 | Faustus : The Second Part |  |
218
Sirens
(on the rocks).
What a lovely ring of cloudlets
Round the moon, in halo bright!
Doves, whom burning love enkindles—
Radiant dove-wings pure as light—
Birds, that Love enflames—'tis Paphos
Sends them on this festal night.
Now the Auguries are perfect.
Think we now but of delight!
Nereus
(stepping to Thales).
Gazing on the cloudlets fair,
A wanderer by night
Might easily believe they were
Meteors that mocked the sight—
Illusions of the air;
But We—that Spirits are—but we,
That in the spirit all things see,
We know well that such conclusion
Would indeed be a delusion.
Cytherea's Doves they are
219
Follow now my daughter's car.
In the old day it was thus.
Thales.
To the view that you suggest
I would yield with no misgiving,
If, within the calm warm nest,
Something holy still were living,
And had there its place of rest.
Pselli and Marsi
(on sea-bulls, sea-calves, and rams).
In the rocky caves of Cyprus—
Never by the god of Ocean
Shaken, never by the dread
Spasms of Seismos visited—
We, as in the days of old,
In calm of heart—in joy that hath no voice
To speak its conscious rapture—we rejoice
To guard the Car of Cypris. Our delight
Is, in the murmuring hours of the soft night,
O'er lustrous billows, tremulously heaving,
In whispers low their lovely network weaving,
The pearly Chariot from its secret grot
To bear in triumph over the glad water;
And, all unseen of men who know her not,
Still worship Beauty in her loveliest daughter.
We, our gentle task pursuing,
Care not what the world is doing.
Let the Eagle's plumeless pinion,
Or Winged Lion, claim dominion:
Be it Cross, or be it Crescent,
With alternate victory.
For their battle-field incessant,
Tears and triumphs, what care we?
Never by the god of Ocean
Shaken, never by the dread
Spasms of Seismos visited—
We, as in the days of old,
In calm of heart—in joy that hath no voice
To speak its conscious rapture—we rejoice
To guard the Car of Cypris. Our delight
Is, in the murmuring hours of the soft night,
O'er lustrous billows, tremulously heaving,
In whispers low their lovely network weaving,
The pearly Chariot from its secret grot
To bear in triumph over the glad water;
And, all unseen of men who know her not,
Still worship Beauty in her loveliest daughter.
220
Care not what the world is doing.
Let the Eagle's plumeless pinion,
Or Winged Lion, claim dominion:
Be it Cross, or be it Crescent,
With alternate victory.
For their battle-field incessant,
Tears and triumphs, what care we?
While they do their work of ruin
Devastating, without pity,
Harvest-field, and storming city,
We, our gentle task pursuing,
On her moonlight path serene
With us bring our lovely queen.
Devastating, without pity,
Harvest-field, and storming city,
We, our gentle task pursuing,
On her moonlight path serene
With us bring our lovely queen.
Sirens.
Gently move, with measured speed,
Round the chariot, ring in ring:
Then flow on, a twofold line,
Side by side, and intertwine
In your windings serpentine!
Round the chariot, ring in ring:
Then flow on, a twofold line,
Side by side, and intertwine
In your windings serpentine!
Nereidés, come ye!
Wild women of the sea,
Built in robustest mould,
Free, vigorous, and bold,
With joyous gambolling.
Tumultuous jubilee
Of Nature's savage glee!
Come, gentle Dorides!
Of forms more delicate,
Whom joy doth not elate,
To Galatea bring
In every sister face
Features, in which we trace
The Mother of the race—
A more than earthly, more than heavenly grace.
The god-like earnestness of mien—flower of immortal birth—
The winningness, the smile serene, of daughters of the earth.
Wild women of the sea,
Built in robustest mould,
Free, vigorous, and bold,
With joyous gambolling.
Tumultuous jubilee
Of Nature's savage glee!
221
Of forms more delicate,
Whom joy doth not elate,
To Galatea bring
In every sister face
Features, in which we trace
The Mother of the race—
A more than earthly, more than heavenly grace.
The god-like earnestness of mien—flower of immortal birth—
The winningness, the smile serene, of daughters of the earth.
Dorides
(passing Nereus, on dolphins).
Lend us, Luna, light and shadows! Let thy tender radiance all
—We, the while, in shade half-hidden—on these human blossoms fall.
They are ours! to our fond father we would show each chosen youth.
(To Nereus.)
They are ours, whom we have rescued from the tempest's savage tooth.
Them on moss and softest seaweed, warming to new life, we laid.
Warmed to life, with burning kisses they our tender cares repaid.
222
Look on them with love and pity!
Nereus.
A twofold gain you find in this employment—
Compassion for distress, and self-enjoyment.
Dorides.
Father! if we find favour in thy sight—
If thou dost sympathise in our delight—
Oh! to these dear ones give
For ever thus to live:
Young heart to heart replying
Love endless, love undying!
Nereus.
You've caught them—keep them. Aye! hold while you can
Your glittering prey, and mould the youths to man.
But as to Immortality—
Zeus has the gift of it—not I.
The waves, you rock on, still must move:
Their restlessness knows nothing of
This fancy of abiding love.
Let the dream play its moment and
Forget it; and with gentle hand
Lay the youths tenderly on land.
223
Dearest youths! we love you well.
You and we, alas! must sever.
Oh! that love could last for ever!
But the gods the prayer repel!
The Youths.
Love us, love us still! More pleasant
Fortune never can befall
Sailor-lads, to whom the Present,
Evermore is all in all.
[Galatea is now seen approaching on her Car of shell.
Nereus.
'Tis thou, my love.
Galatea.
What rapture! father, dear!
Linger, ye dolphins! the glance holds me here.
[The Car moves on rapidly.
Nereus.
Already! what so far away already?
Onward and onward wheeling by, in swift and sparkling eddy?
For the Heart's inner beatings, what care they?
Oh! had they ta'en me with them! Yet the sight,
A moment's lustre as it speeds away,
Will make the whole year bright.
224
(exultingly and with solemnity).
Hail! hail! again all hail! Life blooms anew.
My spirit is pierced through
By the Beautiful, the True.
In Water all hath had its primal source;
And Water still keeps all things in their course.
Ocean, still round us let thy billows proud
Roll in their strength—still send up mist and cloud.
If the rich rivers thou didst cease to spread—
If floods no more were from thy bounty fed—
And the thin brooklet died in its dry bed—
Where then were mountains—valleys? Where would be
The world itself? Oh! thou dost still, great Sea,
Sustain alone the fresh life of all things.
Echo
(chorus of the collective circles).
From Thee! from Thee! that fresh life still outsprings.
Nereus.
Rocked on the waves, the gay procession bends
Circle in circle—chain in chain extends.
Such is the ordered festival. No chance
Again of greeting smile, or glance encountering glance.
Back winds the innumerable company;
But Galatea's shell-throne still I see,
225
The Loved, 'mong thousands, still is seen afar—
And seen, however far, shines bright and clear:
Is no illusion—still is true—is near.
Homunculus.
In the calm moisture all on which my light
Cast its strong beam is exquisitely fair.
Proteus.
Life's moisture 'tis that makes the lamplet bright,
And 'twill chime proudly in Life's ambient air.
Nereus.
What are we next to see? A something shines
Far, far away among the seaward lines:
Round Galatea's feet Flames pant and play—
Now in strong blaze, now languishing away—
As if the throbbings were the throbbings of
The wildly agitated pulse of Love.
Thales.
It is Homunculus. It must be he.
Proteus, no doubt, has tempted him to sea.
This comes of his ambition; and the end
I venture—'tis no hard task—to portend:
Already do I hear his anguished moan—
He'll dash himself against the sparkling throne.
Aye—as I said—there goes he—spilled about—
Flame flashing thick and fast—all gushing out!
226
What fiery wonder spreading o'er the sea
Clothes it with such surpassing brilliancy?
Billows on billows dash with lightning flash.
Bodies, that through the ocean move to-night,
Move ringed with fire, and in a path of light.
Everywhere fire! Hail, Eros! hail! With thee
The world began: oh! still its ruler be!
Clothes it with such surpassing brilliancy?
Billows on billows dash with lightning flash.
Bodies, that through the ocean move to-night,
Move ringed with fire, and in a path of light.
Everywhere fire! Hail, Eros! hail! With thee
The world began: oh! still its ruler be!
Hail! O Sea! All hail, ye bright
Billows fringed with holy light!
Fire, all hail! Hail, Ocean range!
Hail! all hail! Adventure strange!
Billows fringed with holy light!
Fire, all hail! Hail, Ocean range!
Hail! all hail! Adventure strange!
All.
Air, with all thy breezy waves,
Hail! Hail, Earth's mysterious caves!
Honour now and evermore
To the Elemental Four.
| Faustus : The Second Part | |