 | Forest Songs and Other Poems |  |
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A SYMPOSIUM.
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Over the mountains, over the meadowsDreamily roaming,
Caught by the twilight, I strayed in the Forest
Self-outlawed, alone.
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Deeper the shade grew, deeper the silence;Only the spruces,
Gathering around me, frowning above me,
Gloomily whispered.
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Only, at times, the far voice of the valleyStirred, through the loneness,
Memories of man and his world in my spirit,
Remote as a ghost.
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4
Something exultant, something audaciousSurged in my soul then:
“I am your comrade, ye forests, ye mountains!”
Proudly I sang.
5
Softly the moon grew bright in the heavens;Mounted serenely,
Ambushed she shone, till over the pine-tops
She looked in my face.
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And I was mute—my song ceased; the vast silence,Ebbed for a moment,
Flowing, o'erwhelmed me; then—was it thunder
That scornfully laughed?
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Then was I'ware of a Giant beside me,Tall as a pine-tree,
Towering above me, laughing like thunder,
Scornfully laughing—
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8
Tall as two pine-trees, gloomily laughing!Out of the twilight
Gleamed his great face, hale and red as a Viking's
Bearded with eld.
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Cloud-grey his hood was, spruce-green were his garments,Lordly his presence;
Frostily keen as the stars of mid-winter
Flashed his fierce eyes—
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Fierce, yet a twinkle of savage good-humourBade me take courage.
Boldly I greeted him: “Wotan the wanderer,
Why dost thou laugh?”
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Wordlike the thunder pealed down from his summit:“Thou art our comrade,
Inch of an earth-worm! Call'st thou me Wotan?
Spruce is my name.
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“I am the hoary life of this Forest;I am the spirit
Breathing whose breath, in winterless greenness
Wax mighty these hosts.”
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Crestfallen I stood. In savage good-humour,Down sat the Giant,
Whistled a gnome from a cave in the forest:
“Pipes, lad, and beer!”
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Lo, a new wonder! Back in a twinklingCame the swart Kobold,
Bringing two stone-ware mighty-mouthed flagons
Brimmed with spruce-beer;
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Bringing two pipes with stems like huge branches,Which, in a twinkling,
Deftly he filled with balm of the pine-wood,
Lit with a glow-worm.
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Towering above me rose a tall flagon,Stretching beside me
Lay a huge pipe-stem. “Ho! ho!” laughed the Giant:
“Comrade, your health!”
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Wistfully up the sides of my flagon,Cliff-like above me,
Looked I bewildered. Lo! from a fissure
Gurgled a beer-fall!
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Gurgled a beer-fall, foaming and sparklingDown to the valley.
Gravely I pledged him, out of my hat-brim:
“Comrade, to you!”
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Then from my pipe its exquisite odourBlandly imbibing,
Cross-legged in front of its mouth-piece, I asked him:
“What think you of man?”
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Verily, as though some jest had broke covert—Luring slow laughter
Through his mind's maze to stolidly course it
Half the night long,—
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Holding at poise his flagon uplifted,Blankly my Giant
Stared a long stare, then suddenly thundered
Into huge mirth.
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“Man! Think of man?—that mischievous vermin!Man? By Thor's hammer,
Earth when she spawned so filthy a creature
Must have been mad!
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“All things were good till, crawling and climbing,Rooting and tearing,
Out brake this pest, this itch of creation,
Scabbing Earth's face.
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“Then, when meek Earth, with Brahmin-like patience,Bore with his tickling,
Spared him her nails, save one or two scratches,
Hoped he would mend;
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“Bolder he grew, and fuller of malice,Fuller of mischief;
Over the world he spread like a tetter,
Ugliest of things;
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“Blasted his betters, fought with his fellows,Planted diseases;
Till the World-Spirit, in shame and in loathing,
Vowed he should die:—
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“Vowed he should die; but scorning his slaughterLeft him to slowly
Seethe in his own most virulent venom—
Left him to think;
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“Left him to learn his shame, and despairingWorship despair, till
Orgy on hopeless orgy consumes him
Out of the world.”
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Thus having said, he lapsed into silence,Scornfully smoking;
While his uncultured views of man's nature
I gently assailed;
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Filled his great ears with great words—Evolution,Progress, Art, Culture;
Steeped him in science, statistics, æsthetics,
In sweetness and light;
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Gleaned the best books of all the best authors—Quoted him Darwin,
Quoted him Spencer, Huxley, and Wallace,
Talked prose and talked verse;
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Talked till he dozed, overcome—till his snoringSounded no longer,
Talked till, behold, day dawned, and my Giant—
No Giant was there!
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Then I arose, and down through the ForestWalked in the dawnlight,
Solemnly, slowly, through the grey spruces,
Dimmed with sweet dew;
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Down through the dew-drenched glades, through the meadows,Down to my Gasthof;
Wondering what God could say for man's nature
And place in the world.
| Forest Songs and Other Poems | |