 | Silenus |  |
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BOOK II.
From Indian heat where silent noons ablazeDwarf men's dark shadows on the smouldering earth,
And burn each aspect to the hue of shade,
With Dionysus great Silenus came,
Full of the starry light he knew would beam
In rosy lustre from her countenance
When he rejoicing should his Syrinx meet
And babble wonders to her wondering ears.
But when he heard how many a time the flowers
Had bloomed and faded since his Love was seen;
And found no tongue to syllable a word;
No trace or sign whereby her lonely fate
Might be pursued, he wandered wearily;
While gloom came over him like darkening clouds
When gathered into storm they blot the day.
Had bloomed and faded since his Love was seen;
And found no tongue to syllable a word;
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Might be pursued, he wandered wearily;
While gloom came over him like darkening clouds
When gathered into storm they blot the day.
“None breathed,” he mused, “whose cruelty would harm
A nymph so tuned responsive to delight!
And had she been by bear or wolf devoured,
Some ravelled scrap of raiment had been left,
Caught in a thorn or blown against the sedge;
Something had told a tale or pointed clue!”
A nymph so tuned responsive to delight!
And had she been by bear or wolf devoured,
Some ravelled scrap of raiment had been left,
Caught in a thorn or blown against the sedge;
Something had told a tale or pointed clue!”
Conjecture, weary, faltered in the trail;
And could not picture Syrinx sunk and drowned
In water native to her limbs as heaven's
Translucent azure to the flight of birds.
But never more was Syrinx seen of nymph,
And could not picture Syrinx sunk and drowned
In water native to her limbs as heaven's
Translucent azure to the flight of birds.
Or mortal maid, or shepherd, as he loosed
His bleating charges from the trampled fold.
No longer from a lifted rock her voice
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While timid creatures sidling crept anear.
Never more she with sprightly sister nymph
Glode in the river, diving swiftly down
To seize on twinkling fins of fish affright,
Or from the surface flashed in lovely gleams.
The deer she loved at wonted places stood,
Waiting, expectant, for her hand's caress;
And all who knew her looks and gentle ways
Lacked some contentment common to the day.
Followed by forest shades that grew apace,
Silenus, moving by the shining stream
Listless, awoke to music, piercing, strange,
Melodious wailing pitiful, that smote
His heart to sorrowing for Syrinx lost.
And coming near the sound, he saw where Pan
Half lost in reeds, sat by the water's edge,
Blowing pipes fastened side by side, in length
Beyond a human span.
Silenus, moving by the shining stream
Listless, awoke to music, piercing, strange,
Melodious wailing pitiful, that smote
His heart to sorrowing for Syrinx lost.
And coming near the sound, he saw where Pan
Half lost in reeds, sat by the water's edge,
Blowing pipes fastened side by side, in length
Beyond a human span.
So rapt was Pan
In those wild notes he gave the listening wind,
Silenus stood unmarked by him awhile;
But when their glances met, Pan, as if caught
In crime, upstarting, stretched his arms and fled.
“Why flies he thus?” Silenus mused. “What meant
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Silenus stood unmarked by him awhile;
But when their glances met, Pan, as if caught
In crime, upstarting, stretched his arms and fled.
That guilty cringe, and glittering in his eyes?
Why should his music smite this heart with pain
For my lost Syrinx? Syrinx loved him not.
Alas, how vain is thought! Where may I find
The voice to tell me where is Syrinx gone?”
While sighing thus, the reeds before him sighed,
Swaying in easy motion to and fro,
And every tongue told something to the breeze.
“Ah, lovely reed!” he moaned; “thy grace accords
With my beloved Syrinx when she lived;
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I must away; away. Too much, too well,
Thou tellest me of grace for ever fled!”
Then as he left, the long leaves sighed forlorn,
“Silenus, O Silenus! wherefore leave
Thy Syrinx, as thou didst in times agone?”
He turned again. Sitting beside the reeds
He saw a tremble shivering thro' their leaves,
And every leaf became a tongue that talked
In multitudinous whispering. He strove,
But could not understand; and sat, hands clasped,
Agaze and hopeless.
Darkness hugged the land,
And both together slumbered deep in peace,
Save where great Artemis, kissing the cliffs,
Beamed smiles along the river, whose response
Quivered in laughter-light from every reach,
Till hidden by soft winding far away.
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Why should it burn his memory with pain?
And why should music of these river-stems
So sadly wail to him of Syrinx gone?
Alas, he knew not, and must waive the cause;
When, as the moonlight suddenly went out,
A flash within revealed the dreadful tale!
Syrinx he saw hard chased by nimble Pan,
And flushed with terror, his devoted nymph,
Plucked at by demon claws, plunge in the stream
And her young spirit pass into the reeds
That now were whispering her sad well-away.
Taking them in his lonely arms he sighed,
“O loveliest of the loved, is this now all
Left of thee, once so pure and beautiful?
Must thou be now frail debtor to the wind
For voice to tell me thy dark sorrowing?
I sitting by thee with no power to soothe.
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Should live my life, and never taste of love
Till thine came on me like the risen sun
After a dreaming night. And then awake,
The great round glory shining on me full,
That I should turn and leave to fickle chance
This new delightful kingdom where I reigned;
Straightway invaded by remorseless Pan!
“'Twere idle waste to raise a feeble arm
Against the measure of eternal doom.
But must he free, and safe, and scathless go?
And must I live, for ever in my gaze
His grinning goatish leer, and unavenged?
Nay, I will front the thief. My spear! my spear!
Farewell, my Syrinx; one more last farewell.”
Then lifting up his weighty spear, whereby
Had fallen lions and striped tigers fierce,
And wide-horned monsters with dark eyes of fire,
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With noses used as hands, and legs like trees
In girth, Silenus left the river-side
And slowly paced into the forest gloom.
| Silenus | |