The Queen of the Hid Isle An Allegoric Poem |
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 | The Queen of the Hid Isle |  |
Scene I.
—The Enchanted Castle of Elzir on the Hidden Island of Cephalonia.Elzir.
It is the fateful day. At dawn, when first
The morning blew her heart's curled petals ope,
In crimson efflorescence of new love,
And in the goblet of her flower-like clouds
Received the chaliced liquor of the sun,
Drenching the dewy coral leaves with life,
There came o'er the red wave from Avalon,
Between the flamy lips of sea and sky,
Making a severance of their rounded kiss,
Fanned by an odorous wind, a swan-like barque
With golden sails, the same that touched our isle
But one short hundred years agone; her crew
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On that last venture. Music wakened me.
I rose, and from the eastern tower looked forth
Under the gable, o'er the flushing sea
Toward the orient. There the day was rent,
And from the cleft, the gorgeous gash of cloud,
Issued a sail. The sky had vermeiled it
With her own grain, a garnet red as blood,
But paler than the garnet of the dawn:
Then the light struck it, when, chameleon-like,
It touched on notes of half the rainbow-scale;
Rose, orange-scarlet, tawny, amber, gold,
And golden lay on the sea's flattering glass
Coquetting with its image. For the wind
That kissed the bosom of the heaving sail
Was faëry, and where the galleon rode
Curled not one vitreous wavelet of the flood;
But round the hull two diamond streaks of surge
Flashed lightnings back to the gold-glancing blades
Of cadenced oars that danced over the deep.
And nigher and nigher down the blood-bright track,
Where the sun strewed red purples for her way,
A widening wavy drapet, as she came,
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Sweeter and richer swelled the fairy voices
That woke me, farther heard than mortal strains:
Till at the last the smooth and silken sail
Brake into creases, and the crumpled gold
Was brailed up to the golden yard, and furled
Close on our island.
Herm.
Well I know it, love.
I spied her vane and flaunting gonfalon
Above the last abuttal of the land,
Forth-setting with my hounds, e'en where she lay
On the creek's glassy bosom, by the wood,
High up the outreached armlet of the sea,
And knew the hour was come.
Elzir.
Alas! dear love,
I grudge thee to rude mortals. They will read
Heaven's fadeless glory on thy built-up brows,
Un-sorrow-tarnished, alabaster-white,
And on thy cheeks, unfurrowed by a tear,
Youth's florid gladness creeping purply through:
And seeing thee thus wise, and fair, and glad,
Foam into madness, and spit poisonous sleet,
The wild-boar spittle of hate grown rancorous,
Squirt acrid venom through the fastened fangs
Of envy and pollute the fountful wells
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And joy-forbidding monk's-hood, saintly chrism,
Thrice stilled and filtered through the hypocrite's heart.
Herm.
I would thy scale of grief hung lightier, queen,
Though mine were therefore heavier; but thy love
I would have balance mine, nor more nor less.
Elzir.
O love, the balance of love is not true,
But poised against the woman: else no pair
Of lovers were at even, nor could draw
With equal necks the golden yoke of life;
So far more precious is a woman's love.
Herm.
'Tis true the heapèd jewels of thy grace
Outweigh my heart's best corals with pure pearl,
My silver grit with granules of chaste gold:
So to be straight with you and mend the weight,
I throw my faith into it.
Elzir.
Oh, that's lightest!
Thou wilt be drinking from some mortal's lips
Love's giddy nectar of mixed sighs and prayers;
Yea, sucking honey from some mortal flower,
Letting faith's fady roses drop their leaves
In the heart's heavenly corner, there to rot,
Ere thou be gone an hour hence from the hive.
Herm.
I swear it. Never!
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By thy knightly vow?
Herm.
Ay, by my knightly vow and Christian soul!
Elzir.
Then thus I set my girdling guardian love
E'en in the rondure of this glamoured gold
Upon thy finger.
Herm.
Thus I kiss thy gift
And swear to be true ever.
[Music.
Hear you softly
Between the tree-stems on the ebbing wind,
Borne through the wood's green twilight to our ears,
A most delicious music—fluty tones
Of flageolets, clear clarions mellowed down
By distance, and faint tappings of the drum,
Like dim dream-music?
Elzir.
Ay, for now they come
To arm thee for thy birth.
Herm.
Ah, me! that strain
I heard it once before, but when or where
Cannot recall.
Elzir.
An hundred years ago,
On thy last voyage to the world of men.
Enter two Pages leading Steeds.
1st Page.
Thy steed Gelwedrun, of enchanted race,
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Chief of the fairy horses of Isaie,
Bestrode by Cæsar homeward-bound from Gaul,
By other mortal never, Morgue the Fay
Sends for thy use, thus barbed and spiked with gold.
Herm.
Thou shalt be as the anger of my soul,
For with the storm-wind force of passion thou
Shalt bear me to mine ends; but I, thy lord,
With knees of will and bit of sharp restraint
Shall rudder thee and rule thee.
Elzir.
Morgue the Fay
Sends thee this other, white as snow in cloud,
That never kist base earth.
Herm.
I'll call thee Love,
And spotless keep as now thou'rt given me.
Enter two beautiful Maidens bearing a Cuirass, another with a Helmet, and a third with a Shield.
1st Maiden.
This habergeon of beaten burnished gold,
Graved and embossed with mystic hieroglyphs,
Thy mistress sends, and bids thee serve the right.
2nd Maiden.
And set this globy morion on thy head,
Fire-new, still beaming from the furnace-kiss.
Lo! white as glass, the crystal-polished gold
Shines more like silver! Wear it for her sake.
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And hang this sun-bright mirror on thine arm,
To daze thy foes with likeness of themselves
And with the brightness of intolerable truth.
Enter a fair young Knight bearing a Sword and a Lute.
Knight.
And this to strike with, cruel ice-blue steel,
More nimble-swift and pliable than thought,
And that for song with strings of phantasy.
Elzir.
And now, farewell; for see the swan-drawn boat,
The fairy pinnace, the bright galley's child,
Tarries for thee to bear into the world.
O unborn soul! be faithful to thy fate.
Thou hast my pledge: thou goest not unarmed.
Say not, when they that spare not, or abase
By sparing, thrust at thee with venomed fangs,
That weaponless or weaponed yet unwarned
Thou wentest from us earthward. Take this kiss,
And bear it stainless on thy lips through life.
Herm.
Farewell, O love! the giddy dream comes on:
I swoon into new life: I cannot stay:
The shore slips from me: O my love, farewell!
| The Queen of the Hid Isle | |