 | Golden Histories, etc |  |
But lo! what fair sweet Sorrow comes this way?
What phantom pale of deadly loveliness,
Parting the thick boughs of the tangled wood,
Walks ankle-deep in moss and primrose leaves?
Misery in human form were not more sad,
And Deity were scarce more beautiful.
Nor right nor left she moves, but noiselessly
Holds on her gliding path to yonder lake,
That gleams like some vast eye. The writhing boughs
Of gnarled trees all blotched with lichens gray,
Drop over it a solid roof of leaves.
Mid rushes tall, furred reeds, and blistering plants,
Stiff with a monstrous and unnatural growth,
Sits Silence, with one finger on her lip,
And there the shapeless family of Night,
Suspicion, Fear, and Solitude abide;
While, round and round in mystic circle rang'd,
Grey trees, the giant fathers of the wood,
Keep endless watch. Still, pale and passionless,
Hang from the branches of the regal oak
Visions that wait on kings, while, calm and fair,
In the tall elms sit dreams that lovers have.
Hither, like one that in unconsciousness,
Yet conscious, moves, she steer'd her darkling way,
And, feeling all the witchery in the air,
Lay down within the ring of mystic trees,
And, lull'd by countless murmurs, fell asleep.
Then a fair Dream in self-obscuring light
Left its green rest, and, folding rainbow wings
Over its cloudy semblance, near her stood,
While thus, a feeble voice, like that which haunts
The breezes when we fear we know not what,
Low whispering came: “I from my forest realms
“By Zeus, who sends all dreams, am sent to thee
“To build up in the aëry world of Sleep
“Thy Past and thy To-come.” The Dreamer look'd
And saw a strange fair world, a world like ours,
But wrought of frailer elements, where moved
Such shapes as men half think that they have seen,
Yet know not when, nor where, nor what they are.
She gazed, till fairer far than Day, appeared
One like Apollo when, on Delos Isle,
Self-risen on the breast of the great sea,
He leapt to light and glorified the earth,
And glorified the ocean and the air.
Near, and half fronting this resplendent Form,
Clothed in soft lights, one like the Evening stood.
Not Beauty's self more lovely, when alone,
She woke the royal Shepherd in his tent,
And brightened all the murmuring summer air,
That flowed round fountained Ida night and day.
One look, one smile, one short, swift, sobbing cry,
One clasping of fair arms round necks as fair,
When lo! the vision darkened suddenly,
And on the level shore of their delight
Broke, like a wave, a cold imperious voice:
“O waste not thou in love-dreams (thus it cried)
“Hours that belong to the majestic gods,
“But leave the lovely maiden of thy thoughts,
“And with heroic deeds enrich the world.”
Even as it spake o'er Ariadne crept
A sudden shiver, such as in broad noon,
When summer days are longest, visits men,
As some cold hand had touched them unawares.
But now appeared a stately ship afloat,
And Fancy heard the shouts of answering men,
The whistle and the cry of mariners,
With splash of wave and strain of creaking mast,
And noise of fluttering sails and coiling ropes.
She saw the oars uplifted; she beheld
One like a king ascend the vessel's side;
She heard him speak, she saw him raise his hand,
She knew he gave the signal to depart.
Then, as the white waves flashed around the keel,
A paler image than herself appeared,
That, like herself, where sea and water met,
Gazed, as the vessel dwarfed her snowy wings,
Until it passed beyond the utmost star
Which the sea touches, running round the sky.
Again the dream was changed, and lo! a shape,
Like what we deem of God or Genius, came,
Apparelled with the thousand shifting lights
Of rainbow clouds that gleam along the west
When the dead sun droops his resplendent head
And falls all fire into the burning waves.
He knelt, and leaning o'er her as he knelt
Whispered her name. She did but lift her eyes,
And, as a cloud all pale and colourless
Is touched by the gold fingers of the Morn,
And smiles for that fresh gladness, so her face,
Faded and wan before, now brightened fast,
And flushed with a new daybreak of delight,
And from the dreamer's parted lips there went
A murmuring cry, and the glad echo ran
Trembling thro' all the airy caves of Sleep,
Till her eyes saw the light. She rose, she stood,
And fixed as by some strong enchanter's spell,
Gazed down the glimmering length of woven boughs
That arch on arch, thro' all the emerald aisle,
Wavered and floated like a fairy bridge,
That woos to far-off amber palaces
Beyond the sunset. Fountains, trees, and flowers,
With all the mighty depth of forest shade,
Transfigured shone; low, in the kindling west,
The sun was setting, and the sylvan floor,
Where lights and shadows crossed and intercrossed,
Lay like the fields Elysian, and the air
Was haunted with the breath of vernal flowers,
And the blind joy that hides within the breeze
When lilac blossoms fall; while, more remote,
The ocean murmured, like a thousand shells,
That at the feast of Gods, in sapphire halls
At twilight seen beneath the glassy sea,
Harmonious play and calm the smiling waves.
What phantom pale of deadly loveliness,
Parting the thick boughs of the tangled wood,
Walks ankle-deep in moss and primrose leaves?
Misery in human form were not more sad,
And Deity were scarce more beautiful.
Nor right nor left she moves, but noiselessly
Holds on her gliding path to yonder lake,
That gleams like some vast eye. The writhing boughs
Of gnarled trees all blotched with lichens gray,
Drop over it a solid roof of leaves.
Mid rushes tall, furred reeds, and blistering plants,
Stiff with a monstrous and unnatural growth,
Sits Silence, with one finger on her lip,
And there the shapeless family of Night,
Suspicion, Fear, and Solitude abide;
While, round and round in mystic circle rang'd,
Grey trees, the giant fathers of the wood,
Keep endless watch. Still, pale and passionless,
24
Visions that wait on kings, while, calm and fair,
In the tall elms sit dreams that lovers have.
Hither, like one that in unconsciousness,
Yet conscious, moves, she steer'd her darkling way,
And, feeling all the witchery in the air,
Lay down within the ring of mystic trees,
And, lull'd by countless murmurs, fell asleep.
Then a fair Dream in self-obscuring light
Left its green rest, and, folding rainbow wings
Over its cloudy semblance, near her stood,
While thus, a feeble voice, like that which haunts
The breezes when we fear we know not what,
Low whispering came: “I from my forest realms
“By Zeus, who sends all dreams, am sent to thee
“To build up in the aëry world of Sleep
“Thy Past and thy To-come.” The Dreamer look'd
And saw a strange fair world, a world like ours,
But wrought of frailer elements, where moved
Such shapes as men half think that they have seen,
Yet know not when, nor where, nor what they are.
She gazed, till fairer far than Day, appeared
One like Apollo when, on Delos Isle,
Self-risen on the breast of the great sea,
He leapt to light and glorified the earth,
And glorified the ocean and the air.
Near, and half fronting this resplendent Form,
Clothed in soft lights, one like the Evening stood.
Not Beauty's self more lovely, when alone,
She woke the royal Shepherd in his tent,
25
That flowed round fountained Ida night and day.
One look, one smile, one short, swift, sobbing cry,
One clasping of fair arms round necks as fair,
When lo! the vision darkened suddenly,
And on the level shore of their delight
Broke, like a wave, a cold imperious voice:
“O waste not thou in love-dreams (thus it cried)
“Hours that belong to the majestic gods,
“But leave the lovely maiden of thy thoughts,
“And with heroic deeds enrich the world.”
Even as it spake o'er Ariadne crept
A sudden shiver, such as in broad noon,
When summer days are longest, visits men,
As some cold hand had touched them unawares.
But now appeared a stately ship afloat,
And Fancy heard the shouts of answering men,
The whistle and the cry of mariners,
With splash of wave and strain of creaking mast,
And noise of fluttering sails and coiling ropes.
She saw the oars uplifted; she beheld
One like a king ascend the vessel's side;
She heard him speak, she saw him raise his hand,
She knew he gave the signal to depart.
Then, as the white waves flashed around the keel,
A paler image than herself appeared,
That, like herself, where sea and water met,
Gazed, as the vessel dwarfed her snowy wings,
Until it passed beyond the utmost star
Which the sea touches, running round the sky.
26
Like what we deem of God or Genius, came,
Apparelled with the thousand shifting lights
Of rainbow clouds that gleam along the west
When the dead sun droops his resplendent head
And falls all fire into the burning waves.
He knelt, and leaning o'er her as he knelt
Whispered her name. She did but lift her eyes,
And, as a cloud all pale and colourless
Is touched by the gold fingers of the Morn,
And smiles for that fresh gladness, so her face,
Faded and wan before, now brightened fast,
And flushed with a new daybreak of delight,
And from the dreamer's parted lips there went
A murmuring cry, and the glad echo ran
Trembling thro' all the airy caves of Sleep,
Till her eyes saw the light. She rose, she stood,
And fixed as by some strong enchanter's spell,
Gazed down the glimmering length of woven boughs
That arch on arch, thro' all the emerald aisle,
Wavered and floated like a fairy bridge,
That woos to far-off amber palaces
Beyond the sunset. Fountains, trees, and flowers,
With all the mighty depth of forest shade,
Transfigured shone; low, in the kindling west,
The sun was setting, and the sylvan floor,
Where lights and shadows crossed and intercrossed,
Lay like the fields Elysian, and the air
Was haunted with the breath of vernal flowers,
And the blind joy that hides within the breeze
27
The ocean murmured, like a thousand shells,
That at the feast of Gods, in sapphire halls
At twilight seen beneath the glassy sea,
Harmonious play and calm the smiling waves.
| Golden Histories, etc | |