The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan :: :: University of Virginia Library

They led him to a bank with moss inlaid,
Close to the tranquil mirror of the sea,
And thither came pale ocean handmaidens
Singing to lutes of amber and of pearl,
While ‘Love him, love him,’ cried the goddesses,
‘O love him, love him, he is beautiful!’
But Frea lifted up her hand, and cried,
‘Love is not all—swear against all things ill
To watch him and protect him;’—and they cried,
‘We swear! we swear!’ Then bending over him
With bright black eyeballs burning into his,
Pale Rota touched his forehead with her spear,
Crying ‘Live on! No touch of time shall cause
One wrinkle on thy smooth unruffled brow!’
And Eir, low-laughing, held with tender teeth,
Not bruising the fair skin, his naked arm,
And murmur'd, ‘Strength and subtle force be thine,
Drunk from my breath into thy deepest veins.’
And Gefion, with her large, sad, heavenly eyes
Upgazing in his face, and one white hand
Laid softly on his side, cried, ‘As a tree
Be fruitful! Wheresoe'er thou wanderest,
Fruitage go with thee and a thousand flowers!’
But Freya kiss'd him calmly on the brow,
And whisper'd to him lower than the rest,
‘O Balder! my soul's gift is best of all—
They bring thee life, but I have given thee love.’

And Balder sank into a dream. Much joy
Made his sense drowsy, and with happy eyes
He saw that mist of light and loveliness
Enclose him, while he seem'd as one who swims
Among the shallows of an orient sea.
A voice like music woke him, and he saw
Standing before him in light azure robes
A shape that 'midst those others seem'd as dim
And unsubstantial as a summer shade.
Tall was she, and her wondrous sheen of hair
Rain'd downward like the silvern willow's leaves,
And on her mystic raiment blue as heaven
There glimmer'd dewy drops like shining stars.
Pale was she, with the pallor of wan waters
That wash for evermore the cold white feet
Of spectral polar moons; and when she spake,
'Twas low as sea-wash on the starlit sands
And strange and far-away as sounds in sleep.
‘Balder!’ she sigh'd; and like a man who hears,
Upstarting on his bed, some wondrous cry,
Balder upstarted wildly listening.
‘Balder! O brother Balder, whose fair face,
Ere yet I gazed upon it shining here,
I knew thro' dark eternities of dream,

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See what I give thee! see what gentle gift
Thy sister Ydun brings thee; more divine
Than life's sweet breath, or the fair flame of love.’

So saying, from her veilëd breast she drew
Mystical apples like to diamond seeds,
So small to seeming that a score might lie
In the pink hollow of an infant's hand.
Each shone complete and pure as mother-o'-pearl
Touch'd with prismat'c gleams of wondrous light,
And unto each on the scarce visible stem
There clung two perfect little leaves of gold.
This secret fruit the gods and goddesses
For ever feed on, evermore renewed;
And in a garden desolate and dim
Wash'd by the wild green sea of human graves,
Pale Ydun plucks it, and none other may.
‘Eat!’ Ydun murmur'd—‘Balder, eat and live—
This fruit shall slay the lingering taint of Earth
Within thee, and preserve thee all divine.’

Then Balder reaching out his open'd hand
Did take the fruit, and eating of the same,
Which melted on his tongue like flakes of snow,
He felt thro' all his limbs the rapturous thrill
Of some supreme and unfamiliar life.
So leaving all those luminous shapes behind,
He took the hand of Ydun, kissing her
As moonlight kisses dew; and side by side
They wended down across the yellow sands,—
And many hours they wander'd whispering low
Close to the bright edge of that sleeping Sea.