The Poetical Works of Andrew Lang :: :: University of Virginia Library

Come with us, ye whose hearts are set
On this, the present to forget;
Come read the things whereof ye know
They were not, and could not be so!
The murmur of the fallen creeds,
Like winds among wind-shaken reeds
Along the banks of holy Nile,
Shall echo in your ears the while;
The fables of the north and south
Shall mingle in a modern mouth;
The fancies of the west and east
Shall flock and flit about the feast
Like doves that cooled, with waving wing,
The banquets of the Cyprian king.
Old shapes of song that do not die
Shall haunt the halls of memory,
And though the Bow shall prelude clear
Shrill as the song of Gunnar's spear,
There answer sobs from lute and lyre
That murmured of The World's Desire.

208

There lives no man but he hath seen
The World's Desire, the fairy queen.
None but hath seen her to his cost,
Not one but loves what he has lost.
None is there but hath heard her sing
Divinely through his wandering;
Not one but he hath followed far
The portent of the Bleeding Star;
Not one but he hath chanced to wake,
Dreamed of the Star and found the Snake.
Yet, through his dreams—a wandering fire,
Still, still she flits, The World's Desire!

209

The Song of the Bow

Keen and low
Doth the arrow sing
The Song of the Bow,
The sound of the string.
The shafts cry shrill:
Let us forth again,
Let us feed our fill
On the flesh of men.
Greedy and fleet
Do we fly from far,
Like the birds that meet
For the feast of war,
Till the air of fight
With our wings be stirred,
As it whirrs from the flight
Of the ravening bird.
Like the flakes that drift
On the snow-wind's breath,
Many and swift,
And winged for death—

210

Greedy and fleet,
Do we speed from far,
Like the birds that meet
On the bridge of war.
Fleet as ghosts that wail,
When the dart strikes true,
Do the swift shafts hail,
Till they drink warm dew.
Keen and low
Do the gray shafts sing
The Song of the Bow,
The sound of the string.

Lo! the hour is nigh
And the time to smite,
When the foe shall fly
From the arrow's flight!
Let the bronze bite deep!
Let the war-birds fly
Upon them that sleep
And are ripe to die!
Shrill and low
Do the gray shafts sing
The Song of the Bow,
The sound of the string.

211

‘Though the light of the sun be bidden’

Though the light of the sun be hidden,
Though his race be run;
Though we sail in a sea forbidden
To the golden sun;
Though we wander alone, unknowing—
Oh, heart of mine—
The path of the strange sea-going,
On the blood-red brine;
Yet endure! We shall not be shaken
By things worse than these;
We have 'scaped, when our friends were taken,
On the unsailed seas;
Worse deaths have we faced and fled from,
In the Cyclops' den,
When the floor of his cave ran red from
The blood of men;
Worse griefs we have known undaunted,
Worse fates have fled;
When the Isle that our long love haunted
Lay waste and dead!

212

‘The Lord our God’

The Lord our God He doth sign and wonder,
Tokens He shows in the land of Khem,
He hath shattered the pride of the kings asunder
And casteth His shoe o'er the gods of them!
He hath brought forth frogs in their holy places,
He hath sprinkled the dust upon crown and hem,
He hath hated their kings and hath darkened their faces;
Wonders He works in the land of Khem.

213

A lamp for our feet

A Lamp for our feet the Lord hath litten,
Signs hath He shown in the land of Khem.
The kings of the nations our Lord hath smitten,
His shoe hath He cast o'er the gods of them.
He hath made Him a mock of the heifer of Isis,
He hath broken the chariot reins of Ra,
On Yakûb He cries, and His folk arises,
And the knees of the nations are loosed in awe.

He gives us their goods for a spoil to gather,
Jewels of silver, and vessels of gold;
For Yahveh of old is our Friend and Father,
And cherisheth Yakûb He chose of old.
The gods of the peoples our Lord hath chidden,
Their courts hath He filled with His creeping things;
The light of the face of the sun He hath hidden,
And broken the scourge in the hands of kings.

214

He hath chastened His people with stripes and scourges,
Our backs hath He burdened with grievous weights,
But His children shall rise as a sea that surges,
And flood the fields of the men He hates.
The kings of the nations our Lord hath smitten,
His shoe hath He cast o'er the Gods of them,
But a lamp for our feet the Lord hath litten,
Wonders hath wrought in the land of Khem.

215

Lost Love

Who wins his love shall lose her,
Who loses her shall gain,
For still the spirit woos her,
A soul without a stain;
And memory still pursues her
With longings not in vain!

He loses her who gains her,
Who watches day by day
The dust of time that stains her,
The griefs that leave her gray—
The flesh that yet enchains her
Whose grace hath passed away!

Oh, happier he who gains not
The love some seem to gain;

216

The joy that custom stains not
Shall still with him remain;
The loveliness that wanes not,
The love that ne'er can wane.

In dreams she grows not older
The lands of dream among;
Though all the world wax colder,
Though all the songs be sung,
In dreams doth he behold her
Still fair and kind and young.

217

‘Endure my Heart’

‘Endure, my heart: not long shalt thou endure
The shame, the smart;
The good and ill are done; the end is sure;
Endure, my heart!
There stand two vessels by the golden throne
Of Zeus on high;
From these he scatters mirth and scatters moan,
To men that die.
And thou of many joys hast had thy share,
Thy perfect part;
Battle and love, and evil things and fair;
Endure, my heart!

Fight one last greatest battle under shield,
Wage that war well:
Then seek thy fellows in the shadowy field
Of asphodel;

218

There is the knightly Hector; there the men
Who fought for Troy;
Shall we not fight our battles o'er again?
Were that not joy?
Though no sun shines beyond the dusky west,
Thy perfect part
There shalt thou have of the unbroken rest;
Endure, my heart!’

219

‘O Joy of love's renewing’

Ojoy of love's renewing,
Could love be born again;
Relenting for thy rueing,
And pitying my pain:
O joy of love's awaking,
Could love arise from sleep,
Forgiving our forsaking
The fields we would not reap!

Fleet, fleet we fly, pursuing
The love that fled amain,
But will he list our wooing,
Or call we but in vain?
Ah! vain is all our wooing,
And all our prayers are vain,
Love listeth not our suing,
Love will not wake again.

220

‘Will ye bring Flame’

‘Will ye bring flame to burn my shrine
Who am myself a flame?
Bring death to tame this charm of mine
That death can never tame?
Will ye bring fire to harm my head
Who am myself a fire?
Bring vengeance for your lovers dead
Upon the World's Desire?

Nay, women while the earth endures,
Your loves are not your own.
They love you not, these loves of yours,
Helen they love alone!
My face they seek in every face,
Mine eyes in yours they see,
They do but kneel to you a space,
And rise and follow me!’

221

Palinode

Thou that of old didst blind Stesichorus,
If e'er, sweet Helen, such a thing befell;
We pray thee of thy grace, be good to us,
Though little in our tale accordeth well
With that thine ancient minstrel had to tell,
Who saw, with sightless eyes grown luminous,
These Ilian sorrows, and who heard the swell
Of ocean round the world ring thunderous,
And thy voice break when knightly Hector fell!

And thou who all these many years hast borne
To see the great webs of thy weaving torn
By puny hands of dull, o'er-learned men,
Homer, forgive us that thy hero's star
Once more above sea waves and waves of war,
Must rise, must triumph, and must set again!

222

FROM ‘CLEOPATRA’

Lament for Osiris

‘Sing we Osiris dead,
Lament the fallen head:
The light has left the world, the world is gray.
Athwart the starry skies
The web of darkness flies,
And Isis weeps Osiris passed away.
Your tears, ye stars, ye fires, ye rivers, shed,
Weep, children of the Nile, weep for your lord is dead!’

‘Softly we tread, our measured footsteps falling
Within the sanctuary sevenfold;
Soft on the dead that liveth are we calling:
“Return, Osiris, from thy Kingdom cold!
Return to them that worship thee of old.”’

‘Within the court divine
The sevenfold sacred shrine
We pass, while echoes of the temple walls

223

Repeat the long lament
The sound of sorrow sent
Far up within the imperishable halls,
Where, each in other's arms, the sisters weep,
Isis and Nephthys, o'er his unawaking sleep.’

‘Softly we tread, our measured footsteps falling
Within the sanctuary sevenfold;
Soft on the dead that liveth are we calling:
“Return, Osiris, from thy kingdom cold!
Return to them that worship thee of old.”’

‘O dweller in the west,
Lover and lordliest,
Thy love, thy sister Isis, calls thee home!
Come from thy chamber dun
Thou master of the sun,
Thy shadowy chamber far below the foam!
With weary wings and spent
Through all the firmament,
Through all the horror-haunted ways of hell,
I seek thee near and far,
From star to wandering star,
Free with the dead that in Amenti dwell.
I search the height, the deep, the lands, the skies,
Rise from the dead and live, our lord Osiris, rise!’

224

225

The Awaking of Osiris

‘He wakes—from forth the prison
We sing Osiris risen,
We sing the child that Nout conceived and bare.
Thine own love, Isis, waits
The Warden of the gates,
She breathes the breath of life on breast and hair.
And in her breast and breath
Behold! he wakeneth,
Behold! at length he riseth out of rest;
Touched with her holy hands,
The lord of all the lands,
He stirs, he rises from her breath, her breast!
But thou, fell Typhon, fly,
The judgment day drawn nigh,
Fleet on thy track as flame speeds Horus from the sky.’

226

‘Sing we the trinity,
Sing we the holy three,
Sing we, and praise we and worship the throne;
Throne that our lord hath set—
There peace and truth are met
There in the Halls of the Holy alone!
There in the shadowings
Faint of the folded wings,

‘There shall we dwell and rejoice in our rest;
We that thy servants are!
Horus drive ill afar!
Far in the folds of the dark of the west!’

‘Osiris our hope! Osiris! Osiris!’

227

‘Night on the Sea’

‘Night on the sea, and night upon the sky,
And music in our hearts, we floated there,
Lulled by the low sea voices, thou and I,
And the wind's kisses in my cloudy hair:
And thou didst gaze on me and call me fair
Enfolded by the starry robe of night;—
And then thy singing thrilled upon the air,
Voice of the heart's desire and love's delight.’

‘Adrift, with starlit skies above,
With starlit seas below,
We move with all the suns that move,
With all the seas that flow;
For bond or free, earth, sky, and sea,
Wheel with one circling will;
And thy heart drifteth on to me,
And only time stands still.

228

‘Between two shores of death we drift,
Behind are things forgot:
Before the tide is driving swift
To lands beholden not.
Above, the sky is far and cold;
Below, the moaning sea
Sweeps o'er the loves that were of old,
But, oh, love! kiss thou me.

‘Ah, lonely are the ocean ways,
And dangerous the deep;
And frail the fairy barque that strays
Above the seas asleep!
Ah, toil no more at sail nor oar,
We drift, or bond or free;
On yon far shore the breakers roar,
But, oh, love! kiss thou me.

‘And ever as thou sangest I drew near,
Then sudden silence heard our hearts that beat;
For now there was an end of doubt and fear,
Now passion filled my soul and led my feet;
Then silent didst thou rise thy love to meet,
Who, sinking on thy breast, knew naught but thee,
And in the happy night I kissed thee, sweet;
Ah, sweet! between the starlight and the sea.’