The Collected Works of William Morris :: :: University of Virginia Library

Fair bloomed meanwhile Messenia's hap brought back,
No fortune now the freed land seemed to lack
For a long space; with the Arcadian aid
And a great host of men right well arrayed
Fared Aristomenes to meet again
The gathered might of these most stubborn men,
Whose good heart at the last did fail them now
When ugly omens did their prophets show
Upon the eve of battle; wherefore they

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Made truce until three years should pass away,
And so to rest may all Messenia turn,
And it may be, before long come to learn
How wealth dulls courage.

But this time of peace
Brought little rest to Aristomenes
Who now must turn his eager heart to deal
With daily troubles of the commonweal;
Wherein, God wot, his heart would sicken oft,
So hard it seemed to bear the head aloft
Mid dull recurring waves of faithlessness,
And cruel folly; young he was no less,
Strong-hearted, and as day passed over day
No added weight he on his soul did lay
That he might 'scape; so he lived on his life
With calm heart waiting for the coming strife
Nor ill content that not too swift it came.

There Bion dwelt too greedy after fame,
Splendid of speech, devouring eagerly
Life as it passed lest too young he should die,
Hot-hearted, longing sorely for all praise,
And amorous as the first of April days,
Beloved in turn amid his youth's fresh flower
By many a maid from sweet hour unto hour;
Deeming his friend scarce worser than a God.

And so the days each on the other trod
And months rolled into years: not overwell
The truce was kept, and at the last men fell
To open war ere the three years were o'er,
As though full fain to make peace never more.
Fierce fights there were, and it fell oft enow
That neither side much glory had to show;
Defeats borne up against; sad victories
Where dead men lay as thick as autumn flies
For little gain; treachery, faint-heartedness

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When courage most was needed. And no less
Than in the first flushed days of glorious strife
Was Aristomenes with all hope rife
In outward seeming; and in sooth, the land,
However buffetted on either hand,
Had still a name and place.

More years passed on
And from all people now had Bion won
The good name that he yearned for; brave and kind
He was, and in his presence would men find
Help against hard things; women loved him well.
Of all his happy days 'twere hard to tell
And how sweet life still seemed to him: most men
Would turn a little grave and silent, when
The eyes or speech of Aristomenes
Came 'thwart their life; but unto all of these
Did Bion seem most meet for every need.
Folk feared the Captain now; deemed him indeed
Wise, just, but hard; yea ready it might be
As the years changed, for needful cruelty—
Dark-souled they deemed him: but the other one
Across the dull path of the world had shone
A very light from heaven, so brave and true,
So soft e'en when the worst of folk he knew.
So of all men was Bion well beloved
And many hearts of women had he moved
E'en as I said; yet was it even so
That Aristomenes still failed to know,
Amid his wisdom, one thing strange to tell,
That scarcely ever when his feared glance fell
Upon fair women, did it fail to move
Their inmost hearts with thoughts of a sweet love
That brought no shame with it—and it was true
That children well the heart within him knew
Nor feared him, though no smile should light his face.
Thrice it befell that in some open place
Mid a wild storm he was; then to the knees

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Of this so-dreaded Aristomenes,
Trusting, unchid, the homely children crept
And unscared watched the lightning as it leapt
From heaven to earth, thinking that surely there
No need there was the Godmade threat to fear.

Men deemed it fair that Bion clung so close
To Aristomenes, who yet might lose
The people's love, they said, ere all was told;
So did keen eyes and clear the end behold!