth the heart 
 Of the young Shepherd, filling the warm spheres 
 Of starry darkness with its wild appeals 
 TheStar And passionate welcomes ? 'T was a promise haiFd 
 
 of Pro-' 
 
 With doubtful wonder, but undoubting faith, 
 In the bright upspring of a prophet star 
 To Kepler, to Copernicus, unknown, 
 Unguess'd by Galileo, unreveal'd 
 To wondering Tycho when he saw the light 
 In Cassiopeia that is seen no more : 
 But hail'd by Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, 
 The Star of Promise : star whose lustre led 
 The prescient footsteps of the Shepherd Kings 
 To Bethlem, bearing for a babe divine 
 The mystic tribute of the Morning Land. 
 A star, and not a star : a light from heaven 
 
THE SHEPHERD. 211 
 
 Hail'd by the heart alone ; and by the heart 
 
 That hails it haply half misunderstood, 
 
 Yet not in vain all trusted. Mary's Babe 
 
 The adoring Magians deem'd of royal birth, 
 
 Mistaking His true kingdom. But in Him 
 
 The promise of a blessing long invoked 
 
 They trusted, and in trusting it were blest. 
 
 So sang the Shepherd to the nameless star 
 
 That on his soul was rising : so his heart 
 
 Follow'd its gracious guidance, bearing gifts 
 
 From boyhood's golden orient. And a voice Sym. 
 
 phony. 
 
 That shed forth music as a star sheds light 
 
 Answer'd the singing of his heart with song. 
 
 A maided s soul, it sang, hath sent me hither, 
 
 Shepherd, to find in thine the mate 'twas needing. 
 
 Come ! Let us wander, she, thou, I, together 
 The wide world thro\ For safe where Song is leading, 
 Wide tho 1 the world that holds them far apart, 
 Soul beckons soul, and heart goes forth to heart. 
 
 
212 KING POPPY. 
 
 Adagio. Night after night the same appeal, the same 
 Unfailing response ! Night by night in song 
 They communed with each other from afar, 
 The Shepherd and the Princess. Night by night 
 Their songs consorted, and their spirits touch'd. 
 And, daily, all day long the mingled hope 
 And memory of the last time, and the next, 
 Of those melodious midnight communings 
 Lingered within them like an elfin light, 
 And hover'd round them like an elfin call, 
 And put a charm about, them, circling them 
 With close enchantment, like the fluttering sphere 
 Of fire around some wizard altar traced. 
 And he became as those on whose changed life 
 A fairy's choice hath thrown its spell : to whom 
 Their home and kindred, their diurnal ways. 
 And all familiar things thenceforth appear 
 Distant, and strange, and foreign to the sense 
 Of their own nearness to an unseen power 
 
THE SHEPHERD. 213 
 
 That speaks in silence, glows in darkness, breathes 
 
 On sleeping lids, and burns upon shut lips. 
 
 For wheresoe'er they gaze, there shines a star ; Allegro. 
 
 And wheresoe'er they move, there sounds a song : 
 
 A star unseen, a song unheard, by all 
 
 But they, in whose thrill'd ear for ever rings 
 
 The fairy music, and in whose wild eyes 
 
 Reflected gleam the lights of fairyland. 
 
 So strong the charm is on the life it lures, 
 
 And, luring, loosens from all else on earth, 
 
 That with its spell, if broken, breaks the heart 
 
 Of him whose being it hath once possess'd. 
 
 For never can the disenchanted wretch 
 
 Resume his former life's forsaken aims, 
 
 And, aimless left, he pines away, and dies. 
 
 Nor less, the lonely maiden of the isle An - 
 
 } dante. 
 
 That night's enrapturing revelation fill'd 
 With incommunicable consciousness 
 Of a new sense, for ever set apart. 
 
214 KING POPPY. 
 
 Secluded, consecrated, and reserved 
 
 For service to a strange felicity. 
 
 And she became as some young priestess, vow'd 
 
 From childhood to cold Vesta's fane, whose deep 
 
 And dreaming eyes have drawn from heaven a god 
 
 To kiss them, when by night ambrosial arms 
 
 Have clasp'd her sleeping, and she wakes aware 
 
 Of a divine inexplicable bliss, 
 
 That came i' the dark, and went, to morn bequeathing 
 
 Mysterious promise of its blest return : 
 
 For all around her, from that moment, wears 
 
 A meaning aspect, mindful of the joy 
 
 Her seal'd lips whisper not to her husht heart : 
 
 Within the shrine a warmer glory broods, 
 
 Fine transports tremble thro' the sacred grove, 
 
 The lustral water flames like fire, the air 
 
 Heaves with intenser breathings. Day by day, 
 
 And night by night, since that first night's surprise 
 
 Dissolved the distance fate between them set, 
 
THE SHEPHERD. 215 
 
 So fared it with these two, whose days were dreams, 
 
 As all their nights were songs. And more than this, 
 
 No knowledge of love's need in others taught 
 
 Their innocence to crave. What fate denied 
 
 They miss'd not. Song and dream to them were all. 
 
 Two souls in song, two songs in one song blent, sodists. 
 
 Far from each other, far from all the haunts 
 
 Of human intercourse, the Herdsman's Son 
 
 And the King's Daughter dwelt. On either side 
 
 A kingdom. Boyhood's here, there Maidenhood's : 
 
 And on each kingdom's solitary throne 
 
 A child : and all between them the deep sea, 
 
 And the strong hills : and yet those kingdoms touch'd. 
 
 Themselves they knew not, and they knew still less 
 
 Each other, save in song : nor ever met, 
 
 Save in the mystic world song made for them. 
 
 But Pastoral Innocence, a shepherd boy, 
 
 And Maiden Majesty, a monarch's child, 
 
 Born of an age no chronicle records, 
 
216 KING POPPY. 
 
 Across a land no traveller hath mapp'd, 
 Met in a song undated and unnamed : 
 
 Ballad^ ^ nc ^ t ^ ere ' * ts bridal melodies begot 
 
 Poetry. 
 
 Songs upon songs that live from land to land, 
 
 From age to age, retaining in their tone, 
 
 Tho' far away from their forgotten source, 
 
 The sweetness, the simplicity, the strength 
 
 Of the True People's love for its True Kings, 
 
 And theirs for their True People. For of old 
 
 True Kings there were, and a True People too, 
 
 Ere twixt the People and its Kings arose 
 
 A Third Authority, displacing both 
 
 By forces stolen from the strength of each. 
 
 Those songs belong to all men, and to none. 
 
 They are the wanderers of the air we breathe ; 
 
 Whose birdlike notes, untaught, unteachable, 
 
 Woo us, we know not whither ; come to us, 
 
 We know not whence ; move us, we know not why. 
 
 In vain we wonder who the singers were 
 
THE SHEPHERD. 217 
 
 That sung them first. The world's first singers found 
 Such songs already hovering here and there 
 Above them. Long before old Homer's birth, 
 And older far than he, the Iliad lived. 
 
 For ever, when the hoary-headed King -Song 
 
 bears to 
 
 Heard his child singing her wild song, to him 
 
 That song was like an epicedion 
 
 Pour'd from the burst heart of a dying swan, 
 
 That down the interminable stream of time, 
 
 Buried in its melodious bosom, bore 
 
 Him dead, and all the days he loved, to days 
 
 He knew not. Like a dream his life appear'd. 
 
 And as men, dreaming, sometimes know they dream, 
 
 And fear to wake because their dream is fair, 
 
 So he. His thoughts, his feelings, his beliefs, 
 
 All the conditions that to consciousness 
 
 Give character, seem'd creatures of that song, 
 
 Which, floating, bore them with it far away 
 
2i 8 KING POPPY. 
 
 To other ages and a world not his. 
 
 A barren world ! bitterly destitute 
 
 Of those delights that o'er the happy isle 
 
 Where he, Dame Rhoda, Pilgram, and the child 
 
 Together dwelt, spontaneously diffused 
 
 An effortless felicity creating 
 
 o f XT" What after ages call the Age of Gold. 
 Golden 
 
 O Age of Gold ! Age that hath never been, 
 
 Nor ever shall be, yet for ever art ! 
 O Golden age to every age once given, 
 For all the ages have their Golden Age, 
 Dear age of lost delights, sad memory seeks 
 Vainly in ages past, thou smilest still, 
 Safe in the happy heart that seeks thee not, 
 ii&ion ' Because it knows not yet that thou art gone. 
 
 Ho- 
 
 RATIO. There, and there only, is the Age of Gold ! 
 
IX. 
 THE POPPY. 
 
 AND it'll t thou leave us ? Leave thine island home, v Y hat 
 
 ' the 
 
 Poppy 
 
 Thy happy bowers, ere from their boughs be fled 
 
 Prin- 
 
 7 he green leaf and the bird? These come and go, 
 But thou, once gone, wilt never come again. 
 The springtide of the world is once a year, 
 But once a life the springtide of the heart; 
 And when it goes 'tis gone for evermore. 
 Strangers will greet thee in the guise of friends. 
 But trust them not ! The blossoms of thy life, 
 When they have pluck *d them from thee, they will 
 place 
 
 AU faded twixt the leaves of bitter books, 
 219 
 
220 KING POPPY. 
 
 To mark some haply-else-forgotten page 
 
 In the hard chronicle of lives not thine. 
 
 And thou wilt mourn, " I gave myself away 
 
 To many. One had this, another that. 
 
 Nothing, for all I gave them, gave they me ! " 
 
 King's Daughter, thou art still thine own. Still thine 
 
 Is all thou art. It will be thine no more, 
 
 When thou art theirs. For thou canst separate 
 
 A drop of dew into a hundred drops, 
 
 Each subsequent droplet perfect as the first : 
 
 But not so canst thou subdivide thyself. , 
 
 A mongst them, soon as thou art theirs, will they 
 
 Thy perfect self distribute. A ndfor this, 
 
 Fain would they buy thee with a golden crown, 
 
 But keep thyself, and give that crown to me! 
 
 Give it to me, and I will hide it deep 
 
 Where few shall find it, and those few be souls 
 
 Worthy to wear its guarded glory ! Night, 
 
 Deep night at noonday, will I round it weave, 
 
THE POPPY. 221 
 
 So that to see it men must slmt their eyes. 
 Give me thy crown, King's Daughter ! 
 
 Nightly thus, W hat 
 
 Dame 
 
 Wan in the moonlight, like a wistful ghost, 
 
 her 
 
 With gestures passionately suppliant, 
 
 The pleading Poppy to the Princess spake. 
 
 'Twas Phantasos that to this lonesome isle 
 
 Had lured Favonius, from Typhoon's red lash 
 
 Its rescued victim bearing : here he rear'd 
 
 The regal pile whose rocky courts conceal'd 
 
 A kingdom's maiden heiress : here for those 
 
 Who, coming when the time appointed came, 
 
 For his pale votary's investiture, 
 
 Should bring the crown, and weave the robe, he wrought 
 
 Predestined ways : and here the heedful god 
 
 High pageant had for this event prepared, 
 
 Whereto his prescience shaped the unconscious course 
 
 Of antecedent circumstance. These things 
 
222 A7A T G POPPY. 
 
 The Poppy knew not. But, of things unknown 
 
 Still dreaming ever, in prophetic dreams 
 
 The approaching influence of his promised hour 
 
 That prophet dreamer felt. The desert crag, 
 
 His hard and solitary home, was turn'd 
 
 Into a palace : in its barren breast 
 
 Now beat a living heart, a child's, a queen's : 
 
 The rocky ledge, so long his lonesome lair, 
 
 Was now a gold-girt balcony, embower'd 
 
 In blossoms of all hues : arid over these, 
 
 When she among them in the moonlight sat, 
 
 He, stooping, touch'd the maiden's pensive cheek 
 
 W r ith his pale lips, and whisper 5 d in her ear, 
 
 And breathed thro' all her thoughts. To vex the 
 
 hope 
 Eternal Within him hidden, unvictorious 
 
 desire, 
 
 dkionof ^ ac ^ st " ven ^ e innumerable years. 
 
 eternal 
 
 For every Spring that hail'd a promise born, 
 A promise perisht every Winter mourn'd. 
 
THE POPPY. 223 
 
 Yet year by year unbaffled, year by year 
 
 Still faithful to the secret of his strength, 
 
 He gazed around him, and around him saw 
 
 Nothing but solitude : the sun and moon, 
 
 The steadfast stars, the everlasting hills, 
 
 The everchanging clouds, and wandering waves. 
 
 When o'er the sea, with frolic footstep light, 
 
 The sweet Spring Wind, returning, sang, " Behold, 
 
 Back am I come with far-off-gather'd gifts, 
 
 New hopes I bring thee, and another year, 
 
 Believe, endeavour, and begin once more ! " 
 
 May after May, he shudderingly oped .^ )Jra . 
 
 The downy casket in whose depths lay hid 
 
 A year's desire, and brought his treasure forth, 
 
 And spread it in the sun, and braved the chance 
 
 Of blighting chills and scorching heats, and fought 
 
 And wrestled for the rapture of success. 
 
 And January after January 
 
 Found the frail athlete stricken, overthrown, 
 
 HOD. 
 
224 KING POPPY. 
 
 And prostrate, but with an unvanquisht will 
 Waiting the moment to begin again. 
 
 Trans- His crag was a king's castle : and he, too, 
 
 forma- 
 
 Dreaming of kingliness, had dream'd himself 
 Into a king ; tenacious of his rights, 
 Resolute, royal-hearted, lofty, strong^ 
 Far-seeing, patient, vigilant, tho' still 
 Nor gold nor purple his, nor robe nor crown, 
 indura- As ductile as the bee-made yellow wax 
 
 tion. 
 
 The yellow gold is, by the craftsman curved 
 Into that glittering circlet : and more soft 
 In substance than the flesh of new-born babes 
 The little Tyrian fish, whose lustrous blood 
 Brightens the wool that leaves Tarentum's looms 
 Or Sidon's vats to deck the pomp of kings : 
 But hard they make, and all inflexible, 
 The soul that claims the purple and the gold. 
 The Poppy had his dream. To him that dream 
 
THE POPPY. 225 
 
 Was Space, that dream was Time. He reckon'd not Concen- 
 tration. 
 
 The ages. He beheld the sea immense, 
 
 And knew it bounded. In himself he felt 
 
 The immensity of unfulfill'd desire, 
 
 And knew it boundless. Neither small nor great 
 
 The world to him, nor long nor short the time. 
 
 A dream hath no beginning and no end. 
 
 One day, a sound of voices, and a noise PJJ. 
 
 gram, 
 
 Of hammers. The bare rock's bruised granite shriek'd 
 
 the 
 
 Beneath the grinding crowbar : and a shade, 
 
 dis- 
 
 Cast from the sudden image of a man, 
 
 Poppy 
 
 Fell o'er the dreaming flower. Above it stood clinging 
 
 to the 
 rock ; 
 
 The form of one who, meditating, lean'd 
 
 
 Upon his staff, that was a measuring rod. by the 
 
 Dream - 
 
 The Poppy trembled, for he recognized as Phan- 
 
 tasos. 
 
 The presence of a god. Within him woke 
 Memories that long had slumber'd, and he call'd, 
 
 " Phantasos ! Phantasos!" In feign'd surprise, 
 
 P 
 
226 KING POPPY. 
 
 Dissembling his design, the god replied, 
 " Ha, dost thou know me, Mekon ? Prithee say, 
 Pale keeper of the secret of the past, 
 What dost thou here, where never man hath been ? 
 I am the Herald of Humanity. 
 'Twill follow me anon : and then begins 
 The good old comedy my touching up 
 Makes always new, with transformation-scenes 
 Fantastical, and fooleries perform'd 
 By Youth and Age, with Common Sense for clown. 
 Long while it is since I myself have heard 
 The name whereby my fellow-gods once hail'd, 
 And thou again dost hail me. To this crag 
 What god hath chain'd thee ? No Prometheus thou, 
 Poor little nursling of Persephone ! " 
 To whom " Persephone ! " the startled Poppy sigh'd, 
 
 the 
 
 " Persephone ! Ah, tell me, Phantasos, 
 
 restoration 
 
 happiness May I no more behold her ? Bear me back 
 
 of his 
 
 To that lost kingdom whence, I know not how. 
 
THE POPPY. 
 
 227 
 
 Nor why, nor when, I wander'd up to earth ! 
 
 Was it thy whisper, or some other voice, 
 
 Beguil'd to its betrayal my desire ? '"' 
 
 But the god answer 5 d, " Dreamer, ne'er have I 
 
 Beguiled thee, or betray'd. Within thyself 
 
 Deep sunken lies the kingdom thou hast lost, 
 
 And in thyself the kingdom thou would'st gain. 
 
 Thee from the world around thee I released. 
 
 The world thou seekest is within thee. Fool, 
 
 Seek it no more where thou shalt find it not ! " 
 
 " Mock me not ! " sigh'd the Poppy. " What I want 
 
 I have not. All that in myself I find 
 
 Is but the promise of it. Give me thou, 
 
 What thou alone of all the gods canst give, 
 
 Promise fulfill'd ! Give me my robe and crown ! " 
 
 "Who promised thee," said Phantasos, "the robe 
 
 And crown thou cravest ?" And the D ream-flower sigh'd, 
 
 " Favonius." ' ; Fool, to trust him ! " said the god. 
 
 " A promise is a word, a word a breath, 
 
 wherein 
 the con- 
 templation 
 of his own 
 concep- 
 tions was 
 a delight 
 unim- 
 paired by 
 any desire 
 to release 
 those con- 
 ceptions in 
 the effect 
 produced 
 by them 
 on others. 
 But this 
 prayer is 
 rejected 
 by the 
 god, who 
 repudiates 
 the 
 
 authorship 
 of the 
 change 
 attributed 
 to his 
 influence. 
 The 
 Poppy 
 then 
 invokes 
 the aid 
 of Phan- 
 tasos 
 towards 
 the 
 
 attain- 
 ment 
 of his 
 desires. 
 
 The 
 god, 
 after 
 deriding 
 
228 KING POPPY. 
 
 the in- And a breath nothing ! " " Nay," the Poppy laugh'cl, 
 
 ordinate 
 
 ambition 
 
 of this " I trust Necessity. For crown and robe 
 
 frail 
 
 creature , 111 i 
 
 I need not more than robe and crown need me. 
 Who else can wear them as their worth deserves ? " 
 " O strength in weakness ! " Phantasos exclaim'd. 
 " Thine is life's secret. Ever as thou art 
 Stay, little one ! Dream on for evermore, 
 And be thyself a sempiternal joy 
 Dream'd by the sleeping earth ! But crave not thou 
 Gifts that are curses. What are robe and crown 
 To thee, King Lackland?" "Listen !" said the Flower, 
 (an am- " Nor in thy thoughts degrade me, King of Thought ! 
 
 bition 
 
 For him that feels and knows himself a king 
 There is a kingdom, wheresoe'er it be. 
 
 jr? d 
 
 And were his kingdom in the deep sea sunk, 
 It would arise, its monarch to receive, 
 Or were his kingdom hung between the horns 
 Of the high moon, and frozen fast to them, 
 It would descend, his summons to obey, 
 
THE POPPY. 229 
 
 Soon as to rule it, crown'd and robed, he came. 
 
 I know not where for me my kingdom waits, 
 
 But that for me 'tis waiting well I know." 
 
 Silent above the Poppy Pilgram bent. is con- 
 
 ^ r/ strained 
 
 toadmire 
 
 There was a glory on his gracious brows, * faith 
 
 so 
 
 A fire in his unfathomable eyes. in a "' 
 
 frame so 
 
 At last he lifted up his face, and raised 
 
 Enraptured hands to heaven, and laugh'd, " Dull lords 
 
 Of my renounced Olympus ! you that rest 
 
 In unsurprised serenity, look down 
 
 And blush that you should ever have despair'd 
 
 Of this brisk world ! Thrice blessed be the day 
 
 When I remain'd behind you ! For where else And. 
 
 conteiii- 
 plsitinz 
 Such creatures for my subjects could I find ? 
 
 incon- 
 
 Even in this little flower what force of will ! ofmortai 
 
 life, in 
 
 And in the innumerable wills that throng forms, 
 
 Ima- 
 
 The cramm'd earth's ever-teeming thoroughfares 
 
 the char- 
 
 What force of folly ! Dear, thou motley world, ?! r c 
 
 mour. 
 
 Dear to my doting heart, from mouse to man, 
 
230 KING POPPY. 
 
 Are all thy passionate progeny, who bait, 
 With their own treacherous imaginings 
 The empty traps that life to catch them sets ! 
 Never, wild children of the wilful earth, 
 Will I desert you ! N ever shall you lack 
 Mine unsuspected presence ! Tho' disguised 
 I go among you, under every mask, 
 In every garb, in every age of time, 
 And every realm that, roll'd thro' day and night, 
 Season This wheeling orb spins round its frozen poles, 
 
 your 
 admira- 
 tion/or Antics and merryandrews all of you, 
 a while. 
 
 RATIO. I claim you for mine own, and I am yours ! " 
 
X. 
 
 THE CFLOWN. 
 No vapour veil'd the crimson-bosom'd West, 
 
 Stepha- 
 
 Nor any cloudlet prematurely closed 
 
 The last bright moment of the long bright day. 
 
 But, lingering not to flush grey after-hours 
 
 With faded fires, the glory at its best 
 
 And brightest vanish'd ; leaving the calm void 
 
 Quietly colourless, as life's smooth face 
 
 Of sober circumstance when love withdraws 
 
 The glow that quicken'd it. 'Tis then, dim age 
 
 Comes unresisted, overshadowing earth, 
 
 Re-opening heaven, and o'er the lone repose 
 
 Of its own darkness sheds a tender gleam 
 
 231 
 
232 KING POPPY. 
 
 Of cold tranquillity. Even so, forthwith 
 The sudden night, with all her stars distinct, 
 And her pure moonlight's spacious plenitude 
 Of pallid splendour, wrapt the world, serene 
 And luminous as the slumber of a god. 
 i' hc Beyond the dreaded morrow of that night 
 
 Crown 
 Princess 
 
 is left Lurk'd throngs of unfamiliar faces, strange 
 
 alone 
 with the 
 
 Crown. New paths untrodden, and days that nevermore 
 In Diadema's island home should find 
 Their dawning welcomed by the heart of a child. 
 The King, her father, leaving her, had left 
 His crown behind him, with a tremulous hand 
 Pointed towards it, waved above her head 
 A voiceless benison, and, murmuring 
 " To-morrow ! " sorrowfully stolen away, 
 With that least sorrowful of all farewells. 
 
 Pilgram Then suddenly before her Pilgram stood. 
 
 de 
 
 COFOftt'l* 
 
 His face was solemn as the face of Fate, 
 And his voice stern and serious as the voice 
 
THE CROWN. 233 
 
 Of sad Experience. " Maiden," said the god, 
 
 " Yon crown will find its royal resting-place 
 
 Upon thy brows to-morrow. Mark it well ! 
 
 It is a traveller that is never tired. 
 
 The path it travels is above the heads 
 
 Of princes. Every footstep is a king. 
 
 When he that wore it last is dead, time turns 
 
 His body to a sceptred statue. Fixt 
 
 Forever^on the road that statue rests 
 
 So far as the dead king's last footstep reach'd ; 
 
 And there its monumental image points 
 
 The progress of the nations, whose long march 
 
 Is measured by those statues that were kings. 
 
 The People occupies the plain of the world : 
 
 Kings occupy its summits. Multiform 
 
 As well as multitudinous, and made 
 
 Of metamorphoses, the People is : 
 
 From hour to hour 'tis other than it was : 
 
 Youth imperceptibly effaces age : 
 
234 KING POPPY. 
 
 In a few years the People hath replaced 
 The People, without violence, without 
 Apparent movement : never may one say 
 On this day, or on that, the People died, 
 At one time, or another, it was born : 
 Living and dying simultaneously, 
 Its life is pass'd in dying, and it dies 
 In giving birth unto itself : the grave 
 Its birth-bed is : its cradle is a bier. 
 Kings arrive singly, and one after one : 
 Kings have successors : to the People time 
 Grants but contemporaries : 'tis a crowd : 
 Few of that crowd their own forefathers know 
 But all know the forefathers of their Kings. 
 It is because the People's memory 
 Of its begetters is a memory merged 
 In crown'd paternities of princely lines, 
 That Kings the fathers of their People be. 
 This law reverses nature's common rule : 
 
THE CROWN. 235 
 
 It finds the fathers by the children made. 
 The Crown is sexless : those it rests upon 
 Are neither male nor female : each is more 
 Than man or woman : all of them are Kings. 
 The People is the foliage of mankind : 
 Its life the branches clothes, and its decay 
 The soil enriches : blown by every wind, 
 The People fluctuates, perishes, revives. 
 Kings are the trunks. The tree is chronicled 
 Not by its foliage : as the trunk, the tree : 
 So many rings are reckon'd to the trunk, 
 And to the tree as many years. To prove 
 Its own antiquity the People counts 
 The number of its Kings. From sire to son 
 All Kings are brothers : and the youngest born 
 Hath elder brothers that are centuries old. 
 On summits only crowns repose ; and each 
 To all that is beneath it all that serves 
 For its support significance imparts : 
 
236 KING POPPY. 
 
 The blossom crowns the summit of the stem, 
 The snow the summit of the mountain crowns. 
 The King the summit of the nation. Man 
 Would be deprived of grandeur if his life 
 Had nothing grand whereon to place a crown. 
 And nothing grander will it ever have 
 Than a grand King." 
 
 Thus spake the solemn god, 
 
 speech 
 
 is, for Oracular. But his mysterious speech 
 
 the first 3 
 
 unin- The maiden understood not. Then he touch'd 
 
 telligible 
 
 child. Her brow, and breathed on it, and it became 
 
 But at 
 
 sum- Throng'd with strange inmates. All her little head 
 
 mons 
 
 preters Humm'd like a mighty house made murmurous 
 
 arrive. 
 
 By a panic-stricken crowd. Doors oped and shut, 
 Swift footsteps sped down passages and stairs, 
 And eager hands flung wide the windows all. 
 Parts of herself they seem'd that some bad news 
 Had disconcerted, and in haste they sought 
 Escape at every issue. Left behind, 
 
THE CROWN. 237 
 
 She felt them pass, and saw, or seem'd to see, 
 
 Their fleeting forms, and heard, or seem'd to hear, 
 
 Their plaintive calls, but chill'd to the heart's core 
 
 By the cold seizure of a tyrannous trance 
 
 Stood slack and dumb. And round her all the while, 
 
 Rising and falling, sometimes in a storm 
 
 Of lamentation and admonishment, 
 
 Sometimes low lulling to a tremulous hush 
 
 All but the lone appeal of one thin voice 
 
 That thrill'd her thought with poignant music, made 
 
 By mute vibrations on spiritual chords 
 
 Intenser than all audible sound, they sang 
 
 King's Daughter, King's Daughter, beware Sons 
 
 without 
 
 Of the world where thou goest ! For there 
 Not a pleasure there is but it turns to a pain, 
 Nor a sweetness that hides not a snare. 
 Child whom we chose for our Queen, have we clung to 
 thee 
 
238 KING POPPY. 
 
 Closer than childhood, yet clasp d thee in vain ? 
 Dear and long due is the debt thou dost owe us ! 
 Wealth we have flung to thee, sciences sung to thee, 
 Mingling with all that is purest in heaven 
 All that is fairest on earth, we have given 
 Gift upon gift to thee. Safe they belong to thee. 
 Give them not thou to the hands that wotild stain, 
 Desecrate, shatter, and thanklessly throw us 
 Our gifts back again ! 
 
 Solo To follow thee, I scaled thy sea-girt tower, 
 
 Allegro. 
 
 Sweet- And craggy bower. 
 
 ness of 
 
 mSte* To follow thee was all my lifers empi ize. 
 
 soul of 
 
 To follow thee, I braved the storm-bias fs power, 
 The lightning's lash, tho 1 but a feeble flower, 
 Rootbound, and rocked by Summer's faintest sighs. 
 3 Twas love upheld, and helped me, hour by hour, 
 To rise and rise. 
 To follow thee, I climb' d the gateless wall, 
 
THE CROWN. 239 
 
 And leapt the bridge I ess moat. To follow thee, 
 
 Secure where even the wild goat fears to fall, 
 
 I clung, and swung, and camped my blithe buds all 
 
 On rocks that house not even a hermit bee. 
 
 One happy morn, in at thy lattice peeping, 
 
 I found thee sleeping, 
 
 And tapped, and tap fid, till thou in shy amazement 
 
 Didst wake, and listen, and fling wide the casement, 
 
 Andlo! I faced thee, 
 
 Trembling all over, faint with having found thee ! 
 
 Thou didst lean o'er me, and mine arms went rottnd 
 
 thee, 
 
 And I embraced thee ! 
 
 Clapping thy hands for gladness, thou did' st cry 
 " What, is it thou ? 
 
 Madcap, how could 1 st thou dare to climb so high ? 
 Look down below ! 
 
 Think, hadst thou fallen ? " " Many a fall had 7," 
 Laughing, I answered, and made haste to show 
 
240 KING POPPY. 
 
 Where down the high crags slippery pedestal 
 
 My blossoms, trembling over an abyss, 
 
 Dropped bloom on bloom. "And thus do blossoms fall" 
 
 I laughed^ " like kiss on kiss ! " 
 
 Then didst thou .understand me : and the -whole 
 
 Of my hearts secret, filling all thy frame ; 
 
 Thro* thy soft eyes slid into thy sweet soul, 
 
 Where mine own soul a thought of thine became. 
 
 Deep in thine eyes that thought may still be seen, 
 
 Thd by thyself it be unnoticed quite, 
 
 Nor canst thou utter it. Let others guess ! 
 
 Some call me Grace, some call me Charm. I ween 
 
 Blest will he be who one day wins the right 
 
 To know me by my true name, Tenderness ! 
 % 
 
 Chomi, King's Daughter, King^s Daughter, beware 
 Of the world where thou goest / For there 
 Other gifts other givers will give thee, and fine 
 TM each gift, in its core is a care. 
 
THE CROWN. 24 1 
 
 We are kings, and our kingdoms were tax 'd 'for thy 
 
 treasure : 
 
 Of our sunbeams we built thee a palace of pleasure : 
 With our moonbeams we lit thee a shrine : 
 And the songs of the birds, and the sweets of the 
 
 flowers, 
 
 Sung and breathed in beatified worlds that are ours, 
 Never counting the cost, never stinting the measure, 
 
 We bestow d on a world that was thine. 
 * 
 
 I have no name. For they that know me best Solo 
 
 J Peiisc- 
 
 Know how to name me not. The nightingale 
 
 sadness 
 
 Sings me when Summer nights are silentest, 
 And the stars tremble, listening to her tale. 
 Soft Melancholy's sweetest child am I, 
 Sweeter than joy. I hover between song 
 And silence. There is smiling in my sigh, 
 And sighing in my smile. A thought among 
 
 Thy thoughts, I wander, as a wind thrd flowers, 
 
 Q 
 
242 KING POPPY. 
 
 And only by their tremors canst thou tell 
 My secret influence on thy silent hours. 
 Yet dost thou know me, child, and know me well. 
 * 
 
 Choral. King's Daughter, King's Daughter, beware 
 Of the world where thou goest ! For there 
 Is all mirth a mirage, ever mocking the drouth 
 Of a desert deceitfully fair. 
 In thy soul was the storehouse we sought 
 For our gifts, gathered oiit of the East 
 And the West and the North and the South : 
 And a gladness we breathed in thy breast, 
 And a music we gave to thy mouth, 
 And to each of thy gazes a star. 
 Not a gift that we gave, but hath brought 
 From the kingdoms whereof we are kings 
 To thy spirit a loveliness, wrought 
 Thrrf the loom of its rich reveries 
 Into feeling, and fancy, and thought. 
 
THE CROWN. 243 
 
 For the charm interwoven with these 
 
 Hath the spell of all glamours that are 
 
 In the magic whose mystery clings 
 
 To the azure of summits and seas 
 
 In the deeps of the distance afar; 
 
 To the sound of low-murmuring trees. 
 
 Lyric birds, and melodious springs; 
 
 To the throb in the rose; 
 
 To the violet 1 s breath on the breeze : 
 
 To the freshness that floats from Morris opaline 
 
 car; 
 
 To the glory that burdens Nooris opulent wings ; 
 To the world of red wonders whose wizardry 
 
 glows 
 
 7^hro> the glimmering gates of the sunset ajar; 
 And the twilighfs repose. 
 Child, we are kings of all beautiful things, 
 And thy heart was the home that we chose ! 
 
244 KING POPPY. 
 
 Fainter upon the incorporeal sense 
 Of her stretch'd spirit, from receding spheres, 
 The voices fell. Immoveable and mute 
 Stood Diadema, with white features fixt 
 Fast as the dead leaves on a frozen pool, 
 Arms outthrust, hands uplifted, lips and eyes 
 Wide open. Rhoda at the King's approach 
 Had left her : at the coming of the god 
 The King departed : and the god himself, 
 
 Sick 
 almost 
 
 Soon as his finger on her forehead laid 
 
 dooms- 
 day 
 
 ivith The troublous spell of its entrancing touch, 
 
 eclipse. 
 
 RATIO. Had suddenly vanisht into viewless air. 
 
XI. 
 THE CORONATION. 
 
 ALONE, as she had never been before, Her 
 
 mood 
 will 
 
 Alone and conscious of her loneliness, needs be 
 
 pitied. 
 
 And by that consciousness from head to foot 
 FilFd with a freezing fear, the maiden stood. 
 Pilgram was gone, and gone her father : gone 
 Her childhood's old glad careless confidence 
 In life's untested welcomes : gone the time 
 When round her, like a rich land's prodigal soil 
 In a soft clime, the world with promise teem'd ; 
 When all things said "Thou may'st !" and none ; 'Thou 
 must ! " 
 
 W T hen every song-bird caroll'd, " Life is love, 
 
 245 
 
246 KING POPPY. 
 
 And love is joy ! " when all the hopeful air 
 Was glowing with benignant prophecies, 
 And every leaf and blossom laugh'd, " Rejoice ! " 
 When even tears were sweet as summer rains, 
 And melancholy's sorrowfullest mood 
 Only a kind of shadowy happiness. 
 All these were gone : and, taking to itself 
 Usurp'd possession of their empty place, 
 The Her crown remain'd. The loveliness of youth, 
 
 toiltt 
 
 where- T , 1111 
 
 with Itself so loving, yearns to be beloved 
 
 Nature 
 
 *Youth" Ere yet it finds the loved one, and youth's dreams 
 
 to do 
 
 Are all dim-throng'd with amorous presences 
 That smile and beckon. But, while fervid steps 
 Their smiles pursue, Fate's labyrinth unperceived 
 Round the lured victim, coiling, shuts. And 
 
 then, 
 
 When happiness hath grown a habit, hope 
 A faith, and love the element of both, 
 Out of the heart of the maze her oracle speaks 
 
THE CORONATION. 247 
 
 The Inevitable No ; that, whether breathed Prohibi- 
 
 tion is 
 
 Light as the whispers of a sleeping child. with 
 
 Paradise ; 
 /^ i i i T 11 i 11 where all 
 
 Or loud as thunder peard, all promise turns said "Yes" 
 
 till.Prohi- 
 
 To prohibition, puckers to a frown spoke. 
 
 The voice 
 
 Earth's smile, strikes sunless the bright vault of heaven, followed 
 
 man's foot- 
 
 And famine-smites the fruitful tracts of time. thewiJder- 
 
 ness, 
 
 The loved one's coming tears, not kisses, greet ; 
 
 his world : 
 
 And the poor heart's forbidden welcome faints filSfwith 
 
 the terrors 
 
 Unutter'd upon lips that wail " Farewell ! " 
 
 But of its 
 
 Voices that laugh'd, " Rejoice ! " exclaim, " Renounce ! " man v 
 
 J mandates 
 
 one only is 
 
 Along the desert air, where no bird sings, AlT^ii?' 
 
 bitions 
 
 A pining wind laments, " Life is not love, upon Sin 
 
 man has 
 
 But duty, and love is not joy, but pain !" The prohi- 
 
 bition 
 
 And all things say, " Thou must ! " and none, " Thou piness 
 
 he cannot 
 , ... evade. 
 
 may'st ! " This is the 
 
 Inevitable 
 
 Change comes with age : but it is we that change, transfers 
 
 Freedom, 
 
 And not the world's conditions. Our desires felicities" 8 
 
 from the 
 
 Dwindle : our will deliberately shifts Rellitfto 
 
 that of the 
 
 Its chosen mark, exerting none the less 
 
248 KING POPPY. 
 
 Its liberty of choice : the shorten'd aim 
 
 Requites the slacken'd effort : from without 
 
 No enigmatic mandate disallows 
 
 Their free selection of the mark itself 
 
 To faculties retaining all their force : 
 
 And the slow years along the downward slope 
 
 Of compensated loss so softly lead 
 
 Life's gradual descent that, looking back, 
 
 Never at any time can age recall 
 
 The date of youth's departure. But this change 
 
 Comes otherwise, comes wholly unprepared, 
 
 Suddenly in the heyday of youth's heats, 
 
 When every pulse is fullest, every nerve 
 
 Most sensitive to pleasure and to pain. 
 
 It comes with the intolerable shock 
 
 Of the soul's first discovery of Fate's strength 
 
 And her own impotence : leaves all within 
 
 Unchanged, unweaken'd, and unreconciled 
 
 To the drear change of all without the same 
 
THE CORONATION. 249 
 
 Wild energy of will, the same strong need 
 
 Of life and love, the same capacity 
 
 To feel, the same simplicity of faith 
 
 In pre-establisht harmonies between 
 
 Feeling and fact ; but all at once no more 
 
 The same fair, welcoming, wide-open world 
 
 Of high and happy possibilities 
 
 Awaiting their possession. Chill eclipse 
 
 Descends on all. The reassuring smile 
 
 Of a benignant Providence departs, 
 
 And. in its stead, hangs everywhere the frown 
 
 Of some grim barbarous Demon Power that wills 
 
 And loves not, claiming for its dismal rites 
 
 The victim and the sacrifice. Even then, 
 
 Born brave, and nurtur'd upon nobleness, 
 
 The young heart (still too young to guess the worst 
 
 That Fate intends it), like a king dethroned, 
 
 Whose kingliness, even when unkingdom'd, clothes 
 
 Calamity itself with grace august, 
 
250 KING POPPY. 
 
 Would fain devote its proud sublimities 
 
 Of feeling to the adornment of despair ; 
 
 Feasting its famine upon sacrifice, 
 
 Slaking its fervid thirst of joys forbid 
 
 On torrents of inebriating tears, 
 
 Converting desolation to a dower, 
 
 Pain to an appanage, and wringing thus 
 
 The rapture of a high enthusiasm 
 
 Even from the cold grey helplessness of grief. 
 
 In vain ! The Inevitable No denies 
 
 To unhappiness no less than happiness 
 
 The luxury of passion : and again 
 
 Out of the heart of the maze the oracle speaks : 
 
 " Not all at once, impulsive Child of Earth, 
 
 Nor once for all, thy sacrifice shall be ! 
 
 But thou shalt mortify and mutilate 
 
 Thyself, piecemeal, on altars many and mean, 
 
 Little by little, to the end of life. 
 
 And when the equivalence of littleness 
 
THE CORONATION. 251 
 
 In suffering and enjoyment, good and ill, 
 Hath re-establisht life's lost harmonies 
 Of fact and feeling in a lower tone, 
 When the subservient spirit no longer craves 
 Aught that the common and convenient course 
 Of circumstance denies it, death shall loose 
 With sudden hand a bond grown tolerable, 
 Remove a burden lighten'd by long use, 
 And to the crippled pinions, that have lost 
 Their power to soar, set wide the narrow cage 
 Which shelter'd Custom's creature from the vague, 
 Wild, fearful, unfamiliar Infinite." 
 
 To Diadema in that frozen trance 1" cap- 
 
 tivity. 
 
 Fate's Oracle had spoken its first word ; 
 
 And round her crown's hard hollow circlet, husht 
 
 With horror, died away in a dumb void 
 
 The faint unanswered voices of the past. 
 
 But, thro' the silence of all others, sweet 
 
252 KING POPPY. 
 
 The old As Eden's nightingale when still the rose 
 
 song. 
 
 Was thornless, one dear solitary voice 
 
 Of tenderest tone sang to her from afar, 
 
 Singing of love, and love's infinitudes 
 
 Of feeling. To a world of finite fact 
 
 Fetter'd, she heard it as a captive hears 
 
 Thro' prison grates, in some far foreign land, 
 
 A voice that calls him in his native tongue, 
 
 And at the extreme tether of his chain 
 
 Falls in vain effort to escape. A few 
 
 Short footsteps reach'd the limit of her power 
 
 To follow the sweet summons of that song. 
 
 Her crown still held in her unconscious hands, 
 
 Out thro' her chamber's unshut casement, drawn 
 
 As one that walks in dreams, she stagger'd. There, 
 
 Down in its rose-girt balcony she sank 
 
 Along her purple-pillow'd ivory couch, 
 
 Letting her crown into her listless lap 
 
 Sink unregarded also. Low, between 
 
THE CORONATION. 253 
 
 The moonlit blossoms of the balustrade, 
 
 Her drooping cheek on her clasp'd hands she lean'd, 
 
 And listen'd, sick at heart. A little breeze 
 
 Began to make a sighing trouble among 
 
 Those moonlit blossoms. Ever and anon 
 
 Fell o'er her, here a blossom, there a leaf ; 
 
 And with the leaves and blossoms, as they fell, 
 
 Her tears fell too, thawing her frozen trance. 
 
 The distant voice sang on. But with its song A singer 
 
 far 
 
 Another and a nearer voice, that breathed 
 
 whis- 
 
 Close at her ear importunate, interfused 
 
 hand: 
 
 Mysterious tones. It was the Poppy's voice, 
 
 Appealing to her for the crown he craved. 
 
 " Maiden," it whispered, "give thy crown to me, 
 
 With all its cares, and I will give thee love, 
 
 With all its joys ! " And, as she listen'd, her heart 
 
 Swell'd fuller, and beat faster, and she felt 
 
 The lightening and the loosening of a load 
 
 Of ponderous impossibilities. 
 
254 KING POPPY. 
 
 Whose The whisper of the Poppy, with its word 
 
 com- 
 bined in- _ .. . . ... 
 
 fluence Of mystic promise, penetrating all 
 
 affects 
 
 emanci- The music of Love's passionate psalm, became 
 
 pation 
 
 Captive More potent upon her spirit than the power 
 
 Princess 
 
 Of Fate's imperative oracle. A soul 
 Secure of happiness, in some high sphere 
 Of unassail'd serenity, she heard 
 Faint echoes of the Inevitable No 
 Falling far down a dim escaped abyss 
 Of evitable and evaded doom 
 That gaped beneath her, and their menace seem'd 
 Abortive as a dying beldam's curse. 
 And the Between her and the singer of the song 
 
 union 
 
 lovers. Whose music mingled with the lulling spells 
 
 Breathed by the Poppy, all distance disappear^, 
 All separation ceased. The song itself, 
 Assuming personality, became 
 One with the singer, and the singer and she 
 One with each other ; in whose oneness lived, 
 

 THE CORONATION. 255 
 
 Reciprocally realized, the full 
 
 Felicitous actuality of all 
 
 The song but sang of strength and tenderness, 
 
 Passion and purity, beyond the reach 
 
 Of ruinous time and rancorous circumstance, 
 
 In a transcendent everlasting dream 
 
 
 Of love united. From the maiden's lap Corona- 
 
 tion of 
 
 Down slid the crown the Poppy craved, and bruised Poppy. 
 
 His goblin brow. Thence issued troops of dreams, 
 
 Whose giant power its weight uplifted, set 
 
 Its heavy splendours on his florid crest, 
 
 And with miraculous transmutation turn'd 
 
 Its dwindling golden hoop, and the small head 
 
 Beneath it, to a tawny capsule hard, 
 
 Encircled by the semblance of what they 
 
 Who are themselves but semblances of power 
 
 Wear for the symbol of it. From this hard 
 
 And tawny capsule leapt two lucid beads 
 
 That fell into the maiden's eyes. Her lids 
 
256 KING POPPY. 
 
 Droop'd slowly, closing o'er them, and she slept. 
 Slept, and still sleeps : a maiden princess sleeping 
 For ever in a palace by the sea ! 
 
 His Over the sleeping maiden lightly stoop'd 
 
 king- 
 King Poppy. Both her lidded eyes he kiss'd, 
 
 visitant. 
 
 And whisper'd to her, " King's Daughter, enter in ! 
 
 Enter the happy realm whereof thy hand 
 
 Hath crown'd me monarch ! Here thy home 
 
 behold ! 
 
 Here shalt thou dwell forever beautiful, 
 Forever blest ; and here forever thine 
 Those gifts shall be, the god who gave them hid 
 Deep in the innocent heart my power preserves 
 Stainless, and still unbroken : radiant forms, 
 The fields of Fancy roaming, crown'd with flowers 
 From faery gardens gloriously adorn'd 
 By all the summers of the Golden Age ; 
 Sweet thoughts that wander, sinless as the streams 
 
THE CORONATION. 257 
 
 That watered Paradise, thro' worlds as fair 
 
 And far away as Paradise itself ; 
 
 Bright tendernesses ever flowing from 
 
 Unfathomable founts of sympathy ; 
 
 Beauty that time hath blemish'd not, and love 
 
 That life hath not dishonour'd. Safe and pure 
 
 As dwells the starry essence of the dew 
 
 Shut in the unsullied bosom of a rose, 
 
 Sleep, maiden, sleep ! To thee shall woeful eyes 
 
 And weary hearts for consolation turn, 
 
 When slumber locks eyelashes tired with tears 
 
 On cheeks still wet with weeping, and sad souls 
 
 Are guided blindfold to the Land of Dreams. 
 
 Here, as, imploring refuge from the world, 
 
 My realm and thine their weary steps approach, 
 
 Do thou life's wayworn travellers welcome home, 
 
 And lead them to the regions of their rest ! " 
 
 The lost 
 
 The Shepherd, on a moonlit peak, his song 
 
 R 
 
2 5 8 
 
 KING POPPY. 
 
 But cruellest is the pang of the surprise 
 
 Unanswer'd, and his soul in wild suspense, 
 Stood waiting for a voice that ne'er till then 
 Had fail'd to answer, in a thousand tones 
 Of infinitely varied tenderness 
 For ever new, the selfsame question fond, 
 The With the same fond assurance, " I am thou ! " 
 
 soul's 
 pursuits. _ 
 
 whether otrange and uncommon seems to each in turn 
 
 in life or 
 
 preceded His own first portion of life's common pain : 
 
 by an 
 ideal 
 posses- 
 sion of 
 
 object When what hath been a long-familiar sense 
 
 pursued. 
 
 t F h e r soui Of ^definable felicity, 
 
 pure 
 
 percep- Whose beatific influence erewhile 
 
 tion is 
 in the 
 nature 
 of undi? 
 turbed 
 posses- 
 sion : 
 nor can 
 
 she seek what she does not miss, or miss what she has not known. But this state 
 of the soul is simply receptive ; and the conditions of her physical tenement render 
 it necessarily transient. The cessation of it is followed by a state of unrest ; 
 wherein the sense of missed possession begets the need of attainment, and there- 
 with passion, the agent of that need. The first is a state of passive enjoyment ; 
 the second, one of painful activity. Attainment, however, extinguishes passion in 
 the possession of the object attained ; and in relation to that object the soul again 
 finds rest : what the faculties employed by her present as an act of acquisition, 
 being to the soul herself an act of recovery. Perception, preceding desire ; desire, 
 compelling attainment ; and attainment, restoring perception ; these three states 
 comprise the history of what his work is to the artist, his love to the lover, his 
 system to the philosopher r in so far, at least, as the Imaginative Power is con- 
 cerned with the development, in the individual, of art, philosophy, or love. 
 
 In some young heart made hovering music heard, 
 And, soft as sunny haze at morning, mantled 
 
THE CORONATION. 259 
 
 That one poor heart's whole habitable world 
 
 In fervid veils that all harsh features hid, 
 
 And all dark hollows fill'd with golden cloud, 
 
 A single miserable moment turns 
 
 Into a definite and acute despair, 
 
 Crying aloud, " My name is Love ! Secure 
 
 Within thy spirit's penetralian shrine 
 
 I lurk'd unchallenged, till at last I learn'd 
 
 Its inmost secrets. Thou, who all the while 
 
 Didst neither know thyself, nor them, nor me, 
 
 By every other name that is not mine 
 
 Hast call'd me ; and in many a borrow'd form 
 
 Upon thy heart I, unforbidden, fed 
 
 Till I gain'd strength to break it. Know me 
 
 now, 
 
 For what I am ! Love, stronger than before, 
 Being full-grown, craving more nourishment. 
 I hunger. I am starving. I am wild. 
 My power is pitiless, my need immense, 
 
2 6o KING POPPY. 
 
 And thou art at my mercy. Give me food 
 
 Give me thy heart to gnaw, thy life to rend 
 
 And ravage ! In return, one gift have I 
 
 Still left to give thee, tho' all else be gone, 
 
 The dreadful gift of Knowledge-known-too-late ! 
 
 Thou shalt not ever hear her voice again, 
 
 And thou dost love her. Thou shalt never hold 
 
 Her hand in thine, nor press thy lips to hers, 
 
 And thou dost love her. Never shalt thou gaze 
 
 Upon her face, save in a hopeless dream, 
 
 And thou dost love her. Thou hast loved her 
 
 long, 
 
 And didst not know it. Thou hast lost her now, 
 And, knowing thou hast lost her, knowest too 
 How dearly thou didst love her, and dost love ! " 
 
 This was the only voice the Shepherd heard. 
 It came to him from his own frighten'd heart, 
 Startling and terrible, as at dead of night, 
 
THE CORONATION. 261 
 
 When feasted revellers rest, and streets are still, 
 
 Thro' some soft slumbering city that hath been 
 
 Betray'd while it caroused, a trumpet sounds, 
 
 Blown by the invader, and a wild voice cries, 
 
 " Awake ! The foe is in the citadel, 
 
 The gods are stolen away, and all is lost ! " 
 
 And he awoke out of his broken dream 
 
 Of undefended happiness, and sat 
 
 Forlorn among the ruins of it, and felt 
 
 That something, which till then had been the 
 
 soul 
 
 Of all things else, was gone ; and nothing else 
 The loss of it had left alive in him 
 But a blind, voiceless, desolate desire 
 Far from his undone self to fly away ; 
 Athwart the world's indifferent darkness chasing 
 Evasive echoes of a silenced song 
 Whose distant singer's inmost soul to his 
 Had all its secrets in that song outpour'd. 
 
262 KING POPPY. 
 
 The pas- His little hut upon the upland lawns 
 
 sipnate 
 
 He left, and all his flocks and herds forsook. 
 His loins he girt, and from the stony ridge 
 Rush'd, like a mountain cataract sudden rains 
 Have swollen, upon the valleys with a ciy. 
 Flying, his pastoral pipe he flung away, 
 For broken was the music of his life, 
 And flung away his shepherd crook, for all 
 Ob- His shepherdings were ended. Flint and briar 
 
 stacles 
 
 Stay'd not his flight, nor the dividing sea. 
 
 pilgrim- 
 
 p!ril<T d I nto i ts nioaning deeps he plunged, and swam 
 
 beset it : 
 
 Dauntless as young Leander, tho' for him 
 No torch was kindled, and no Hero watch'd. 
 Strong was the violent strait that roll'd between 
 The mainland and the islet crags whence safe 
 The song he miss'd had found erewhile its way. 
 But to him, seeking thro' the waters wild 
 That lost song's hidden birthplace, way was none 
 Safe from the hundred thousand hands of Death, 
 
THE CORONATION. 
 
 263 
 
 That snatch'd, and clutch'd, and slipp'd, and snatch'd 
 
 again. 
 
 Headlong at last upon a savage beach 
 The breaker hurl'd him senseless, but anon 
 Suck'd back, and toss'd from roaring ridge to ridge 
 
 Of smoky surf, till in its strenuous lap ' ut 
 
 chance, 
 favouring 
 
 The tide-wave's southward-streaming current caught, the vague 
 
 And roll'd him round the rocky isle, and laid 
 His body, bleeding, bruised, but breathing still, 
 In a soft bay beneath the summer moon. 
 There, blowing over myrtle bowers, sweet airs 
 Breathed on his swoon, and waked it. He arose 
 As one that, having perish'd on the rack, 
 Revives in Paradise. Around him bloom'd 
 The Eden of his dreams, and o'er him smiled 
 The heaven of all his hopes. A giant crag, 
 Cleft from the rocky root of it in twain, 
 Loom'd imminent above him. One huge peak 
 
 direction 
 of his 
 efforts, 
 brings him 
 close to 
 the goal 
 when he is 
 least con- 
 scious of 
 having ap- 
 proached 
 it- 
 
 The stupor 
 
 \vhich 
 
 follows 
 
 protracted 
 
 and 
 
 seemingly 
 
 abortive 
 
 struggle is 
 
 a period of 
 
 unper- 
 
 freshment : 
 and, 
 reviving 
 from it, he 
 at last sees 
 clear 
 
 before him 
 the re- 
 quital of 
 
 all his pains, in the living embodiment of a never-relinquished ideal, and the 
 
 perfect beauty of its form. 
 
264 KING POPPY. 
 
 (The highest but least inaccessible) 
 
 Rough with wild shrubs and pendulous parasites, 
 
 Held, poised in heaven, upon its aery top 
 
 The large round moon. The other and lesser limb 
 
 Of that deep-riven rampart, from its base 
 
 Low-branching, pedestall'd a shadowy pile 
 
 Of masonry fantastically heap'd 
 
 In terrace upon terrace superposed. 
 
 Wall overtopping wall, and dome from dome 
 
 Emergent in a maze of pinnacles, 
 
 All unapproachable. From whose dim midst 
 
 Uprose a single supereminent tower ; 
 
 And, in the highest story of it set, 
 
 A spacious lamp-lit window, balconied 
 
 Broad at the vase with golden balustrade 
 
 O'er-clambeiM by the revelling rose, shone bright. 
 
 The, glory, from that window pouring, paused 
 
 Upon the rose-girt balcony, and wove 
 
 A reverential aureole round about 
 
THE CORONATION. 265 
 
 One image hers, the lady of the isle, 
 In her lone loveliness. The Shepherd's star 
 Stay'd there, above the recompensing shrine 
 Of his wild pilgrimage : for there at last 
 Song's tenderest importunities were blest 
 With all the gladness of a granted prayer, 
 
 And love's most passionate prophecies fulfilPd. 
 
 . 
 His limbs were sore and shaken, soak'd and torn 
 
 His garments, but no pain nor weariness 
 
 Survived that vision. Deep beatitude 
 
 Bathed his delighted spirit, and a new sense 
 
 Of life, from suffering suddenly released, 
 
 Flutter'd blithe wings within him like a bird. with 
 
 faculties 
 
 With nimble foot and dexterous hand he climb'd emd by 
 
 con- .. 
 
 The higher cliff, whose tangled thickets creak'd In the* 
 
 percep- 
 
 And crackled where from branch to branch he swung ,,f a) 
 
 I K : 
 
 of a 
 
 attain 
 
 Swift as a stormy wind : beneath his foot ^d he 
 
 again 
 
 The mountain's stony litter, loosen'd, sprang, 
 And down its craggy channels roaring roll'd 
 
266 KING POPPY. 
 
 Into unseen abysses : snaky roots, 
 
 Tugg'd by his snatching hand, within its grasp 
 
 Snapp'd : but safe onward sped the mountaineer ; 
 
 Such salient springs of lightness in his heart. 
 
 Uplifting and upholding him, impell'd 
 
 His passionate course. The overwhelming" Pan, 
 
 Whose hidden presence fill'd those shaggy heights 
 
 With sudden horrors and bewilderments, 
 
 Dismay'd him not ; nor could earth's sullen power 
 
 Subordinate to its down-dragging stress 
 
 The ascendant spirit that etherealized 
 
 His earthly frame, wherein the fire of life 
 
 Burn'd with a self-consuming brightness, fann'd 
 
 To finer fervours by the breath of love. 
 
 And, At last, with nought between him and the moon 
 
 reaching 
 
 highest Save the dark-purple ether's breathing dome, 
 
 point of 
 
 He stood elate. Thence, gazing, he beheld 
 
 ment, 
 
 Close underneath him, nor beyond his reach 
 
THE CORONATION. 267 
 
 More than a few short arm-lengths lone, as dwells 
 The little glow-worm in its own soft gleam 
 Enhalo'd, on a lamp-lit ivory couch 
 Gem-crusted, purple-cushion'd, girt about 
 By a broad golden balcony, and embower'd 
 Among rose-blossoms (she, a rose in bud) 
 Among profuse rose-blossoms and among 
 Husht leaves embower'd, where all around her 
 
 throbb'd 
 
 Night's palpitant purities and poesies 
 Of starlight, stillness, darkness, solitude, 
 And summer (a poem of purity herself) 
 
 The maiden Princess sleeping. Snowy white Repose. 
 
 Shone her soft throat and lucid shoulder bare, 
 And snowy white, from breast to ankle fine, 
 In wavy slopes her sweeping vesture flow'd 
 Along her faultless form. One sweet small foot 
 From the plain fold that hid its fellow peep'd 
 In jewell'd slipper, sparkling to the moon : 
 
268 KING POPPY. 
 
 One slender hand above her fallen crown 
 
 Hover'd, a drooping flower : the other propp'd 
 
 Her pale cheek, pillow'd on its rosy palm. 
 
 Above the purple-cushion'd couch, and close 
 
 To the still maiden's tender ear, pale-lipp'd, 
 
 With writhing neck, in thin green garment clad, 
 
 Like a wan goblin bent beneath the weight 
 
 Of Elfland's gifts (his tmawakening hand 
 
 Upon the pillow of its darling child 
 
 Must lay in haste ere morn's return) low crouch'd 
 
 A great white poppy ; and from its luminous core, 
 
 As from the unseen flame of a wizard lamp, 
 
 Veil'd splendours all her slumbrous face suffused. 
 
 Her vagrant tresses, from the braided pearl 
 
 That bound them, loosen'd by low-breathing airs, 
 
 Wander'd in floating ripples upon the wave 
 
 That heaved her virgin bosom. The starr'd heavens, 
 
 Fill'd with unfathomable mystery, hung 
 
 Above her and about her, glimmering, 
 
THE CORONATION. 269 
 
 Trembling, and whispering, as tho' their winds 
 
 Were lull'd, their depths of lustrous darkness all 
 
 With odours laden, and their mazy stars 
 
 In myriads kindled, but to minister 
 
 To the secluded charm of her repose. 
 
 He, too, sole human witness of a sight 
 
 So wildly dream'd of and so dearly won. 
 
 Hung o'er her, almost touch'd her -and yet knew 
 
 That still 'twixt him and her was an abyss ! 
 
 O'er that abyss, the one last hindrance left 
 
 J attains ; 
 
 and, in 
 
 Between love's indefatigable course the 
 
 attain- 
 ment, 
 
 And its complete attainment, an abyss perishes; 
 
 So narrow, yet to foot of mortal man 
 
 Impassable as is the little grave 
 
 Whose gap uncross'd keeps Earth and Heaven apart, 
 
 The Shepherd stretch'd imploring arms, embraced 
 
 The bounteous vision, from his mountain ledge 
 
 Leapt desperately down ; and at her feet, 
 
270 A7iVG POPPY. 
 
 Whose loveliness his life had from afar 
 Bl rish Divined and sought, death laid him lovingly ; 
 
 ing, is 
 
 saved. Suffering his wounded head to sink and rest 
 On her sweet bosom, folding round her close 
 His dying arms, and in libation pouring 
 (To consecrate their bridal bower) the blood 
 Of the brave heart whose strong life's passionate stream, 
 No longer pent, to its dear Naiad bore 
 The last fond tribute of adoring love. 
 Red gems it added to her royal crown, 
 And the pale Poppy guarding that great prize 
 
 The It dyed deep crimson. So the Poppy gain'd 
 
 investi- 
 ture of 
 
 King The kingly symbols he had coveted, 
 Poppy. 
 
 A purple mantle, and a golden crown. 
 
 But Sorrow gave him one, and Death the other. 
 
 Over the dying boy King Poppy bent, 
 
 doors 
 
 second Beneath his closing eyelids softly dropp'd 
 visitant. 
 
 Two lucid beads, and whisper'd, "Enter in, 
 
THE CORONATION. 271 
 
 Poor shepherd boy who loved a monarch's child ! 
 Enter the blissful realm whereof thy blood 
 Hath robed me king, and here in safety dwell, 
 Forever loving, and forever loved ! 
 Here shall thy life be great and glorious, thou 
 Who wast on earth poor, nameless, and obscure ! 
 Hither, my happy kingdom to adorn, 
 O herdsman's son, bear with thee unimpair'd 
 The single treasure of thy true young heart ! 
 That love elsewhere impossible, elsewhere 
 Hopeless, shall here be hail'd the only love . 
 Perfectly possible, the only one 
 Perfectly true, the only one that lasts 
 Fervid and fresh forever. King henceforth 
 Thou art, and bravely kingdom'd ; for no less 
 Than kings are all my subjects, and to thee 
 The first and fairest of mine own wide realms 
 Is given in kingly guerdon. Here shall come, 
 Thy royal kinship claiming, the scorn'd souls 
 
272 A7A T G POPPY. 
 
 Of poets who, like thee, have nought but love 
 To give away, and give it all ungrudged 
 Tho' unrequited save when life is o'er. 
 Young Shepherd King, thy maiden bride embrace ! 
 Thy shepherd boy, young Maiden Queen, console ! 
 Reign happy, reign together, sovereigns both 
 Of Dreamland's youngest province ! People it 
 With lovelinesses rescued from a world 
 That loves not, solacing its paths with song 
 Elsewhere unheard ! Call hither from afar 
 
 He was 
 
 The loving, and the lonely, and the lost, 
 
 King. 
 Hu- 
 
 And lead them to the regions of their rest ! " 
 
XII. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION. 
 RECKON'D events to the unreckon'd end 
 
 runs 
 
 Fate urges, foiling forethought. When the day 
 
 shell OH 
 
 Prophetic hopes or prescient fears foretold 
 
 Ho-' 
 
 Is come at last, it finds us unprepared, 
 Or else in all our preparations wrong. 
 Vainly upon the Present's private stage 
 The action of the Future is rehearsed : 
 Soon as the prompter's final call-bell sounds, 
 And the great curtain rises, ten to one 
 That all the players have forgot their parts. 
 Mylady's pincushion, tho' planted thick 
 With pins of all sorts daily, pinless proves 
 
 2 73 S 
 
274 KING POPPY. 
 
 Just when the important ball-dress is put on, 
 And Mylord's coach kept waiting at the door. 
 You hear your regiments are undermann'd, 
 Only the morning after war's declared : 
 Not till the men are well upon their march, 
 You learn your soldiers have not shoes enough. 
 Battles are never won, but always lost, 
 By something, all things turn on, turning out 
 So as to overturn the best design 
 Turn'd over by the wisest heads before. 
 All premature, the long-expected comes. 
 Scarce plann'd, your public charter is pro- 
 
 claim'd, 
 And ere the first word's writ the last is read. 
 
 Public The night when royally King Poppy assumed 
 
 Expcc* 
 
 Serene possession of his promised realm 
 
 Was follow'd by a memorable morn. 
 
 To greet that morn the streets of Diadum 
 
THE CONSTITUTION. 275 
 
 Were gay with flowers, the roofs with flags, and 
 
 blithe 
 
 With pealing joybells all the belfries clang'd ; 
 While round the palace flocks of loyal folk 
 Were struggling with each other for a sight 
 Of something which not one of them could see. 
 For it had been officially made known 
 That the Crown Princess would this morn attain 
 Her full majority. Confused reports. 
 Moreover, had been current, that the King- 
 Would probably soon after abdicate 
 In favour of his daughter might, indeed, 
 Some hinted, take occasion of the day 
 Her Royal Highness came of age, to announce 
 
 This long-surmised intention. But the hour Disap- 
 
 pointed, 
 
 When the Crown Princess ought to have appear'd 
 Upon a balcony was pass'd, and still 
 Of her approach no bellowing batteries gave 
 The appointed signal to the drums and fifes 
 
276 KING POPPY. 
 
 Ready since dawn to strike up " Old King Cole." 
 The gunners, tired, beside their linstocks stood. 
 Their matches had been lighted long ago, 
 And every one of them was half burnt out. 
 Noticing this, the General in Command, 
 With his unfailing practical good sense, 
 Sent to the arsenal for fresh supplies 
 P 6 ,- Of matches. But by singular ill luck 
 
 ficiency ' 
 
 in the 
 
 The country had been several years at peace ; 
 
 stores. 
 
 And the last batch of matches, made in haste 
 When the last war was over, had been all 
 Used up in fireworks to commemorate 
 The seventieth anniversary of the day 
 The King recovered from the chicken-pox. 
 The Aide-de-camp, however, who was charged 
 On this occasion with the delicate task 
 Of fetching matches from an arsenal 
 Completely matchless, recognized how much 
 The national artillery would lose 
 
THE CONSTITUTION. 277 
 
 In public estimation if it fail'd 
 
 To make a noise. So, clapping spur forthwith Brilliant 
 
 exploit 
 
 Into his charger, off he rode full speed young 
 
 officer. 
 
 Till, round the corner, in the nick of time 
 
 He reach'd the next apothecary's shop, 
 
 And a forced requisition of pastilles 
 
 Made on the premises. For these he paid 
 
 By drafts upon the Extraordinary Fund 
 
 For " MEASURES TO-BE-TAKEN-WHEN-TOO-LATE." 
 
 That Chapter of the Budget was, he knew, 
 
 Better provided for than all the rest 
 
 Thanks to the forethought and experience 
 
 Of the War Minister. The Aide-de-camp, Merit re- 
 
 warded 
 
 In consequence of this exploit, received 
 
 The Order of " The Jumping Cow and Moon," 
 
 By means of which he jump'd above the heads To the 
 
 detri- 
 ment of 
 
 Of fifteen senior officers. Fourteen Seni- 
 
 ority. 
 
 Were married, and the fifteenth officer 
 
 Had sixteen children. The dragoon was seen 
 
27 8 KING POPPY. 
 
 Returning from the apothecary's shop 
 With headlong haste, his horse in a white sweat : 
 'Twas also noticed that he lost no time 
 In handing to the Chief Staff Officer 
 A packet, which that officer received 
 With the unmoved composure that betrays 
 The A deep anxiety. But all surmise 
 
 appari- 
 
 comes. About the inaction of the troops was stopp'd 
 HO- 
 RATIO, -r, , f 
 
 By the appearance of a personage 
 
 Not mention'd in the programme. Suddenly 
 
 The Master of the Royal Printing House 
 
 Arrived, preceded by the Fire Brigade 
 
 With ladders, and the Engineers with pots 
 
 And brushes : who placarded all the walls 
 
 And posts, for miles and miles, with spacious sheets 
 
 Of paper, printed in colossal type. 
 
 And at the head of each huge poster, black 
 
 In a vast blank, as in its desert stands 
 
 The giant Sphinx, stood one enormous word. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION. 
 That word was 
 
 - CONSTITUTION! 
 
 Under it 
 
 Follow'd, low down, in lesser capitals 
 " WE DIADUMMIANUS" (These two words 
 In every royal proclamation came 
 Invariably first. The public eye 
 Noticed, however, with surprise that here 
 The next two of the sentence that began 
 "WE DIADUMMIANUS" were "THE LAST.") 
 The proclamation then continued thus, 
 " CONSIDERING " 
 
 But everybody now, 
 Without consideration, knows by heart 
 The general principles and special points 
 Consider'd at considerable length 
 In that great document ; whose text contain'd 
 Numerous guarantees, proclaim'd in terms 
 
 279 
 
 A new 
 publica- 
 tion, 
 which 
 becomes 
 a 
 
 popular 
 periodi- 
 cal. 
 
 to con- 
 sider tOii 
 curious- 
 ly to 
 consider 
 so. 
 HO- 
 RATIO. 
 
280 KING POPPY. 
 
 These By numerous Modern States adopted since 
 
 } ictnds 
 
 *wre Verbatim. Everything was guaranteed, 
 
 TJP. Except the guaranteeing guarantee 
 Of all the guarantees that constitute 
 A Model Constitution. 
 
 still life. When the King, 
 
 With heavy heart and hesitating step, 
 To fetch his daughter back to Diadum 
 That morning sought her island bower, he found 
 The maiden sleeping. On her bosom glow'd 
 A scarlet poppy, like the signet set 
 Upon a princely secret. Robed in white, 
 Smiling asleep she lay ; and from her soft 
 Half-open lips melodious murmurings 
 Floated, as from the petals of a flower 
 That in its happy bosom hides the bee. 
 The porphyry table, on whose coverlet (rich 
 With silver brede enwrought) his hand had left 
 The unloved crown that was to have been hers, 
 
THE CONSTITUTION. 281 
 
 Some magic of the midnight hours had turn'd . 
 Into what seem'd a rose-red marble tomb ; 
 About the base, in milk-white groups emboss'd, 
 The progress of a pastoral idyll wound, 
 And as it went its simple love-tale told 
 In silence to the silent solitude ; 
 Upon the top, supine (a life-like form, 
 But in the stillness of its sculptured grace 
 Fairer than life, and on its marble lips 
 The perdurable sweetness of a smile 
 Sweeter than young Endymion's slumbering 
 In the embrace of the enamour'd moon) 
 Reposed the image of a shepherd boy, 
 Whose face was to the maiden tenderly 
 Turn'd, as her own to him. Beside the couch 
 Dame Rhoda sat ; and in her wither'd hands 
 One little hand she held, whose fingers fine 
 The dreaming child had curl'd confidingly 
 Within her nursing clasp, as if to say, 
 
282 
 
 KING POPPY. 
 
 Disper- 
 sion and 
 migra- 
 tion of 
 Ballad 
 Song, 
 which 
 pre- 
 serves 
 the 
 
 dreams 
 of Child- 
 hood in 
 the tra- 
 ditional 
 utter- 
 ances 
 of Eld. 
 
 " Wake me not ! I am happy. All is well." 
 
 Into her listening ear the child's warm lips 
 
 Were murmuring stories of her own sweet dreams ; 
 
 And what they murmur'd the old woman sang 
 
 Low to herself, and singing half asleep ; 
 
 For to herself the rhythmic monotone 
 
 Of her own voice, repeating chronicles 
 
 Of dreamland, was a lullaby. But light 
 
 The breeze that fann'd the flowery casement caught 
 
 That low lone strain, and in its bosom bore 
 
 The burden of it, with strange sea-sounds blent, 
 
 Over the broad blue waters far away 
 
 To distant lands : where here and there, in husht 
 
 And lonely places, others listening heard, 
 
 And in their own tongue sang it o'er again ; 
 
 Even as the imitative woods repeat 
 
 From leaf to leaf in language of their own 
 
 The murmur'd message of the wandering wind, 
 
 Come whence it may. The old woman warningly 
 

 THE CONSTITUTION. 283 
 
 A finger lifted to her lips. The old man, 
 
 Without a word, upon the other side 
 
 Of the child's couch sat down, and 'twixt his own 
 
 He took her other hand, and his bent head 
 
 Sank low and lower till his white beard brush'd 
 
 His quiet knees. Nothing he understood 
 
 Of what had happen'd or was happening there ; 
 
 But now and then along his wrinkled cheek 
 
 A big tear roll'd. 
 
 Meanwhile, in Diadum A sealed 
 
 com- 
 
 The Cabinet was waiting for the King, 
 
 ratified 
 
 When Pilgram suddenly arrived alone. and 
 
 ktraid- 
 
 But to the Ministers he brought an Act Ho~ 
 
 RATIO. 
 
 Of Abdication, by His Majesty 
 
 Written and sign'd that morning. 'Twas, in truth, 
 
 A document they secretly had long 
 
 Been hoping for : but on receiving it 
 
 They all express'd their sorrowful surprise 
 
 And deep regret. A message, Pilgram said, 
 
284 KING POPPY. 
 
 Too confidential for delivery 
 
 Except by word of mouth, he had been charged 
 
 To lose no time in giving them. The King, 
 
 He then informed them, was departed bound 
 
 On a long journey to a distant land, 
 
 Whence distant, too, the date of his return, 
 
 And doubtful. Probably not one of them 
 
 Would ever see His Majesty again. 
 
 The Princess had been dead nigh sixteen years, 
 
 She having died the year that she was born. 
 
 The King in this calamity had foreseen 
 
 The extinction of his dynasty, but still 
 
 Deem'd that it was his duty to preserve 
 
 The monarchy if possible. Profound 
 
 Attention to the Genius of the Age 
 
 Had led His Majesty to recognize 
 
 That, soon or late, the symbol of a faith 
 
 Is all that can remain of it ; and men 
 
 Are mostly to the symbol more attach'd 
 
THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 285 
 
 Than to whate'er the symbol represents. 
 
 But simply as a symbol to exist, 
 
 Some image, even if made of wood or stone, 
 
 Was more effectual than a human heart 
 
 Whose personal palpitations might disturb 
 
 The impersonal passivity that best 
 
 Befits a symbol. Being well aware 
 
 Of what the circumstances of the State 
 
 Seem'd to require, the venerable King 
 
 (Who felt the infirmities of age increased 
 
 By sorrow for his child's untimely death) 
 
 Had charged him, Master Pilgram, to construct 
 
 A Government Machine, expressly made 
 
 And fitted with the necessary gear 
 
 For carrying on the business of the realm 
 
 With regularity. Now, this machine, 
 
 Said Pilgram, was a puppet, that imposed 
 
 So perfectly on public confidence 
 
 Its representative contrivances, 
 
 So have 
 I heard, 
 and do 
 in fart 
 Mif7>e 
 //.HO- 
 RATIO. 
 
 The 
 greatest 
 inven- 
 tion of 
 the age. 
 
286 KING POPPY. 
 
 That it had long successfully replaced 
 
 Her Royal Highness, the dead Princess. They 
 
 Themselves had seen it, and conversed with it, 
 
 And they could testify to its success 
 
 In meeting the requirements of the age. 
 
 " This puppet," he continued, moving not 
 
 A muscle at his auditors' surprise, 
 
 " This puppet by the public is supposed 
 
 To be the real Princess : and, indeed, 
 
 The puppet is extremely popular. 
 
 Living princesses sometimes go astray. 
 
 The Puppet-Princess never will contract 
 
 A misalliance ; nor, if rightly work'd, 
 
 Act counter to whatever rules are framed 
 
 For its procedure. It is warranted 
 
 Complete in all its necessary parts ; 
 
 And, should its clockworks ever need repair, 
 
 (For even the best-made puppets now and then 
 
 Get out of order) they are so contrived 
 
THE CONS T ITU T ION. 287 
 
 As to be mended, modified, or even 
 
 In case of need completely recomposed 
 
 From any sort of cheap material, 
 
 By the most clumsy workman. It will be 
 
 Prudent, however, to keep these details 
 
 A secret. Leave the People's honest faith 
 
 In salutary error undisturb'd. 
 
 Never reveal the unreality 
 
 Of puppets that are popular. Meanwhile, 
 
 Your Excellencies will not find it hard 
 
 To govern in the room, retaining still 
 
 (If my advice you take) the form august, 
 
 Of a Departed Royalty. The shades 
 
 And echoes of Departed Royalty 
 
 Lend solemn influence to the hollow forms 
 
 They haunt for ages. Be upon your guard ! 
 
 The People, an incorrigible dunce, 
 
 Is quick to feel, tho' slow to understand ; 
 
 And, in its awkward fits of sentiment. 
 
288 KING POPPY. 
 
 ywtoar Stu P id enou gh> and strong enough, alas, 
 
 of 
 
 carnal, The blockhead is, to break the best contrived 
 
 bloody, 
 and UK- 
 
 natural Mechanical arrangements for its good. 
 
 and in 
 
 It is on such occasions that the want 
 
 upshot 
 Purposes 
 
 mistook. Of a true king may possibly be felt. 
 'Ho- 
 
 RATIO. 
 
 But then, they do not happen every day ; 
 And nobody must in this world expect 
 Perfection. For perfection you will find 
 My puppet is a perfect substitute." 
 
 decKes Tne Ministers, when their astonishment, 
 
 a .seat 
 
 Cabinet ^ n ^ earnm ^ now tne Y nac ^ themselves been 
 
 duped, 
 
 Sufficiently subsided to allow 
 Of calm reflection, saw that Pilgram's plan 
 Had much to recommend it. They express'd 
 With cordiality their confidence 
 In his abilities, and offer'd him 
 A place in the new Cabinet. But this 
 
THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 289 
 
 His modesty forbade him to accept, 
 
 He told them ; adding, " One small favour 
 
 grant, 
 
 And I shall be contented. Prove yourselves 
 Enlighten'd liberal statesmen, and proclaim 
 Liberty, as a fundamental part 
 Of the new Constitution ! " Much amazed, 
 Their duty was, they said, imperative 
 To punish all presumptuous attempts 
 At taking any sort of liberty 
 With the new Constitution : and they ask'd 
 What, in the name of Common Sense, he 
 
 meant ? 
 
 He answer'd, with a deprecating smile, 
 " Your Excellencies are about to start 
 A Government exclusively maintain'd 
 Upon appearances, and what appears 
 Most liberal, looks best. But, after all, 
 The little that I ask means nothing much. 
 
 But 
 
 obtains 
 
 for 
 
 Liberty 
 
 a place 
 
 in the 
 
 Consti- 
 
290 A7A T G POPPY. 
 
 Liberty is a word in common use : 
 I have a fancy for the sound of it. 
 Oblige me on this point ! " Then to himself, 
 " By Jupiter," he mutter'd, " an escape ! 
 I very nearly had allow'd the door 
 Of the new Constitution to be shut 
 Unceremoniously in mine own face, 
 By stupidly forgetting to insert 
 Popular Something fantastic into it." The news 
 
 rejoic- 
 
 Forthwith was circulated everywhere 
 
 Of the King's abdication, and the Chart 
 
 Accepted in advance by the new Queen, 
 
 Proclaiming that henceforth the principle 
 
 Of Diadummianian Government 
 
 Would be entirely Representative. 
 
 The populace hurrah'd, the joy-bells rang, 
 
 The cannon bang'd and blazed, and all the realm 
 
 Was thrown into a rapture of delight. 
 
 Pilgram, meanwhile, behind closed doors unveil'd 
 

 THE CONSTITUTION. 291 
 
 The Pseudo-Sovereign, gave the Ministers what is 
 
 the issue 
 
 A few short simple lessons in the trick business 
 
 there ? 
 
 Of the State Mechanism, and explain'd RATIO. 
 
 Its structure. This was all that they required ; 
 For they were most intelligent, and seized 
 Upon the principle of the machine 
 Instinctively. Another little wheel 
 He then inserted. This new wheel henceforth 
 It would be necessary to wind up 
 Once every year. 'Twas call'd " THE-QuEEN's- 
 SPEECH- WHEEL." 
 
 Thus was accomplish'd, without one blow struck 
 
 Or drop of blood shed, in the favoured Realm 
 
 Of Diadummiania, that great 
 
 And glorious Revolution which so far 
 
 Surpass'd all other wonderful events 
 
 In wonder that, tho' many of course have tried, 
 
 And some profess'd, not any one has been 
 
292 KING POPPY. 
 
 Able to understand it ever since. 
 The best historians seriously aver 
 It was the work of Spirits. And they call 
 Those Spirits, one, the Spirit of the Age, 
 The other one, the Spirit of Progress. Still, 
 As nobody knows what those Spirits are, 
 This explanation leaves it unexplain'd. 
 Pilgram from Diadum, before the sun 
 Had set upon that memorable day, 
 Departed. He was never seen again, 
 
 That is 
 
 most And is forgotten. But his work remains. 
 
 certain. 
 
 RATIO. It has since then been imitated much. 
 
EPILOGUE. 
 
TRANSFIGURATION. 
 PILGRAM, when he had shaken hands with all p-j! 1 
 
 gram. 
 
 The members of the Puppet Government, 
 
 And wish'd them good success, regain'd the isle, 
 
 Where sleeping, and for evermore asleep, 
 
 Safe guarded by King Poppy, he had left 
 
 The Princess, and her father, and the dame. 
 
 His workshop in the palace of the King 
 
 He emptied, first, of all its wizard toys ; 
 
 And all the marvellous machinery 
 
 That to those creatures of his fancy once 
 
 Gave living motion, in a broken heap 
 
 He buried, that hereafter none might guess 
 
 The secret of his craft. With steps that sped 
 295 
 
296 KING POPPY. 
 
 Flashing on their invisible course, and fleet 
 
 As the untrack'd, unutterable thoughts 
 
 That burn and vanish thro' the dazzled brain 
 
 Of some bewildered poet, from the wreck 
 
 His hand had made of all its handiwork 
 
 In Diadum, the radiant wanderer pass'd 
 
 Back to the island bower his spells had built, 
 
 For the asylum of the souls he loved. 
 
 The secret path to it he then destroy'd, 
 
 Since those 'twas made for needed it no more. 
 
 Nor ever again shall foot of mortal man 
 
 That pathway tread ; whence under sea and 
 
 land, 
 
 No longer now as mortal man disguised, 
 Fnter But in his full effulgence, Phantasos 
 
 Phan- 
 
 Return'd to visit Diadema's dreams. 
 The And when the god to her still chamber came, 
 
 Sleeping 
 
 No sound was in it save the crone's low 
 chaunt, 
 
TRANSFIGURATION. 297 
 
 With, ever and anon, a fitful note 
 
 Wailing from some stray'd fly's- small phantom 
 
 horn ; 
 
 Nor any motion but the maiden's breath 
 That, undulating her calm slumber, sway'd 
 (There in its snowy cradle sleeping too) 
 The crimson-petall'd Poppy upon her breast. 
 On one side of his daughter's ivory couch 
 The Old King sat, and on the other side 
 Sat the Old Dame, both sleeping ; and between 
 Those sleepers, as between two hoary rocks 
 That overhang it sleeps a little tarn 
 So still and pure that all the lights of heaven 
 In its pure stillness smile, the maiden slept. 
 Harmonious with these three husht images 
 Of perfect peace, the lucid effigy 
 Of the dead Shepherd Boy, who perish'd there 
 For love of the King's Daughter, seem'd to breathe 
 Warm life as, streaming from the fervent west, 
 
298 KING POPPY. 
 
 The rich Hesperian hues of sunset flush'd 
 
 Its pale mannorean beauty. Sleep and Death 
 
 Smiled the same smile. Their secret was the same. 
 
 kgacy Phantasos, round him gazing, sigh'd, " Behold 
 
 of Phan- 
 
 All my redeeming providence could save 
 
 From life's perpetual suicide ! A few 
 
 Imperishable fonns of perisht faiths 
 
 In its fantastical divinity ; 
 
 A few illusions that, unlost, endure, 
 
 As types of its endurance, in the fond 
 
 Tradition of an immemorial time 
 
 That was not, save as in such types it is 
 
 Forever, ever seeming to have been ; 
 
 When Majesty was childlike, Childhood still 
 
 God-guarded, and itself the guardian god 
 
 Of age, in old days that were young ones ; earth 
 
 A dreamland ; miracles, familiar facts ; 
 
 Speech, song ; faith, truth ; and truth, a fairy tale ! " 
 
TRANSFIGURATION. 299 
 
 About the sleeping forms he gazed upon 
 
 The glimmering air grew darker. Fast outside 
 
 The sunset deepen'd. All in a dim glow 
 
 Was fading. O'er his countenance divine, 
 
 Contemplating his own achievement, stole 
 
 The solemn shadow of a power put forth, 
 
 And past away from its creative source 
 
 Forever into that which it creates. 
 
 He mused, " My work is done. But will they last, 
 
 The gifts I leave behind me, ere again 
 
 Back to my wanderings thro' the world I go ? 
 
 Be that the care of Mekon ! In his guard 
 
 to the 
 
 I leave them, who knows how to keep my gifts. 
 Here, in each silent image, sleeps a fount 
 Of fancy-fertilizing song, that waits 
 For its discoverer only. And anon, 
 
 mission 
 
 When there shall be not even one small isle 
 
 distribu- 
 tion. 
 
 Unsearch'd in Ocean's solitary lap ; 
 When there shall be no longer any kings 
 
300 KING POPPY. 
 
 Whose beards have vvhiten'd on ancestral thrones ; 
 
 No longer any shepherds whose young hearts 
 
 Heave with the aspirations that uplift 
 
 The lid this heavy world shuts down on all 
 
 Else like to trouble its dull dreamless sloth ; 
 
 No longer in mysterious bowers (redeem'd 
 
 From Beauty's common curse, self-consciousness) 
 
 Maidens with mystic crowns to give away, 
 
 Nor any mystery left in maid or crown ; 
 
 That song shall keep men dreaming of them, taught 
 
 Unaltered by traditionary Eld 
 
 To wondering Childhood : or, when Childhood's voice 
 
 Is stilPd, and autumn's waning suns scarce warm 
 
 The later lonesome days, in alter'd tones 
 
 (Not glad, and confident, and effortless, 
 
 But burden'd with the weight of tears, like winds 
 
 Rain-laden, tho' still sweet, still solacing, 
 
 Because they breathe from happier climates) sung 
 
 By lips grown pale beneath hope's faithless kiss 
 
TRANSFIGURATION. 301 
 
 To hearts too soon, too often, and too late 
 
 By love set beating : and from age to age, 
 
 As in its last descendants live, tho' changed, 
 
 The ancestral features of a high-born race, 
 
 Lays, that without it had not been, shall still, 
 
 Even tho' unconscious of their ancestry, 
 
 Renew the living echoes of that song. 
 
 Mekon," the god exclaim'd, " awake ! arise ! 
 
 J Tis Phantasos that calls thee." And the flower Enter 
 
 King 
 Poppy. 
 
 Rose slowly, slowly, on its slender stem, 
 Whose root had reach'd into the maiden's heart. 
 Between the crimson petals, that unclosed 
 Above it with a husht enraptured thrill, 
 Peep'd a small face, beaming beatitude. 
 Crown'd was the forehead with a golden crown, 
 Soft the flusht cheek with slumber's softest bloom 
 Tender, and still, and starry the deep eyes, 
 As spheres of summer midnight, and the lips 
 Sweet with the smiles of satisfying dreams. 
 
302 KING POPPY. 
 
 " Phantasos, I have heard thee, and am here ! 
 
 What wilt thou ? " But in silent ecstasy 
 
 The god, on that crown'd flower-face gazing, felt 
 
 What never god had felt before, the trance 
 
 Of adoration. " Wild enchantresses, 
 
 Whose thaumaturgic revels oft," he cried, 
 
 " Thro' Thessaly's witch woods of old I led, 
 
 Not all the stars your midnight rites enslaved, 
 
 Nor all your metamorphic philtres brew'd 
 
 From herbs moon-soak'd on Hecate's altars no, 
 
 Nor Circe's sorceries, nor Medea's spells, 
 
 Have ever such transfiguration wrought ! 
 
 Rejoice, Persephone, whose favourite here 
 
 Hath found his kingdom, and his throne assumed ! 
 
 And thou, King Poppy, robed and crown'd at last, 
 
 Preserve still pure, and still benign dispense, 
 
 The riches of thy visionary realm ! 
 
 So, when all other kings are kingdomless, 
 
 Shalt thou still flourish, and to thee the Sons 
 
TRANSFIGURATION. 303 
 
 Of Brutus even shall bow down their heads, 
 Hailing thy presence, honouring thy power, 
 
 Exit 
 
 And blessing thy beneficence. Farewell ! " 
 
 He hath them now, the purple and the gold, The do- 
 
 minions 
 
 Hath all he dream'd of, all his heart's desire ! Poppy? 
 
 And what the great all-giving gods denied, 
 
 Two dreaming children gave him. For that gift 
 
 To children and to dreamers kind is he. 
 
 But in his kingdom all are dreamers, all 
 
 Are children ; even the busy, even the old. 
 
 There, where the kingly diadem glows and galls, 
 
 There, where the hot blood leaps, and beats, and 
 
 burns, 
 
 There, in the teeming brain, the burden'd brow, 
 The throbbing veins, the quick unquiet heart, 
 He wields his sceptre, and asserts his power. 
 But have you met him by the wayside bank, 
 Reposing, where the russet wheatfield waves, 
 
304 KING POPPY. 
 
 Among the cornflowers and the vagrant vetch ? 
 Or have you seen him where the stubble stands 
 Bristling with spikes the clodded marl, else bare, 
 And the quail couches and the rear-mice flit 
 In the hard furrow, d.nd the lark's nest lurks ? 
 Why, earthward bow'd, so heavy hangs his head ? 
 
 His pre- Q brave King Poppy, kingly cares hast thou, 
 
 occupa- 
 tions, 
 
 For kingly cares all kingly power begets ! 
 And art thou musing on the multitudes 
 Of weary and yet still impatient souls 
 That be thy subjects ? Sighest thou to thyself, 
 " How can I ever satisfy them all ? 
 Immeasurable are their wants, and yet 
 More even than they want do they desire, 
 And all that they desire, of me they crave ! " 
 His But thou, King Poppy, thou, and thou alone, 
 
 powers 
 and his 
 
 gifts. For all men canst do all things, and to each 
 Thy gifts are given with an abundant hand. 
 
TRANSFIGURATION. 305 
 
 Great rectifier of the wrongs o' the world, 
 
 Lord of the rock, the spindle, and the shears, 
 
 Subservient to whose mute command the Three 
 
 Grey Sisters spin life's faded threads afresh, 
 
 Or from its tangled skein the knots untie ! 
 
 Prophet of triumph, who for those that fail 
 
 Dost find unfailing solace in defeat ! 
 
 Brightener and beautifier of dark hours, 
 
 Who to the fallen and forsaken art 
 
 Faithful, and to the unloved loving still ! 
 
 Even when the Spectre of To-morrow peers 
 
 In at the casement, o'er the sleeper stoops, 
 
 And mutters, " Rouse thee, wretch ! arise ! go forth ! 
 
 Begin again to suffer and to toil ! " 
 
 Departing with a whispei j d benison, thou 
 
 Dost leave behind thee one last golden gift. 
 
 " Take this, poor soul, and keep it ! Thine it is," 
 
 Thou whisperest. " Show it not, nor speak of it, 
 
 'Tis for thee only. It is all that's left 
 
306 KING POPPY. 
 
 Still living of thy last delightful dream, 
 A lingering memory of it that will last 
 To sweeten the sad time till I return." 
 
 Ave im- o mightiest of monarchs. and most mild, 
 
 perator ! 
 
 Whose kingdom is the fairest upon earth, 
 The fairest, and the freest ! Reign for ever, 
 Fate's master, yet man's ministering friend ! 
 Guide of stray'd Love's lone footsteps to the goal 
 
 / knew 
 
 you That, lost on earth, is in thy realm recovered ! 
 
 must be 
 edified 
 
 by the Feaster of famisht hearts, rebuilder bright 
 
 magnet 
 
 had Of ruin'd fortunes, pain's victorious foe, 
 
 done. 
 
 RATIO. Griefs comforter, Joy's guardian, good King Poppy ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. 
 Edinburgh and London 
 
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