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- float: left; - margin-right: 1em } - -.align-right { clear: right; - float: right; - margin-left: 1em } - -.align-center { margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto } - -div.shrinkwrap { display: table; } - -/* SECTIONS */ - -body { margin: 5% 10% 5% 10% } - -/* compact list items containing just one p */ -li p.pfirst { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0 } - -.first { margin-top: 0 !important; - text-indent: 0 !important } -.last { margin-bottom: 0 !important } - -span.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 1 } -img.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.5em 0 0; max-width: 25% } -span.dropspan { font-variant: small-caps } - -.no-page-break { page-break-before: avoid !important } - -/* PAGINATION */ - -@media screen { - .coverpage, .frontispiece, .titlepage, .verso, .dedication, .plainpage - { margin: 10% 0; } - - div.clearpage, div.cleardoublepage - { margin: 10% 0; border: none; border-top: 1px solid gray; } - - .vfill { margin: 5% 10% } -} - -@media print { - div.clearpage { page-break-before: always; padding-top: 10% } - div.cleardoublepage { page-break-before: right; padding-top: 10% } - - .vfill { margin-top: 20% } - h2.title { margin-top: 20% } -} - -</style> -<title>THE GOLDEN HELM</title> -<meta name="PG.Rights" content="Public Domain" /> -<meta name="PG.Title" content="The Golden Helm" /> -<meta name="PG.Producer" content="Al Haines" /> -<link rel="coverpage" href="images/img-cover.jpg" /> -<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Wilfrid Wilson Gibson" /> -<meta name="DC.Created" content="1903" /> -<meta name="PG.Id" content="42052" /> -<meta name="PG.Released" content="2013-02-08" /> -<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" /> -<meta name="DC.Title" content="The Golden Helm and Other Verse" /> - -<link href="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" rel="schema.DCTERMS" /> -<link href="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators" rel="schema.MARCREL" /> -<meta content="The Golden Helm and Other Verse" name="DCTERMS.title" /> -<meta content="helm.rst" name="DCTERMS.source" /> -<meta content="en" scheme="DCTERMS.RFC4646" name="DCTERMS.language" /> -<meta content="2013-02-09T03:08:12.548064+00:00" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.modified" /> -<meta content="Project Gutenberg" name="DCTERMS.publisher" /> -<meta content="Public Domain in the USA." name="DCTERMS.rights" /> -<link href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42052" rel="DCTERMS.isFormatOf" /> -<meta content="Wilfrid Wilson Gibson" name="DCTERMS.creator" /> -<meta content="2013-02-08" scheme="DCTERMS.W3CDTF" name="DCTERMS.created" /> -<meta content="width=device-width" name="viewport" /> -<meta content="EpubMaker 0.3.20a5 by Marcello Perathoner <webmaster@gutenberg.org>" name="generator" /> -<style type="text/css"> -.pageno { position: absolute; right: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; text-indent: 0 } -.pageno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } -.lineno { position: absolute; left: 95%; font: medium sans-serif; text-indent: 0 } -.lineno:after { color: gray; content: '[' attr(title) ']' } -.toc-pageref { float: right } -pre { font-family: monospace; font-size: 0.9em; white-space: pre-wrap } -</style> -</head> -<body> -<div class="document" id="the-golden-helm"> -<h1 class="center document-title level-1 pfirst title"><span class="x-large">THE GOLDEN HELM</span></h1> - -<!-- this is the default PG-RST stylesheet --> -<!-- figure and image styles for non-image formats --> -<!-- default transition --> -<!-- default attribution --> -<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> -<div class="clearpage"> -</div> -<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> -<div class="align-None container language-en pgheader" id="pg-header" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the </span><a class="reference internal" href="#project-gutenberg-license">Project Gutenberg License</a><span> -included with this eBook or online at -</span><a class="reference external" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license</a><span>.</span></p> -<p class="noindent pnext"></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<div class="align-None container" id="pg-machine-header"> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span>Title: The Golden Helm -<br /> and Other Verse -<br /> -<br />Author: Wilfrid Wilson Gibson -<br /> -<br />Release Date: February 08, 2013 [EBook #42052] -<br /> -<br />Language: English -<br /> -<br />Character set encoding: UTF-8</span></p> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-start-line"><span>*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK </span><span>THE GOLDEN HELM</span><span> ***</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst" id="pg-produced-by"><span>Produced by Al Haines.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><span></span></p> -</div> -<div class="align-None container coverpage"> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<div class="align-center auto-scaled figure margin" style="width: 50%" id="figure-10"> -<span id="cover"></span><img class="align-center block" style="display: block; width: 100%" alt="Cover" src="images/img-cover.jpg" /> -<div class="caption centerleft figure-caption margin"> -<span class="italics">Cover</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -</div> -<div class="align-None container titlepage"> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="x-large">THE -<br />GOLDEN HELM -<br />AND OTHER VERSE</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">BY -<br />WILFRID WILSON GIBSON</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">LONDON -<br />ELKIN MATHEWS, VIGO STREET -<br />1903</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -</div> -<div class="align-None container dedication"> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">TO -<br />HOWARD PEASE</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><em class="italics medium">BY THE SAME WRITER</em></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><em class="italics medium">URLYN THE HARPER AND OTHER SONG</em><span class="medium"> -<br /></span><em class="italics medium">THE QUEEN'S VIGIL AND OTHER SONG</em></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><span>Thanks are due to Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co., for -permission to reprint "The King's Death," "The Three -Kings," and the first part of "Averlaine and Arkeld," -from </span><em class="italics">The Cornhill Magazine</em><span>; to the editor of -</span><em class="italics">Macmillan's Magazine</em><span> for leave to reprint "In the Valley"; -to the editor of </span><em class="italics">The Saturday Review</em><span> for leave to -reprint "Notre Dame de la Belle-Verrière"; and to the -editors of </span><em class="italics">The Pilot, The Outlook, The Pall Mall Gazette, -Country Life, The Week's Survey</em><span>, and </span><em class="italics">The Broadsheet</em><span>, -for like courtesy with regard to a number of "The Songs -of Queen Averlaine."</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">Contents</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="noindent pfirst"><a class="reference internal" href="#the-torch">The Torch</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#the-unknown-knight">The Unknown Knight</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#the-king-s-death">The King's Death</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#the-knight-of-the-wood">The Knight of the Wood</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#notre-dame-de-la-belle-verriere">Notre Dame de la Belle-Verrière</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#in-the-valley">In the Valley</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#the-vision-a-christmas-mystery">The Vision: a Christmas Mystery</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#the-three-kings">The Three Kings</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#the-songs-of-queen-averlaine">The Songs of Queen Averlaine</a><span> -<br /></span><a class="reference internal" href="#id1">The Golden Helm</a></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="the-torch"><span class="large">The Torch</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Through skies blown clear by storm, o'er storm-spent seas,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Day kindled pale with promise of full noon</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of blue unclouded; no night-weary wind</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ruffled the slumberous, heaving deeps to white,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though round the Farne Isles the waves never sink</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In foamless sleep--about the pillared crags</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For ever circling with unresting spray.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>At dawn's first glimmer, from his island-cell--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Rock-hewn, secure from tempest--Oswald came</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With slow and weary step, white-faced and worn</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With night-long vigil for storm-perilled souls.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His anxious eye with sharp foreboding bright--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He scanned the treacherous flood; the long froth-trail</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That marks the lurking reefs; the jag-toothed chasms</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Which, foaming, gape at night beneath the keel--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The mouth of hell to storm-bewildered ships:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But no scar-stranded vessel met his glance.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Relieved, he drank the glistering calm of morn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With nostril keen and warm lips parted wide;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While, gradually, the sun-enkindled air</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Quickened his pallid cheek with youthful flame,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though lonely years had silvered his dark head,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And round his eyes had woven shadow-meshes.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Clearly he caught the ever-clamorous cries</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of guillemot and puffin from afar,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where, canopied by hovering, white wings,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They crowded naked pinnacles of rock.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He watched, with eyes of glistening tenderness,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The brooding eider--Cuthbert's sacred bird,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That bears among the isles his saintly name--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Breast the calm waves; a black, wet-gleaming fin</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Cleft the blue waters with a foaming jag,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where, close behind the restless herring-herd,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With ravening maw of death, the porpoise sped.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oswald, light-tranced, dreamed in the sun awhile;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till, suddenly, as some old sorrow starts,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though years have glided by with soothing lull,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The gust of ancient longing rent his bliss:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His narrow isle, as by some darkling spell,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>More narrow shrank; the gulls' unceasing cries</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Grew still more fretful; and his hermit-life</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A sea-scourged desolation to him seemed.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The holy tree of peace--which he had dreamt</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Would flourish in the wilderness afresh,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upspringing ever in new ecstasy</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of branching beauty and white blooms of truth,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till its star-tangling crest should cleave the sky,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And angels rustle through its topmost boughs--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Seemed sapless, rootless. Through his quivering limbs</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His famine-wasted youth to life upleapt</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With passionate yearning for humanity:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The stir of towns; the jostling of glad throngs;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Welcoming faces and warm-clasping hands;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yea, even for the lips and eyes of Love</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He hungered with keen pangs of old desire:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, if for him these might not be, he craved</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>At least the exultation of swift peril--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The red-foamed riot of delirious strife</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That rears a bloody crest o'er peaceful shires,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, slaying, in a swirl of slaughter dies.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With brow uplifted and strained, pulsing throat,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And salt-parched lips out-thrust, unto the sun</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He stretched beseeching hands, as though he sought</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To snatch some glittering disaster thence.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>One moment radiant thus; and then once more</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His arms dropped listless, and he slowly shrank</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within his sea-stained habit, cowering dark</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Amid the azure blaze of sea and sky.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, stirring, with impatient step he moved</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Across the isle to where the rocky shore,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Forming a little, crag-encircled bay,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sloped steeply to the level of the sea;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But, as he neared the edges of the tide,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Startled, he paused, as, marvelling, he saw</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A woman on the shelving, wet, black rock,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Lying, forlorn, among the storm-wrack, white</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And motionless; still wet, her raiment clung</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>About her limbs, and with her wet, gold hair</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Green sea-weed tangled. Oswald on her looked</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Amazed, as one who, in a sea-born trance,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Discovers the lone spirit of the storm,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Self-spent at last, and sunk in dreamless slumber</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within some caverned gloom. Coldly he watched</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The little waves creep up the glistening rock,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, faltering, slide once more into the deep,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As though they feared to waken her: at length,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When one, more venturous, about her stole,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And moved her heavy hair as if with life,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He shuddered; and a lightning-knowledge struck</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His heart with fear; and in a flash he knew</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That no sea-phantom couched before him lay,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But some frail fellow-creature, tempest-tost,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Hung yet in peril on the edge of death,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her weak life slipping from the saving grasp</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While he delayed. He sprang through plashy weed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O'er slippery ridges, to the rock whereon</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She lay with upturned face and close-shut eyes--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>One hand across her breast, the other dipped</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within a shallow pool of emerald water,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With blue-veined fingers clutching the red fronds</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of frail sea-weed. Then Oswald, bending, felt</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon his cheek the feeble breath that still</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Fluttered between the pallid, parted lips.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In trembling haste, he loosed the sodden cords</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That bound her to a spar; and with hot hands</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He chafed her icy limbs, until the glow</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of life returned. With fitful quivering</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The white lids opened; and she looked on him</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With dull, unwondering eyes whose deep-sea blue</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The gloom of death's late passing shadowed yet;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When suddenly light thrilled them, and bright fear</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Flashed from their depths, and, with a little gasp,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She strove to rise; but Oswald with quick words</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Calmed her weak terror, and she sank once more,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Closing her eyes; and, gently lifting her</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within his arms--her gold hair hanging straight</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And heavy with sea-water, as he plunged</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Knee-deep through pools of crackling bladder-weed--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He bore her, unresisting, o'er the isle</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unto the rock-built shelter he had reared,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Some little way apart from his own cell,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For storm-stayed fishers or wrecked mariners.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He laid her on a bed of withered bents,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And ministered to her with gentle hands</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And ceaseless care; till, wrapped in warm, deep sleep,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She sank oblivious. Silently he placed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His island-fare beside her on the board,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Lest she should wake in need; then, with hushed step,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He turned to go; but, ere he reached the door,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He paused, and looked again towards the bed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As though he feared his strange sea-guest might flee</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Like some wild spirit, born of wondering foam,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That wins from man the shelter of his breast,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, on a night of moon-enchanted tides,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Leaps with shrill laughter to its native seas,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Bearing his soul within its glistening arms,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To drown his peace on earth and hope of heaven</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In cold eternities of lightless deeps.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But still in dreamless sleep the stranger lay,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With parted lips and breathing soft and calm;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>About her head unloosed, her hair outshone,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Among the grey-green bents, like fine, red gold.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>So beautiful she was that Oswald, pierced</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With quivering rapture, dared no longer bide,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But, with quick fingers, softly raised the latch,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And stumbled o'er the threshold. As he went,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A flock of sea-gulls from the bent-thatched roof</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Rose, querulous, and round him, wheeling, swept,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With creaking wings and cold, black eyes agleam;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet Oswald saw them not, nor heard their cries;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Nor saw he, as he paced the eastern crags,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>How, round the Farnes, the dreaming ocean lay</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In broad, unshadowed, sapphire ecstasy,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That glowed to noon through slow, uncounted hours.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His early gloom had vanished; time and space</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And earth and sea no longer compassed him;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>One thought alone consumed him--beauty slept</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within the shelter of his hermitage,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon grey, rustling bents, with golden hair.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He roamed, unresting, till the copper sun</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sank in a steel-grey sea, and earth and sky</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Were strewn with shadows--wavering and dim--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To weave a pathway for the dawning moon,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That she, from night's oblivion, might create</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With the cold spell of her enchantments old</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A phantom earth with magical, bright seas,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A vaster heaven of unrevealed stars.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unmoving, on a headland of swart crag</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That jutted gaunt and sharp against the night,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Stood Oswald, cowled and silent. Hour by hour</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He gazed across the sea, which nothing shadowed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Save where--now dim, now white--a lonely sail</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Hung, restless, o'er a fisher's barren toil.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet Oswald saw nor sail nor moon nor sea:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His heart kept vigil by the little house</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Wherein the stranger slumbered; and it seemed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His life, by some strange power within him stayed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Awaited the unlatching of the door.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>But now, within the hut, the sleeper dreamt</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of foaming caverns and o'erwhelming waters;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, shuddering awake, awhile she lay,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And watched the moonlight, cold and white, which poured</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Through the warm dusk, from the high window-slit;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When, all at once, the strangeness of the room</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Closed in upon her with bewildering dread.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She stirred; the bents, beneath her, rustled strange;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She started in affright, and, swaying, stood</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within the streaming moonlight, till, at last,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In memory, once more disaster swept</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Over her life, and left her, desolate,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon bleak crags of alien seas unknown.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet, through the tumult of tempestuous dark,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Above the echo of despairing cries,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A calm voice sounded; and beyond the whirl</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of foaming death, wherein she caught the gleam</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of well-loved faces drowning in cold seas,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A living face shone out--a beacon clear:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then numbing fear fell from her, and she moved,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unlatched the door, and stole into the night.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>One moment, dazzled by the full-moon glare,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She paused, a shivering form within the wide</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And glittering desolation--lone and frail.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But Oswald, watchful on the eastern scars,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Seeing her, forward came with eager pace</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To meet her; and, as he drew swiftly near,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His cowl fell backward; and she knew again</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The face that calmed the terrors of her dreams.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet, with the knowledge, through her being stole,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Vague fear more strange, more impotent than the blind</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unquestioning dread when death had round her stormed;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>No peril of the body could arouse</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Such ecstasy of terror in her soul,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Which seemed upborne upon the shivering crest</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of some great wave, just curving, ere it crash</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon the crags of time. Yet, though she feared</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When Oswald paused, uncertain, quick she spake,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As though she sought to parry doom with words.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She questioned him--scarce heeding his replies--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>How she had hither come; when, suddenly,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sped by her fluttering words, the last, dim cloud</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Rolled from her memory, and she saw revealed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within a pitiless glare of naked light</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The utmost horror of her desolation.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Mute with despair, she stood with parted lips,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And then cried fiercely: "Hath the sea upcast</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>None other on this shore? Am I, alone,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of all my kin who sailed in that doomed ship,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Flung back to life?" And as, with piteous glance,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He answered her: "Ah God, that I, with them,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Had died! O traitor cords that held too sure</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>My body to the broken spar of life!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O feeble seas, that fumed in such wild wrath,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet could not quench so frail a thing as I!"</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With passionate step, across the isle she ran,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And leapt from crag to crag, until she stood</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon a dizzy scar that jutted sheer</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Above low-lapping waves. Then once again</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her moaning cry was heard among the Isles:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"O bitter waters, give them back to me!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>You shall not keep them; all your waves of woe</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Cannot withhold from me those dauntless lives</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That were my life. Surely they cannot rest</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Without me; even from your unfathomed graves</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Surely my love will draw them to my arms!"</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As though in tremulous expectation tranced,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She yearned, with arms outstretched; as dawn arose</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Exultant from the sea, and with clear rays</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Kindled her wind-tost hair to streaming flame.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Awhile she stood, then, moaning, slowly sank</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon the crag; and Oswald came to her</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With words of comfort which unloosed her pent</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And aching woe in swift, tumultuous tears.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oswald, in silent anguish, drew apart,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Gazing, unseeing, o'er the dawning waves;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Until at last the tempest of her grief,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In low and fitful sobbing, spent itself;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When, turning to him, once again she spake,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, shuddering, with faltering voice, outpoured</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The tale of her despair: and Oswald heard</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>How she, who sat thus strangely by his side,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Marna, a sea-earl's daughter, had besought</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her father, when the old sea-hunger lit</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His eyes--as waves shot through with stormy fight--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For leave to bear him company but once,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When, with his sons, he rode the adventurous seas;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>How he had yielded with reluctant love;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And how, from out the firth of some far strand,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Their galley rode, beneath a flaming dawn;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>How her young heart had leapt to see the sails</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unfurled to take the wind, as, one by one,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Toil-glistening rowers shipped the dripping oars,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And loosened every sheet before the breeze;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>How, as the ship with timbers all astrain,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Leapt to mid-sea, through Marna's body thrilled</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A kindred rapture, and there came to her</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The sheer, delirious joy of them true-born</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To wander with the foam--each creaking cord</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That tugged the quivering mast unto her singing</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of unknown shores and far, enchanted lands,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Beyond the blue horizon; how, all day,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They rode, undaunted, through the spinning surf;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But, as the sun dipped, in the cold, grey tide,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The wind, that since the dawn with steady speed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Had filled the sails, now came in fitful gusts,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Fierce and yet fiercer, till the sullen waves</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Were lashed to anger, and the waters leapt</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To tussle with the furies of the air;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And how the ship, in the encounter caught,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Was tossed on crests of swirling dark, or dropped</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Between o'er-toppling walls of whelming night;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>How in those hours--too dread for thought or speech--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her father's hand had bound her to a spar;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, even as--the cord between his teeth--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He tugged the last knot sure, the vessel crashed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon a cleaving scar; and she but saw</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The strong, pale faces looking upon death,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Before the fierce, exultant waters closed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With cold oblivion o'er them; and no more</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She knew, until she waked within the hut,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To find her world, in one disastrous night,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In one swift surge of roaring darkness, swept</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From her young feet; her kindred, home and friends,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And all familiar hopes and joys and fears</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Dropt like a garment from her life, which now</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Stood naked on the edge of some new world</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of unknown terrors.</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Oswald heard her tale</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>With pitying glance; yet in his eyes arose</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A strange, new light, which as each gust of grief</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Shook out the fluttering words, more brightly burned;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>So that, when Marna ceased, it seemed to her</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That he, in holy contemplation rapt,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Had heeded not her woe; and from her heart</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Burst out a cry: "Ah God, I am alone!"</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But, stung by her shrill anguish, Oswald waked</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From his bright reverie, and his shining eyes</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Darkened with swift compassion, as he turned</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, trembling, spake: "Nay, not alone..."</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Then mute</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>He stood--his pale lips clenched--as though within</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>There surged a torrent which he dared not loose.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Marna looked wondering up; but, when her eyes</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Saw the white passion of his face, her soul</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Was tossed once more on crests of unknown fears;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet rapture warred with terror in her heart;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She trembled, and her breath came short and quick.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She dared not raise her eyes again to his,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till, on her straining ears, his words, once more,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Fell, slow and cold and clear as water dripping</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Between locked sluice-gates: "Nothing need you fear.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Beyond the sea of unknown terrors lie</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>White havens of an undiscovered peace.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For even this bleak, scar-embattled coast</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>May yield safe harbour to the storm-spent soul.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Your world has fallen from you that you may</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Enter another world, more beautiful,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Built 'neath the shadow of the throne of God.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>There shall you find new friends, who yet will seem</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Familiar to your eyes, because their souls</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Have passed through kindred perils and despairs."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He ceased; and silence, trembling, 'twixt them hung;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till Marna, gazing yet across the sea,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Rent it with words: "Where may I find this peace?"</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And Oswald answered: "In an inland dale</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The Sisters of the Cross await your coming,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With ever-open gate. Within seven days,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>My brethren from the mainland will put out,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Bringing me food; on their return with them</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>You may embark. Till then, this barren rock</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Must be your home." Exultant light once more</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Leapt, flashing, in the depths of his dark eyes.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet Marna looked not up, but, slowly, spake:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"Yea, I must go.... But you...."</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Then in dismay</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>She stopped, as though the thought had slipped unknown</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From her full heart; but Oswald caught the words,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And spake with hard, quick speech, as if to baffle</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Some doubt that strove within him: "On this Isle</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I bide, till God shall kindle my weak soul</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To burn, a beacon o'er His lonely seas."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Once more he paused; and perilous silence swayed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Between them, until Oswald, quaking, rose,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As one who dared no longer rest beneath</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O'er-toppling doom. Yet, with calm voice, he spake:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"Even within this wilderness abides</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Such beauty that, in your brief sojourn here,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Your soul shall starve not; all about you sweeps</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The ever-changing wonder of the sea;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But if, too full of bitter memories,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The bright waves darken, you may lift your eyes</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To watch the swooping gull; the flashing tern;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The stately cormorant and the kittiwake--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Most beautiful of all the island-birds;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Or, if your woman's heart should crave some grace</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>More exquisite, see, frail bell-campions blow,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As foam-flowers on the shallow, sandy turf."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As thus he spake, a light in Marna's eyes</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Arose, and sorrow left her for awhile:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And she with bright glance questioned him, and watched</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The hovering gulls, and plucked the snowy blooms,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With little cries at each discovered beauty.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet Oswald by her side walked silently,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And watched, as one struck mute with anguished fear,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her eager eyes, and heard her chattering words.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, suddenly, he left her, but returned</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within the hour, with faltering step, and spake</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With tremulous voice: "We two must part awhile;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For I must keep lone vigil in my cell</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Six days and nights, with fasting and with prayer;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Meanwhile, within the little hut for you</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Are food and shelter till the brethren come.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When I must give you over to their care."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Marna, with wondering heart, looked up at him;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But such a wild light flickered in his eyes</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She dared not speak; and, shuddering, he turned,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And strode back swiftly to the hermitage.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Marna looked after him with yearning gaze,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As though her heart would have her call him back,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet her lips moved not; motionless, she watched</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Until he passed from sight; then, sinking low</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Among the flowers, she wept, she knew not why.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>And, as the door closed on him, Oswald fell</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Prone on the cold, black, vigil-furrowed rock</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That paved his narrow cell; and long he lay</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As in the clutch of some dread waking-trance,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Nor stirred until the shadows into night</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Were woven. Then unto his feet he leapt</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With this wild cry: "O God, why hast Thou sent</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>This scourge most bitter for my naked soul?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I feared not storm nor solitude, O God;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I shrank not from the tempest of Thy wrath;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though oft my weak soul wavered, trampled o'er</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>By deedless hours, and yearned unto the world,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ever afresh Thy love hath bound me fast</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unto this island of Thy lonely seas;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And I, who deemed that I at last might reach--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I who had come through all--Thy golden haven,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Knew not Thy hand withheld this last despair,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>This scourge most bitter, being most beautiful."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then on his knees he sank, and tried to pray</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Before the Virgin's shrine, where ever burned</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His votive taper with unfailing light.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But when his lips would breathe the holy name,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His heart cried: "Marna! Marna!" Every pulse</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Throbbed "Marna!" And his body shook and swayed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As though it strove to utter that one word,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And cry it once unto eternal stars,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though it should perish crying. Through the cell</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The silence murmured: "Marna!" And without</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A lone gull wailed it to the windy night.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He lifted his wild eyes, and in the shrine</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He saw the face of Marna, which outburned</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The flickering taper; on the gloom up-surged,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Foam-white, the face of Marna; till the dark</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Flowed pitiful o'er him, and on the stone</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He sank unconscious. Night went slowly by,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And pale dawn stole in silence through his cell;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, in the light of morn, the taper died,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With feeble guttering; yet he never stirred,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though noonday waxed and waned.</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>But Marna roamed</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>All night beneath the stars. To her it seemed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That not until the closing of the door</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Had all hope perished: now death tore, afresh,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her father and her brothers from her arms.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>By day and night and under sun and moon</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She roamed unresting--seeing, heeding naught--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till weariness o'ercame her, and she slept;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, as she slumbered, snowy-plumed peace</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Nestled within her heart; and, when she waked,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She only yearned for that dim, cloistral calm,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Embosomed deep in some bough-sheltered vale,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Whither the boat must bear her.</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>In his cell,</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>As night paled slowly to the seventh morn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oswald arose--the fire within his eyes</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet more intense, more fierce. With eager hand</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He clutched the latch, and, flinging wide the door,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He strode into the dawn. One moment, dazed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As though bewildered by the light, he paused;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But, when his glance in restless roving fell</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>On Marna, standing on the western crag</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Against the setting moon, beneath the dawn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His passion surged upon him, and he shook;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, springing madly forth, he, stumbling, ran,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, falling at her feet upon the rock,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His voice rang out in fearful exultation:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"You shall not go! I cannot let you go!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Has not the tumult tossed you to my breast?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yea, and not all the storms of all the seas</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Shall drag you from me! Nay, you shall not go!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For we will live together on this isle</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Which time has builded in the deeps for us--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>We two together, one in ecstasy,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Throughout eternity; for time shall fall</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From off us; and the world shall be no more:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And God, if God should stand between us now..."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Faltering, he paused; and Marna stood, afraid,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Quaking before him; but she spake no word.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Across the waters came the plash of oars;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But Oswald heard them not, and once more cried:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"You will not go--thrusting me back to death?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For now I know the strange, new thing you brought</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For me from out the storm was life--yea, life;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And I am one arisen from the grave.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>You will not thrust me back and take again</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That which you came through storm to bring to me?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>You will not go? I cannot let you go!"</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>He ceased; and now the even plash of oars</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Came clearer. One dread moment Marna stood</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Swaying; then, stretching forth her arms, she cried:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"Ah God! Ah God! Why hath Thy cold hand set</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>This doom upon me? Must I ever bear</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Death and disaster unto whom I love?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, is it not enough that, 'neath the wave,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Because I sought to bear them company,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>My father and my brothers lie in death?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But this--ah God--that it should come to this!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Must I bear ever death within my hands?"</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>She paused one moment, with wild-heaving breast;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, turning unto Oswald, spake again,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With softer voice: "But you--have you no pity?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>You who are but God's servant--surely you</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Have pity on my weakness. From this doom</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Which overhangs me you must set me free.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>You say I brought you life; but in me lies</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For you--the priest of God--a death more deep</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Than all the drowning fathoms of the sea.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I go, that you may live. If life indeed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I brought you, I was but the torch of God</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To kindle the clear flame of your strong soul</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To burn, a beacon o'er His lonely seas."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She ceased, with arms outstretched and lighted eyes.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As on some holy vision Oswald gazed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In rapt, adoring fear; nor spake, nor stirred.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Near, and yet nearer, drew the plash of oars;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, turning in the boat, the brethren looked</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With wondering eyes upon them, whispering: "Lo,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Some seraph-messenger of God most high</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Tarries with Oswald. See the strange new peace</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That burns his face like a white altar-flame.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Not yet must we draw near, lest our weak sight</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Be blinded by that glory of gold hair</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That gleams so strangely in the light of dawn."</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="the-unknown-knight"><span class="large">The Unknown Knight</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>When purple gloomed the wintry ridge</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Against the sunset's windy flame,</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>From pine-browed hills, along the bridge,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>An unknown rider came.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>I watched him idly from the tower.</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Though he nor looked nor raised his head;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>I felt my life before him cower</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>In dumb, foreboding dread.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>I saw him to the portal win</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Unchallenged, and no lackey stirred</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>To take his bridle when within</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>He strode without a word.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Through all the house he passed unstayed,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Until he reached my father's door;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>The hinge shrieked out like one afraid;</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Then silence fell once more.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>All night I hear the chafing ice</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Float, griding, down the swollen stream;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>I lie fast-held in terror's vice,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Nor dare to think or dream.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>I only know the unknown knight</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Keeps vigil by my father's bed:</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, who shall wake to see the light</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Flame all the east with red?</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="the-king-s-death"><span class="large">The King's Death</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The sleeping-chamber of the King: a candle burns -dimly by the curtained bed. The arras parts, and -two slaves enter with daggers. A storm of wind rages -without.</em></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>FIRST SLAVE: He sleeps.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>SECOND SLAVE: He sleeps, whom only death shall rouse</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To dread unsleeping in another world.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>FIRST SLAVE: How long the careful night has kept him wakeful,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As if sleep loathed to snare him for our knives!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>SECOND SLAVE: Yea, we have crouched so close in quaking dark</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I scarce can lift my sword-arm: strike you first.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>FIRST SLAVE: The heavy waiting hours have crushed my strength;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The hate that burst to such an eager flame</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within my heart has smouldered to dull ash,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Which pity breathes to scatter.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>SECOND SLAVE: Knows he pity?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>FIRST SLAVE: Nay, he is throned above his slaughtered kin,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A reeking sword his sceptre. He has broken,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As one across the knee a faggot snaps,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Strong lives to feed the blaze of his ambition;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet shall a slave's hand strike cold death in him</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For whom kings sweat like slaves?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>SECOND SLAVE: Yea, at the stroke</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>One slave lies dead--a hundred kings are born;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For every man that breathes will be a king;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Vast empires, beaten-dust beneath his feet,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Will rise again and teem with kingly men,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When he, their death, is dead</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>FIRST SLAVE: How still he sleeps!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The tempest shrieks to wake him, yet he slumbers.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As seas that foam against unyielding scars,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The mad wind storms the castle, wall and tower,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And is not spent. Hark, it has found a breach--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Some latch unloosed--the house is full of wind;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>It rushes, wailing, down the corridor;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>It seeks the King; it cries on him to waken;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Now 'tis without, and shakes the rattling bolt;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Lo, it has broken in, in little gusts,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I feel it in my hair; 'twill lay cold fingers</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon his lips, and start him from his sleep.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>See, it has whipt the yellow flame to smoke.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>SECOND SLAVE: And now it fails; the heavy, hanging gold</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That shelters him from night is all unstirred.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>FIRST SLAVE: Even the wind must pause.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>SECOND SLAVE: 'Twas but a breeze</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To blow our sinking courage to clear fire.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Too long we loiter; soon the approaching day</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Will take us, slaves who grasp the arms of men</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet dare not plunge them save in our own breasts.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Come, let us strike!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>(</span><em class="italics">They approach the bed and draw aside the curtain.</em><span>)</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>FIRST SLAVE: The King--how still he sleeps!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Can majesty in such calm slumber lie?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>SECOND SLAVE: Come, falter not, strike home!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>FIRST SLAVE: Hold, hold your hand,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For death has stolen a march upon our hate;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He does not breathe.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>SECOND SLAVE: The stars have wrought for us,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And we are conquerors with unbloodied hands.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>FIRST SLAVE: Nay, nay, for in our thoughts his life was spilt;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While yet our bodies lagged in fettered fear,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Our shafted breath sped on and stabbed his sleep.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, red for all the world, across our brows,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Our murderous thoughts have burned the brand of Cain.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>See, through the window stares the pitiless day!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="the-knight-of-the-wood"><span class="large">The Knight of the Wood</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"I fear the Knight of the Wood," she said</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"For him may no man overthrow.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where boughs are matted thick o'erhead,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>There gleams, amid the shadows dread,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The terror of his armour red;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And all men fear him, high and low;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet all must through the forest go."</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>She paused awhile where larches flame</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>About the borders of the wood;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, crying loud on Love's high name</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To keep her maiden-heart from shame,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She entered, and full-swiftly came</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where, hooded with a scarlet hood,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A rider in her pathway stood.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>She saw the gleam of armour red;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She saw the fiery pennon wave</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Its flaming terror overhead</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>'Mid writhing boughs and shadows dread.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"Ah God," she cried: "that I were dead,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And laid for ever in my grave!"</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, swooning, called on Love to save.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Among the springing fern she fell,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And very nigh to death she lay;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till, like the fading of a spell</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>At ringing of the matin-bell,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The darkness left her; by a well</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She waked beneath the open day,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And rose to go upon her way;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>When, once again, the ruddy light</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of arms she saw, and turned to flee;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But clutching brambles stayed her flight;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While, marvelling, she saw the Knight</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unhooded; and his eyes were bright</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With April colours of the sea;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And crowned as a King was he.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>She knelt before him in the ferns,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And sang: "O Lord of Love, I bow</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Before thy shield, where blazoned burns</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The flaming heart with light that turns</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The night to day. O heart that yearns</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For love, lo, Love before thee now--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The wild-wood knight with crownèd brow!"</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="notre-dame-de-la-belle-verriere"><span class="large">Notre Dame de la Belle-Verrière</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Above Thy halo's burning blue</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For ever hovers the White Dove;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Thy heart enshrines, for ever new,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The Cross--the Crown of all Thy love;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While, sapphire wing on sapphire wing,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>About Thee choiring angels swing</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Gold censers, and bright candles bear.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Because I have no heart to sing,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I come to Thee with all my care,</span></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">Notre Dame de la Belle-Verrière.</em></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Because the sword hath pierced Thy side,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Thy brows are crowned with circling gold.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The woe of all the world doth hide</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within Thy mantle's azure fold.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Because Thou, too, hast dwelt with fears,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Through lingering days and endless years,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I find no comfort otherwhere,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Our Lady beautiful with tears,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Our Lady sorrowfully fair,</span></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">Notre Dame de la Belle-Verrière.</em></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>My feet have travelled the hot road</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Between the poppies' barren fires;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But now I cast aside the load</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of burning hopes and wild desires</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That ever fierce and fiercer grew.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Thy peace falls like a falling dew</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon me as I kneel in prayer,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Because Thou hast known sorrow, too,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Because Thou, too, hast known despair,</span></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">Notre Dame de la Belle-Verrière.</em></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="in-the-valley"><span class="large">In the Valley</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Love, take my hand, and look not with sad eyes</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Through the valley-shades: for us, the mountains rise;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Beneath the cold, blue-cleaving peaks of snow</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Like flame the April-blossomed almonds blow--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Spring-grace and winter-glory intertwined</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within the glittering web that colour weaves.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">Yet who are they who troop so close behind</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">With raiment rustling like frost-withered leaves</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">That burden winter-winds with ever-restless sighs?</em></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Love, look not back, nor ever hearken more</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To murmuring shades; for us, the river-shore</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Is lit with dew-hung daffodils that gleam</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>On either side the tawny, foaming stream</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That bears through April with triumphal song</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Dissolving winter to the brimming sea.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">Yet who are they who, ever-whispering, throng,</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">With lean, grey lips that shudder piteously,</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">As if from some bright fruit of bitter-tasting core?</em></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Nay, look not back, for, lo, in trancèd light</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Love stays awhile his world-encircling flight</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To wait our coming from the valley-ways;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>See where, a hovering fire amid the blaze,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He pants aflame with irised plumes unfurled</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Above the utmost pinnacle of noon.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">Yet who are they who wander through the world</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">Like weary clouds about a wintry moon,</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">With wan, bewildered brows that bear eternal night?</em></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Love, look not back, nor fill thy heart with woe</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of old, sad loves that perished long ago;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For ever after living lovers tread</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Pale, yearning ghosts of all earth's lovers dead.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A little while with life we lead the train</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ere we, too, follow, cold, some breathing love.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">I fear their fevered eyes and hands that strain</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">To snatch our joy that flutters bright above,</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">To shadow with grey death its ruddy, pulsing glow.</em></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Love, look not back in this life-crowning hour</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When all our love breaks into perfect flower</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Beneath the kindling heights of frozen time.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Come, Love, that we with happy haste may climb</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Beyond the valley, and may chance to see</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Some unknown peak that cleaves unfading skies.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">Old sorrow saps my strength; I may not flee</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">The flame of passionate hunger in their eyes;</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">Beseeching shade on shade--they hold me in their power.</em></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Love, look not back, for, all too brief, our day,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In wilder glories flameth fast away.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Lo, even now, the northern snow-ridge glows--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With purple shadowed--from pale gold to rose</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That shivers white beneath stars dawning cold.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Lift up thine eyes ere all the colour fades.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">Ah, rainbow-plumèd Love in airs of gold,</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">Too late I turn, a shade among the shades.</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">To follow, death-enthralled, thy flight through ages grey.</em></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="the-vision-a-christmas-mystery"><span class="large">The Vision.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">A CHRISTMAS MYSTERY.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>PERSONS: A YOUNG HERD. HIS MOTHER.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>SCENE: THE QUEEN'S CRAGS.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>TIME: CHRISTMAS EVE.</span></div> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">The herd stands at the foot of the Crags, gazing -across the dark fells. His mother enters.</em></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>MOTHER: Son, come home, nor tarry here</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In this peril-haunted place.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>My old heart is filled with fear</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>By the white flame of thy face,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And thine eyes whose restless fire</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Burneth ever wild and clear</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As red peats between the bars.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Son, come home; the night is cold;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Dropping from the wintry stars,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Tingling frost falls through the air;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>See, the bents are white with rime;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All the sheep are in the fold;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All the cattle in the byre;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Only we, of live things, roam</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O'er the fells so far from home;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>E'en the red fox in his lair</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Snuggles close to keep him warm;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And the lonely, wandering hare</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Crouches, shivering, in her form;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While by Greenlea's frozen edge</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Hides the mallard in the sedge.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Son, come home; the ingle-seat</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Waits thee by the glowing peat,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And the door is off the latch.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Come, and we will feast and sing,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As of old at Christmas time,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Until thou wilt drowse and nod</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And with slumber-drooping head</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Gladly seek thy bracken-bed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Underneath the heather-thatch;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where the healing sleep will bring</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unto thee the peace of God.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Son, come home! Whom seekest thou there?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>HERD: Guenevere! O Guenevere!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>MOTHER: Cry no more on Guenevere.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Some wild warlock of the fells,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Born beneath the Devil's Scars,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Lures thee forth to drown thy soul</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Deep in Broomlea-water cold.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Guenevere no longer dwells</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Anywhere beneath the stars;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though she walked these Crags of old,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Many hundred years ago,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Into earth she sank like snow;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As a sunset-cloud in rain</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Breaks, and showers the thirsty plain,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All the glory of her hair</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Fell to earth, we know not where.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Leave thy foolish quest forlorn.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Lo, to-night a King is born,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Who, when earthly kings at last</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Into wildering night are passed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet shall wear the crown of morn.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Mary, Thou whose love may turn</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Eyes that after evil burn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Draw his soul, that strays so far,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To Thy Son's white throning-star.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Queen of Heaven, hear my prayer!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>HERD: Guenevere! O Guenevere!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>MOTHER: Low she lies, and may not hear.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The white lily, Guenevere,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ruthless time has trodden down;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Arthur is a tarnished crown,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>High Gawain a broken spear,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Percival a riven shield;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They, who taught the world to yield,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Closed with death and lost the field,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Stricken by the last despair:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Launcelot is but a name</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Blown about the winds of shame;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Surely God has quenched the flame</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That burned men's souls for Guenevere.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Mary, heed a mother's woe;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Mary, heed a mother's tears!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Thou, whose heart so long ago</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Knew the pangs and hopes and fears</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>We poor mortal mothers know;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Thou, to whom, on Christmas-morn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christ, the Son of God, was born;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Thou whose mother-love hath pressed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The sweet Babe against thy breast;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And with wondering joy hath felt</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The warm clutch of little hands,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When the Kings from far-off lands--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Crowned with gold, in gold attire--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With the simple shepherds knelt</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>'Mid the beasts within the byre;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Mary, if Thy heart, afraid,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When beyond Thy care he strayed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sometimes grieved that he must grow</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unlike other boys and men--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Filled with dreams beyond Thy ken,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Anguished with diviner woe,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Pangs more fiery than Thy pain,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Deeper than Thy dark despair--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From the perils of the night</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Give me back my son again.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Thou, whose love may never fail,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Heed a lonely mother's prayer!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Come in all Thy healing might!</span></div> -</div> -<p class="pfirst"><em class="italics">A sudden glory sweeps across the Fells. The vision -appears in a cleft of the Crags. The herd and -his mother kneel before it.</em></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>MOTHER: Mary, Queen of Heaven, hail!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>HERD (</span><em class="italics">falling forward</em><span>): Guenevere! Guenevere!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="the-three-kings"><span class="large">THE THREE KINGS.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">To C. J. S.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">The Three Kings</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>PERSONS: KING GARLAND, KING ARLO, KING ASHALORN.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>SEA-VOICES, WAVE-VOICES, AND WIND-VOICES.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>SCENE: </span><em class="italics">A rock in the midst of the North Sea,</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">whereon the three kings, bound naked by conquering</em></div> -<div class="line"><em class="italics">sea-rovers, have been left to perish.</em></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>VOICE OF THE DAWN-WIND: Awaken, O sea, from thy starry dream;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Awaken, awaken!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For delight of thy slumber not one pale gleam</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From dim star-clusters remaineth unshaken.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All night I have haunted the valleys and rivers;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Now hither I come--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ere, quickened with sunlight, the drowsy east quivers--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To waken thy song, night-bewildered and dumb;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To stir thy grey waters, of starlight forsaken,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To loosen white foam in the red of the dawn.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>WAVE-VOICES: The sound of thy voice</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Has broken our sleep;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All night we have waited thee, herald of light.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>We arise, we rejoice</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>At thy bidding to leap,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And spray with our laughter the trail of the night.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All night we have waited thee, weary of stars--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The little star-dreams, and the sleep without song;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The deep-brooding slumber of silence that holds</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Our melody mute in the uttermost deep.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O Wind of the Dawn, we have waited thee long;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The sound of thy voice</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Has broken our sleep;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>We arise, we rejoice</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>At thy bidding to leap,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With a tumult of singing, a rapture of spray,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To scatter our joy in the path of the day.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>GARLAND: Day comes at last, beyond the sea's grey rim;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The young sun leaps in sudden might of gold.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ASHALORN: Before his fire our lives will smoulder dim;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Like stars we shine, we fade; the tale is told,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And all our empty splendour put to scorn;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Fate leaves us, who were clothed in pride, forlorn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To perish, naked, in this lonely sea.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But yesterday we ruled as kings of earth;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Frail men to-day; to-morrow, who shall be?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARLO: But yesterday my cup of life was filled</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To overflowing with the wine of mirth--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The plashing joy from fruitful years distilled.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>GARLAND: But yesterday my kinghood sprang to birth;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>My fingers scarce had grasped the might new-born,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When from my clutch the glittering pomp was torn.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>SEA-VOICES: They slumber, they slumber, the kings in their pride.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The beak of the Rover is dipt in the tide;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The sails of the Rover are red in the wind;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And white is the trail of the foam flung behind.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They have fallen, have fallen, the kings in their pride;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Their sea-gates are forced by the rush of the tide;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Their splendour is scattered as surf on the wind;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And red is the trail of the terror behind.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Forsaken, forlorn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>On a rock of the sea,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In anguish they bow,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And wait for the night and the darkness to be;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, bright was the gold in their hair;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The sea-weed, in scorn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Is twined in it now;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, rich was their raiment and rare,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Blue, purple, and gold,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In fold upon fold;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of glory and majesty shorn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They are clothed with the wind of despair.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>GARLAND: Lo, the live waters run to greet the day:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Even so I laughed to see the soaring light;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>My life was poised like yonder curving wave</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To break in such bright revel of keen spray.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARLO: I counted not the years that took their flight,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Gold-crowned and singing; every hour I stood,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As one enchanted in an April wood,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In some new paradise of scent and flowers.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I counted not the countless, careless hours,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The days of rapture and the nights of peace.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>How should I dream that such delight could pass,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Such colour fade, such flowing numbers cease,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>My glory perish where was none to save,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And all my strength be trodden in the grass?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ASHALORN: Oh, blest art thou who diest in thy youth;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, blest art thou who failest in thy prime;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While yet thine eyes are full of wondering truth;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ere yet thy feet have found the ways of thorn.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Too long I wandered down the vale of time,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A lonely wind, all songless and forlorn;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For I have found the empty heart of things,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The secret sorrow of the summer rose,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And all the sadness of the April green;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I know that every happy stream that springs</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Into a sea of bitter memories flows;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I know the curse that God has set on kings--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The solitary splendour and the crown</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of desolation, and the prisoning state;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The heart that yearns beneath the robe of gold,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The soul that starves behind the golden gate.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I know how chance has reared our earthly thrones</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon a shifting wrack of whitened bones,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of heroes fallen in the wars of old--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>By wind upbuilded and by wind cast down.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>SEA-VOICES: As foam on the edge of the waters of night,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They flicker and fall;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>More brief than delight,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>More frail than their tears,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They flicker and fall</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In the tide of the years;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Awhile they may triumph, as lords of the earth,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With feasting and mirth,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet the winds and the waters shall sweep over all.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>VOICE OF THE WEST WIND: O wide-shifting wonder of sapphire and gold,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O wandering glory of emerald and white,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From the purple and green of the moorlands I come,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To sweep o'er thy waters with turbulent flight,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To sway thee, and swing thee abroad in my might;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I lean to thy lips, to their white, curling foam,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With laughter and kisses, to smite it to spray;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To thine uttermost deep, unlitten and cold,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I thrill thee with rapture, then wander away.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>I have drunk the red wine of the heather, and swept</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Over moorland and fell, for mile upon mile.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The little blue loughs were merry, and leapt,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With a shaking of laughter, in dim, dreaming hollows;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The little blue loughs were merry, and flung</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Their spray on my wings as above them I swung;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I laughed to their laughter, and dallied awhile;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then left them to sink in the silence that follows.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>In the forest I stirred, like the chant of thy tides,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The song of the boughs and the branches a-swinging;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The ashes and beeches and oak-trees were singing,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Like the noise of thy waters when dark tempest rides.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I swung on the crest of the pine-trees a-swaying,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As now on thy green, flowing surges, O sea;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I piped in my triumph, they danced to my playing;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I left them a-murmur, to hasten to thee.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>The white clouds were driven like ships through the air,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And grey flowed the shadows o'er sea-coloured bent,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And dark on the heathland, and dark on the wold:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But here on thy waters, where all things grow fair,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They shadow with purple thine emerald and gold.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>My revel unbroken, my rapture unspent,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To thy far-shining wonder, O sea, I have come,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To sweep o'er thy splendour with turbulent flight;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To sway thee, and swing thee abroad in my might;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I lean to thy lips, to their white, curling foam,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With laughter and kisses, to smite it to spray;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To thine uttermost deep, unlitten and cold,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I thrill thee with rapture, then wander away.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>GARLAND: There is no sadness in the world but death.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The years that whitened o'er thy head have taken</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The colour from thy life, but still in me</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The blood beats young and red; yea, still my breath</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Is full of freshness as the wind that blows</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Across the morning-fells when night has shaken</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His cooling dews among the wakening heath.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yea, now the wind that lashes o'er the sea</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Stings all my quivering body to keen life</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And whips the blood into my straining limbs;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And all the youth within me springs to fire;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I am consumed with ravening desire</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For one brief, wild, delirious hour of strife;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I yearn for every joy that flies or swims,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Rides on the wind or with the water flows.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet I must die by patient, slow degrees,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With hourly wasting flesh and parching blood;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ah God, that I might leap into the flood,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And perish struggling in the adventurous seas!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARLO: My mouth is filled with saltness, and I thirst</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For forest-pools that bubble in the shade,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When loud the hot chase pants through every glade,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And fleeing fawns from every thicket burst;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Or clear wine vintaged when the world was young,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Gurgling from deep-mouthed jars of coloured stone.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ASHALORN: The noonday burns my body to the bone,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And sets a coal of fire upon my tongue,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Between my lips, and stifles all my breath.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oh come, thou only joy undying, death!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>WAVE-VOICES: O wind, that failing, failing, failing, dies,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Beneath the heat of August-laden skies,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sinking in sleep, sinking in quiet sleep--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Thy blue wings folded o'er our dreaming deep</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>We too are weary, weary in the noon;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>We too will fall in shining slumber soon--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Foamless and still, foamless and very still,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unstirred, unshaken by thy restless will.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Yet there are eyes that cannot, cannot close,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And strong souls racked by fiery, rending woes--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Never to rest, never to gather rest</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>By any stream of murmuring waters blest.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>But slumber falling, falling, on us lies,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Silent and deep, beneath noon-laden skies,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Silent and deep, silent and very deep,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With blue wings folded o'er our dreaming sleep.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span>* * * * *</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 1em"> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>VOICE OF THE EVENING WIND: I have shaken the noon</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>from my wings, I arise</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>To quicken the flame in the western skies--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To blow the clouds to a streaming flame,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where the red sun sinks in the opal sea,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And red as the heart of the opal glows</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His last wild gleam in the waters grey.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O grey-green waters, curling to rose,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The kings are glad of the dying day;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The kings are weary; the white mists close--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The white mists gather to cover their shame.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ASHALORN: The evening mist is dank upon my brow,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And cold upon my lips--yea, cold as death;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet, through the gloom, she gazes on me now,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As in our early-wedded days; her breath</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Is warm once more upon my withered cheek.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O gaunt, grey lips, that strive but may not speak;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O cold, grey eyes, that flicker in the gloam--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Long have we strayed; come, let us wander home!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARLO: Like lit September woodlands, streameth down</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her hair, beneath the circle of her crown;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of rarer, redder glory than the cold</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Dead metal that for ever strives to hold</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The ever-straying wonder of live gold!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Like woodland pools, her eyes, a dreaming brown--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Like woodland pools where autumn-splendours drown!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O red-gold tresses, shaking in the gloam,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unto your light, unto your shade I come!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>GARLAND: Her eyes are azure as the wind-blown sea,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With deep sea-shadowings of grey and green;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And like an April storm her shining hair--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yea, all the glittering Aprils that have been,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And all the wondering Aprils yet to be,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Have stored their wealth of shower and sunshine there;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yea, all the thousand, thousand springs of earth</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>New-lit and re-awakened at her birth,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In her sweet body glow and glimmer fair.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O wonder of sea-colours and white foam</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And April glories, to thine arms I come!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>VOICE OF THE EVENING WIND: The sun is gone,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>and the last, red flame</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Has faded away in a shimmer of rose--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A shimmer of rose that shivers to grey.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The kings are glad of the dying day--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The kings are weary; the white mists close,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The white mists gather to cover their shame.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="the-songs-of-queen-averlaine"><span class="large">THE SONGS OF QUEEN AVERLAINE.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">To M. B.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>PERSONS: THE KING,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>QUEEN AVERLAINE,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>THE KNIGHT ARKELD.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">I. -<br />KING AND QUEEN.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">1.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>The day has come; at last my dream unfolds</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>White, wondering petals with the rising sun.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>No other glade in Love's world-garden holds</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>So fair a bloom from vanquished winter won.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Long, oh, so long I watched through budding hours,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>And, trembling, feared my dream would never wake;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>As, one by one, I saw star-tranced flowers</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Out on the night their dewy splendour shake.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>But with the earliest gleam of dawn it stirred,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Knowing that Love had put the dark to flight;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>And I must sing more glad than any bird</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Because the sun has filled my dream with light.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">2.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Is it high noon, already, in the land?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O Love, I dreamed that morn could never pass;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That we might ever wander, hand in hand,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As children in June-meadows plucking flowers,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Through ever-waking, fresh-unfolding hours:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet now we sink love-wearied in the grass;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yea, it is noon, high noon in all the land.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>The young wind slumbers; all the little birds</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That sang about us in the fields of morn</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Are songless now; no happy flight of words</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>On Love's lip hovers--Love has waxed to noon.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ah, God, if Love should wane to evening soon</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To perish in a sunless world, forlorn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And cease with the last song of weary birds!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">3.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>At dawn I gathered flowers of white,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To garland them for your delight.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>At noon I gathered flowers of blue,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To weave them into joy for you.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>At eve I gather purple flowers,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To strew above the withered hours.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">4.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>She knelt at eve beside the stream,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, sighing, sang: "O waters clear,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Forsaken now of joy and fear,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I come to drown a withered dream.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Unseen of day, I let it fall</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within the shadow of my hair.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O little dream, that bloomed so fair,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The waters hide you after all!"</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">5.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Is it not dawn?" she cried, and raised her head,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"Or hath the sun, grey-shrouded, yesternight,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Gone down with Love for ever to the dead?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When Love has perished, can there yet be light?"</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Yea, it is dawn," one answered: "see the dew</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Quivers agleam, and all the east is white;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While in the willow song begins anew."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"When Love has perished, can there yet be light?"</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">II. -<br />AVERLAINE AND ARKELD.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">1.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: Oh, why did you lift your eyes to mine?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, why did you lift your drooping head?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: The tangled threads of the fates entwine</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Our hearts that follow as children led.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: From the utmost ends of the earth we came,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As star moves starward through wildering night.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: Our souls have mingled as flame with flame,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yea, they have mingled as light with light.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: Ah God, ah God, that it never had been!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow that falls between!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: The stars in their courses move through the sky</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unswerving, unheeding, cold and blind.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: Why did you linger nor pass me by</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where the cross-roads meet in the ways that wind?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: I saw your eyes from the dusk of your hair</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Flame out with sorrow and yearning love.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: And I, who wandered with grey despair,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Looking up, saw heaven in blossom above.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: Ah God, ah God, that it never had been!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow that falls between!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: May we not go as we came, alone,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unto the ends of the earth anew?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: May we draw afresh from the rose new-blown</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The golden sunlight, the crystal dew?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: Yea, love between us has bloomed as a rose</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Out of the desert under our feet.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: May we forget how the red heart glows,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Forget that the dew on the petals is sweet?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: Ah God, ah God, that it never had been!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow that falls between!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: Have the ages brought us together that we</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Might tremble, start at shadows, and cry?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: Yea, it has been, and ever will be</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till Sorrow be slain or Love's self die.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: Stronger than Sorrow is Love; and Hate,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The brother of Love, shall end our Sorrow.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: The Shadow is strong with the strength of Fate,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, slain, would rise from the grave to-morrow.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: Ah God, ah God, that it never had been!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: The Shadow, the Shadow for ever between!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">2.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: Yea, we must part, and tear with ruthless hands</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The golden web wherein, too late, Love strove</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To weave us joy and bind us heart to heart.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: Yea, we must part, and strew on desert-sands</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Petal by petal all the rose of Love,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And part for ever where the cross-ways part.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: Yea, we must part, and never turn our eyes</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From strange horizons, desolate and far,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though Love cry ever: "Turn but once, sad heart!"</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: Yea, we must part, and under alien skies</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Must follow after some cold, gleaming star,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And roam, as north and south winds roam, apart.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>AVERLAINE: Yea, we must part, ere Love be grown too strong</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And we too helpless to resist his might;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While each may go with pure, unshamed heart.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>ARKELD: Yea, we must part; and though we do Love wrong,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He will the more subdue us in our flight,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And hold us each more surely his, apart.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="large">III. -QUEEN AVERLAINE.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">1.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>O love, I bade you go; and you have borne</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The summer with you from the valley-lands;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The poppy-flame has perished from the corn;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And in the chill, wan light of early morn</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The reapers come in doleful, starveling bands,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To bind the blackened sheaves with listless hands;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For rain has put their sowing-toil to scorn.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>O Love, I bade you go; and autumn brings</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Bleak desolation; yet within my heart</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unquenched and fierce the flame you kindled springs;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For, echoing all day long, the courtyard rings</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As loud it rang when, rending Love apart,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Your white horse cantered--swift and keen to start--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Into a world of other queens and kings.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">2.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>I bade you go; ah, wherefore are you gone?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>How could you leave me dark and desolate,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O Sun of Love, that for brief summer shone?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Mine eyes are ever on the western gate,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Half-wishing, half-foredreading your return.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Return, O Love, return!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>I cannot live without you; through the dark</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I stretch blind hands to you across the world;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All day on unknown battle-fields I mark</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Your sword's red course, your banner blue unfurled;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet never, in my day-dreams, you return.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Return, O Love, return!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Nay, you are gone: O Love, I bade you go.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I would not have you come again to be</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A stranger in this house of silent woe,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where, being all, you would be naught to me.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Mine, mine in dreams, but lost if you return;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, nevermore return!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">3.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"To-day a wandering harper came</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With outland tales of deeds of fame;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I hearkened from the noonday bright</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Until the failing of the light,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The while he sang of joust and fight;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet never once I caught your name.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, whither, whither are you gone,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Whose name victorious ever shone</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Above all knights of other lands?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Across what wilderness of sands?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>By what dead sea-deserted strands?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>On what far quest of Love forlorn?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>I loved you when men called you Lord</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Arkeld, the never-sleeping sword;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet now, when all your might is furled,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And you no longer crest the world,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>More are you mine than when you hurled</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Destruction on the embattled horde.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">4.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, deeper in the silent house</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>The silence falls;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Only the stir of bat or mouse</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>About the walls.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>No cry, no voice in any room,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>No gust of breath;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>As if, within the clutch of doom,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>We waited death.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">5.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>The King is dead;</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>No longer now</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>The cold eyes gleam</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Beneath his brow.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>O cold, grey eyes,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Wherein the light</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Of Love at dawn</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Seemed clear and bright,</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>No true Love burned</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Your cold desire,</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Which mirrored but</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>My own heart's fire.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">6.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>The King died yesterday.... Ah, no, he died</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>When young Love perished long, so long ago;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>And on his throne, as marble at my side,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Has reigned a carven image, cold as snow,</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Though all men bowed before it, crying: "King!"</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Too late, too late the chains which held me fall;</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Rock-bound, I bade the victor-knight go by;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>And now, when time has loosed me from the thrall,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>I know not where he tarries, 'neath what sky</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>He waits the winter's end, the dawn of spring.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">7.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Spring comes no more for me: though young March blow</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To flame the larches, and from tree to tree</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The green fire leap, till all the woodlands glow--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though every runnel, filled to overflow,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Bear sea-ward, loud and brown with melted snow,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Spring comes no more for me!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Spring comes no more for me: though April light</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The flame of gorse above the peacock sea;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though in an interweaving mesh of white</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The seagulls hover 'neath the cliff's sheer height;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though, hour by hour, new joys are winged for flight,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Spring comes no more for me!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Spring comes no more for me: though May will shake</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>White flame of hawthorn over all the lea,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till every thick-set hedge and tangled brake</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Puts on fresh flower of beauty for her sake;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though all the world from winter-sleep awake,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Spring comes no more for me!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">8.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>I wandered through the city till I came</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Within the vast cathedral, cool and dim;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>I looked upon the windows all aflame</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>With blazoned knights and saints and seraphim.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>I looked on kings in purple, gold and blue,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>On martyrs high before whom all men bow;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Until a gleam of light my footsteps drew</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Before a shining seraph, on whose brow</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>A little flame, for ever pure and white,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Unwavering burns--the symbol of our love;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>And as I knelt before him in the night,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>He looked, compassionate, on me from above.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">9.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>I heard a harper 'neath the castle walls</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sing, for night-shelter in the house of thralls,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A song of hapless lovers; in the shade</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I paused awhile, unseen of man or maid.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Taking his harp, he touched the moaning strings,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And sang of queens unloved and loveless kings;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His song shot through my fluttering heart like flame</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till, wondering, I heard him breathe your name.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, then I knew how all the deathless wrong</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Time wrought of old is but a harper's song;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And all the hopeless sorrow of long years</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>An idle tale to win a stranger's tears.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Yea, in the song of Love's immortal dead</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Our love was told; with shuddering heart I fled,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And strove to pass upon my way unseen,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But song was hushed with whispers: "Lo, the Queen!"</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">10.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Was it for this we loved, O Time, to be</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Among Love's deathless through eternity,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Set high on lone, divided peaks above</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The sheltered summer-valley, broad and green?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Was it for this our joy and grief have been,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Our barren day-dreams, dream-deserted nights--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That valley-lovers, looking up, might see</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>How vain is Love among the starry heights,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, loving, sigh: "How vain a thing is Love!"?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>O Love, that we had found thee in the shade</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where, all day long, the deep, leaf-hidden glade</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Hears but the moan of some forsaken dove,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Or the clear song of happy, nameless streams;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where, all night long, the August moonlight gleams</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Through warm, green dusk, no longer cold and white!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O Love, that we had found thee, unafraid,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>One summer morn, and followed thee till night,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As unknown valley-lovers follow Love!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">11.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>I have grown old, awaiting spring's return,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>And, now spring comes, I stand like winter grey</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>In a young world; yet warm within me burn</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>The morning-fires Love kindled in youth's day.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>I have grown old; the young folk look on me</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>With sighs, and wonder that I once was fair,</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>And whisper one another: "Is this she?</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Did summer ever light that winter hair?</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Ah, she is old; yet, she, too, once was young:</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Yea, loved as we love even, for men tell</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>How bright her beauty burned on every tongue,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>And how a knightly stranger loved her well.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Yet Love grows old that beats so young and warm;</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>His leaping fires in dust and ashes fail;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Shall we, too, wither in the winter-storm,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>And wander thus one April, old and frail?"</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Love grows not old, O lovers, though youth die,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>And bodily beauty perish as the flower;</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line"><span>Though all things fail, though spring and summer fly,</span></div> -<div class="inner line-block"> -<div class="line"><span>Love's fire burns quenchless till the last dark hour.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">12.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>O valley-lovers, think you love,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Being all of joy, knows naught of sorrow?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A day, a night</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of swift delight</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That fears no dread, grey-dawning morrow?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>O valley-lovers, think you love</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Knows only laughter, naught of weeping?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A rose-red fire</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of warm desire</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For ever burning, never sleeping?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>O lovers, little know ye Love.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Love is a flame that feeds on sorrow--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A lone star bright</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Through endless night</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That waits a never-dawning morrow.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">13.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>"Thus would I sing of life,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ere I must yield my breath:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though broken in the strife,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I sought not after death.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though ruthless years have scourged</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>My soul with sorrow's brands,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, day by day, have urged</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>My feet o'er desert-sands;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet would I rather tread</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Again the bitter trail,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Than lie, calm-browed and pale,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Among the loveless dead.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>No pang would I forego,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>No stab of suffering,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>No agony of woe,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>If I to life might cling;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>If I might follow still,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For evermore, afar,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O'er barren dale and hill,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>My Love's unfading star.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yea, now, with failing breath,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Thus would I sing of life:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though broken in the strife,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I sought not after death.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">14.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Darkness has come upon me in the end;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Darkness has come upon me like a friend,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet undesired; why comest thou, O night,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To seal mine eyes for ever from the light?</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Darkness has come upon me; yet a star</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Burns through the night and beckons me from far.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Look up, O eyes, unfaltering, without fear;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O morning-star of Love, the dawn is near!</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 4em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst" id="id1"><span class="large">THE GOLDEN HELM.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">The Golden Helm</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">I.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Across his stripling shoulders Geoffrey felt</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The knighting-sword fall lightly, and he heard</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The King's voice bid him rise; and at the word</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He rose, new-flushed with knighthood, swiftly grown</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To sudden manhood, though, but now, he knelt</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A vigil-wearied squire before the throne.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He paused one moment while the people turned</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To look on him with eyes that kindled bright,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Seeing his face aglow with strange, new light;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet them he saw not where they watched amazed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, though like azure flames Queen Hild's eyes burned,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Beyond the shadow of the throne he gazed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To where, in kindred rapture, young Christine</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Stood, tremulous and white, in wind-flower grace--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Beneath her thick, dark hair, her happy face</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Pale-gleaming 'midst the ruddy maiden-throng;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But, following Geoffrey's eyes, the trembling Queen</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Now bade the harpers rouse the air with song:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From pulsing throat and silver-throbbing string</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The music soared, light-winged, and, fluttering, fell;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When, startled as one waking from a spell,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Geoffrey stepped back among the waiting knights;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While knelt another squire before the King.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In Queen Hild's eyes yet hovered stormy lights,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Beneath her glooming brows, as waters gleam</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Under snow-laden skies; the summer day</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For her in that brief glance had shivered grey,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Empty of light and song. She only heard</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The King and knights as people of a dream;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet keenly Geoffrey's lightest, laughing word</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Stung to the quick, and stabbed her quivering life,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till from each shuddering wound the red joy flowed;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, though a ruddy fire on each cheek glowed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She felt her drainèd heart within her cold;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then all at once a hot thought stirred new strife</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within her breast, and suddenly grown old</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And wise in treacherous imagining,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She pressed her thin lips to a bitter smile,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And strove with laughing mask to hide the guile</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That, slowly welling, through her body poured</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Cold-blooded life that feels no arrowy sting</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of joy or hope, nor thrust of pity's sword.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To Christine, where she yet enraptured stood,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Hild, turning, spake kind words, and coldly praised</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The new-made knight. Each word Christine amazed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Drank in with joyous heart and eager ears;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To her it seemed ne'er lived a Queen so good;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And love's swift rapture filled her eyes with tears.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For her true heart, the day-long pageant moved</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Round Geoffrey's shining presence; king and knight</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But shone for her with pale, reflected light.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As trancèd planets circling round the sun,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>About the radiant head of her beloved</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The dim throngs moved until the day was done.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When lucent gold suffused the cloudless west,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And lingering thrush-notes failed in drowsy song,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She left, at last, the weary maiden-throng,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To stray alone through dew-hung garden-glades;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And all the love unsealed within her breast</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Flowed out from her to light the darkest shades.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her quivering maiden-body could not hold</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The sudden welling of love's loosened flood;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Through all her limbs it gushed, and in her blood</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>It stormed each throbbing pulse with blissful ache;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>It seemed to spray the utmost glooms with gold,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And scatter glistening dews in every brake.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While yet she moved in rapture unafraid</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Among the lilies, down the Grey Nun's Walk,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She heard behind the snapping of a stalk,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And stayed transfixed, nor dared to turn her head,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But stood a solitary, trembling maid--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Forlorn and frail, with all her courage fled.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Thus Geoffrey found her as, hot-foot, he pressed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To pour about her all the glowing tide</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Day-pent within his heart; the flood-gates wide,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His love swept over her, sea after sea,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Until life almost swooned within her breast,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And she seemed like to drown in ecstasy.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet, as the tempest sank in calm at last,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She rose from out the foam of love, new-born--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As Venus from the irised surf of morn--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To such triumphant beauty, Geoffrey, thralled,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Before her stood in wonder rooted fast;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Even his love within him bowed appalled</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In tongueless worship as he gazed on her;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While, lily-like, the trancèd flowers among,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She stood, love-radiant, and above her hung</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The canopy of star-enkindling night;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though, when again she moved with joyous stir,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He sprang to her in love's unchallenged might.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">II.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>All night, beside her slumbering lord, the Queen</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Tossed sleepless--every aching sense astrain</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With tingling wakefulness that racked like pain</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her weary limbs; all night, in wide-eyed dread,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She watched the slow hours moving dark between</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The glimmering window and the curtained bed.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The fitful calling of the owl, all night,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Struck like the voice of terror on her ears;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With brushing wings, about her taloned fears</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Fluttered till dawn: when, as the summer gloom,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Grey-quivering, spilt in silver-showering light,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She rose and stood within the dawning room,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Shivering and pale--her long, unbraided hair</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Each moment quickening to a livelier gold</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>About her snowy shoulders; yet, more cold</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Than the still gleam of winter-frozen meres,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her blue eyes shone with strange, unseeing stare,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As though they sought to pierce some mist of fears;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, when she turned, the old familiar things</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unknown and alien seemed to her sight--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Outworn and faded in the morning light</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The rose-embroidered tapestries, and frail</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The painted Love that hung on irised wings</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Above the sleeping King. Dark-browed and pale</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She looked upon her lord, and fresh despair</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With dreadful calm through all her being stole,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And froze with icy breath the flickering soul</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That strove within her. Evil courage steeled</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her heart once more, as, combing back her hair,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She watched the waking world of wood and field:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Hay-harvesters with long scythes flashing white;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The dewy-browsing deer; the blue smoke-curl</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Above some woodland hut; a kerchiefed girl</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Driving the kine afield with loitering pace.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But, as a youthful rider came in sight,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She from the casement turned with darkening face,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And looked not out again, and fiercely pressed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her white teeth in her quivering underlip,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To stifle the wild cry that strove to slip</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From her strained throat; with clutching hands she sought</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To stay the throbbing tumult of her breast</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That fluttered like a bird in meshes caught.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Christine as yet in dreamless slumber lay</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within her turret-chamber; but a bird</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within the laurel singing softly stirred</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her eyes to wakeful life, and from her bed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She rose and stood within the light of day,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>White-faced and wondering, with lifted head.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As April-butterflies, new-winged for flight,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That poise awhile in quivering amaze,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ere they may dare the unknown, glittering ways</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of perilous airs--upon the brink of morn</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She paused one moment in the showering light,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In radiant ecstasy of youth forlorn.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then swift remembrance flushed her virgin snow,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And wakened in her eyes the living fire;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With joyous haste she drew her bright attire</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>About her trembling limbs, with eager hands,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Veiling her maiden beauty's morning glow,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Before she looked abroad on meadowlands,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where Geoffrey rode at dawn. Across the blaze</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of dandelions silvering to seed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She saw his white horse swing with easy speed;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He rode with head exultant in the breeze</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That lifted his brown hair. With lingering gaze</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She watched him vanish down an aisle of trees;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, swiftly gathering her dark hair in braids</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Above her slender neck, she crossed the floor</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With noiseless step, unlatched the creaking door,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And stole in trembling silence down the stair,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Intent to reach the garden ere the maids</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Should come with chattering tongues and laughter there;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When by her side she heard a rustling stir:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The arras parted, and before her stood</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Queen Hild in proud, imperious womanhood,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Looking upon her with cold, smiling eyes.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In startled wonder Christine glanced at her.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then spake the Queen: "Do maids thus early rise</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To tend their household duties, or to feed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The doves, relinquishing sleep's precious hours</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To see the morning dew upon the flowers</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And what frail blooms have perished 'neath the moon?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To reach the Grey Nun's Walk, mayhap you speed--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To count the stricken buds of lilies strewn</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>O'ernight upon the soil by careless feet</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That wandered there so late? Yea, now I know,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christine, because you flush and tremble so.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet look you not on me with eyes that burn;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I would not stay you when you go to greet</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The rider of the dawn on his return.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Think you I leave my bed at break of day--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I, Hild the Queen--to thwart a lover's kiss?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Think you my love of you could stoop to this,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though you would wed a fledgling, deedless Knight?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Nay, shrink you not from me, turn not away;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Because my heart has never known love's light,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I fain would hear your happy tale of love,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That I may prosper you and your fair youth.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Will you not trust me?" Blind with love's glad truth,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christine sank down within Hild's outstretched arms.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Speechless, awhile, with sobbing breath she strove;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then poured out all the tale of love's alarms,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Raptures, despairs, and deathless ecstasies,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In one quick torrent from her brimming heart;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, quaking, ceased, and drew herself apart,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Dismayed that she so easily had revealed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To this white, cold-eyed Queen love's sanctities.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet Hild moved not, but stood, with hard lips sealed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Until, the chiming of the turret-bell</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Recalling her, she spake with far-off voice:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"I, loveless, in your innocent love rejoice.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>May nothing stem its eager raptured course!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, that my barren heart could love so well,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And feel the surge of love's subduing force!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet even I from out my dearth may give</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To you, Christine. Would you that Geoffrey's name</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Shall shine, unchallenged, on the lists of fame?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>If you would have him win for you the crown</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of knightly immortality, and live</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Triumphant on men's tongues in high renown,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Follow me now." With cold, exulting eyes</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She raised the arras, opening to the light</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>An unknown stair-way clambering into night.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within the caverned wall she swiftly passed.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christine for one brief moment in surprise</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Uncertain paused; then, wondering, followed fast.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The falling arras shutting out the day,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She stumbled blindly through the soaring gloom--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Enclosing dank and chilly as the tomb</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her panting life; and unto her it seemed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That ever, as she climbed, more sheer the way</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Before her rose, and ever fainter gleamed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The wan, white star of light that overhead</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Hovered remote. Far up the stair she heard</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A silken rustling as, without a word,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Relentlessly Queen Hild before her sped</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For ever up the ever-soaring steep.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But when it almost seemed that she must fall--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>So loudly in her ears the pulses beat,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And each step seemed to sink beneath her feet--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She heard the shrilly grating of a key,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And saw, above her, in the unseen wall,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A dazzling square of day break suddenly.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within the lighted doorway Queen Hild turned</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To reach a helping hand, and, as she bent</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To clutch the swooning maiden, well-nigh spent,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And drew her to the chamber, weak and faint,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Through her gold hair so rare a lustre burned,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>It seemed to Christine that an aureoled saint</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Leaned out from heaven to snatch her from the deep.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, dizzily, she sank upon the floor,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Dreaming that toil was over evermore,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And she secure in Love's celestial fold;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till, waking gradually as from a sleep,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her dark eyes opened on a blaze of gold.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She sat within a chamber hung around</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With glistering tapestry, whereon a knight,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Who bore a golden helm above the fight,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For ever triumphed o'er assailing swords,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Or led the greenwood chase with horse and hound,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While far behind him lagged the dames and lords</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And all the hunting train; till he, at length,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Brought low the antlered quarry on the brink</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of some deep, craggy cleft, wherefrom did shrink</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The quailing hounds with lathered flanks aquake.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As Christine looked on them, her maiden-strength</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Returned to her; and now, more broad awake,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She saw, within the centre of the room,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A golden table whereon glittered bright</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A casket of wrought gold, and, in the light,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Queen Hild, awaiting her, with smiling lips,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And laughing words: "Is this then love's sad doom,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To perish, fainting, in light's brief eclipse</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Between a curtain and a closed door?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Shall this bright casket ever hold, unsought,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The golden helm--in elfin-ages wrought</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For some star-destined knight--because love's heart</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Grows faint within her? Shall the world no more</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Acclaim its helmèd lord?" But, with a start,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christine arose, and swiftly forward came</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With eager eyes, and stooped with fluttering breast--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her slender, shapely hands together pressed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In tense expectancy, and all her face</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With quivering light of wondering love aflame.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The Queen bent down, and in a breathing space</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unlocked the casket with a golden key,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And deftly loosed a little golden pin;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The heavy lid swung open and, within,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To Christine's eyes revealed the golden helm.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then spake Queen Hild, once more: "Your love-gift see!</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Think you that any smith in all the realm</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Can beat dull metal to so fair a casque?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In jewelled caverns of enchantment old</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>This helm was wrought of magic-tempered gold</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To yieldless strength, by elfin-hammers chased,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That toiled unwearied at their age-long task,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And over it an unknown legend traced</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In letters of some world-forgotten tongue.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>At noon, with careful footing, down the stair</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unto the hall the casket you must bear,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When King and knight are gathered round the board,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, ere the tales be told or songs be sung,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Acclaim your love the golden-helmed lord."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christine, awhile, in speechless wonderment,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Hung o'er the glistering helm, and silence fell</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within the arrased chamber like a spell;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While softly, on some distant, sunlit roof,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The basking pigeons cooed with deep content;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till, far below, a sudden-clanging hoof</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Startled the morn. The women's lifted eyes</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>One moment met in kindred ecstasy;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then Hild, with hopeless shudder, shaking free,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With strained voice spake: "Why do you longer wait?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Your love returns; shall he, in sad surprise,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Find no glad face to greet him at the gate?"</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">III.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>As some new jest was tossed from tongue to tongue,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Light laughter rippled round the midday board,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Beneath the bannered rafters: dame and lord</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And maid and squire with merry chattering</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sat feasting; though no motley humour wrung</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A smile from Hild, where she, beside the King,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Watched pale and still. She saw on Geoffrey's face</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Grave wonder that he caught not anywhere</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Among the maids the dusk of Christine's hair,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Or sunlight of her glance. His eyes, between</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The curtained doorway and her empty place,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Kept eager, anxious vigil for Christine.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But when, at last, the lingering meal nigh o'er,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The waking harp-notes trembled through the hush,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Like the light, fitful prelude of the thrush</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ere his full song enchant the domèd elm;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The arras parting, through the open door</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She came. Before her borne, the golden helm</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within the dim-lit hall shone out so bright,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That lord and dame in rustling wonder rose,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And squire and maiden sought to gather close,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With questioning lips, about the love-bright maid.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christine, unheeding, turned nor left nor right;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With lifted head and eager step unstayed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She strode to Geoffrey, while he stood alone,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Radiant with wondering love--as one who sees</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The light of high, eternal mysteries</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Illume awhile the mortal shade that moves</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From out oblivion unto night unknown,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Hugging a little grace of joys and loves.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Before him now she came and, kneeling, spake,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With slow, clear-welling voice: "In ages old</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>This helm was wrought from elfin-hammered gold,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For one who, in the after-days, should be</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Supreme above his kind, as, in the brake</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of branching fern, the solitary tree</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That crests the fell-top. Unto you I bring</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The gift of destiny, that, as the sun</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>New-risen of your knighthood, newly-won,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The wondering world may see its glory shine."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As Christine spake, with questioning glance the King</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Turned to the Queen, who gave no answering sign.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, stretching forth his arm, he cried: "Sir knight,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I know not by what evil chance this maid</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Has climbed the secret newell-stair unstayed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And reached the casket-chamber, and has borne</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From thence the Helm of Strife, whereon the light</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of day has never fallen, night or morn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For seven hundred years; but, ere you take</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The doomful gift, know this: he who shall dare</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To don the golden helm must ever fare</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon the edge of peril, ever ride</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Between dark-ambushed dangers, ever wake</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unto the thunderous crash of battle-tide.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Oh, pause before you take the fateful helm.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Will you, so young, forego, for evermore,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The sheltered haven-raptures of the shore,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To strive in ceaseless tempest, till, at last,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The fury-crested wave shall overwhelm</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Your broken life on death's dark crag upcast?"</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He ceased, and stood with eyes of hot appeal;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>An aching silence shuddered through the hall;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>None stirred nor spake, though, swaying like to fall,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christine, in mute, imploring agony,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Wavered nigh death. As glittering points of steel</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Queen Hild's eyes gleamed in bitter victory.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But all were turned to Geoffrey, where he stood</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In pillared might of manhood, very fair;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His face a little paled beneath his hair,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though bright his eyes with all the light of day.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>At length he spake: "For evil or for good,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>I take the Helm of Strife; let come what may."</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">IV.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Dawn shivered coldly through the meadowlands;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The ever-trembling aspens by the stream</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Quivered with chilly light and fitful gleam;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ruffling the heavy foliage of the plane,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Until the leaves turned, like pale, lifted hands,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A cold gust stirred with presage of near rain.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Coldly the light on Geoffrey's hauberk fell;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But yet more cold on Christine's heart there lay</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The winter-clutch of grief, as, far away,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She saw him ride, and in the stirrup rise</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, turning, wave to her a last farewell.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Beyond the ridge he vanished, and her eyes</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Caught the far flashing of the helm of gold</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>One moment as it glanced with mocking light;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then naught but tossing pine-trees filled her sight.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet darker gloomed the woodlands 'neath the drench</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of pillared showers; colder and yet more cold</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her heart had shuddered since the last, hot wrench</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of parting overnight. Though still her mouth</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Felt the mute impress of love's sacred seal;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though still through all her senses seemed to steal</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The heavy fume of wound-wort that had hung</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All night about the hedgerows--parched with drouth;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though the first notes the missel-cock had sung,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ere darkness fled, resounded in her ears;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet no hot tempest of tumultuous woe</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Shook her young body. As night-fallen snow</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Burdens with numb despair young April's green,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her sorrow lay upon her; hopes and fears</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within her slept. As something vaguely seen</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Nor realised--since yesterday's dread noon</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Had shattered all love's triumph--life had passed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>About her like a dream by doom o'ercast.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Long hours she sat, with silent, folded hands,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And face that glimmered like a winter moon</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In cloudy hair. Across the rain-grey lands</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She gazed with eyes unseeing; till she heard</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A step within her chamber, and her name</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Fell dully on her ear; then like a flame</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sharp anguish shot through every aching limb</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With keen remembrance. Suddenly she stirred,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, turning, looked on Hild. "Grieve you for him..."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The Queen began; then, with a little gasp,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her voice failed, and she shrank before the gaze</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of Christine's eyes, and, shrivelled by the blaze</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of fires her hand had kindled, all her pride</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Fell shredded, and not even the gold clasp</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of queenhood held, her naked deed to hide.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She quailed, and, turning, fled from out the room.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Soon Christine's wrath was drowned in whelming grief,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And in the fall of tears she found relief--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As brooding skies in sweet release of rain.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All day she wept, until, at length, the gloom</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of eve laid soothing hands upon her pain.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, once again, she rose, calm-browed, and sped</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Downstairs with silent step, and reached, unstayed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The Grey Nun's Walk, where all alone a maid</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Drank in the rain-cooled air. With low-breathed words,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They whispered long together, while, o'erhead,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From rain-wet branches rang the song of birds.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The maiden often paused as in alarm;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, with uncertain, half-delaying pace,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She left Christine, returning in a space</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With Philip, Christine's brother, a young squire,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Who strode by her with careless, swinging arm</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And eager face, with keen, blue eyes afire.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then all three stood, with whispering heads bent low,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In eager converse clustered; till, at last,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They parted, and, with high hopes beating fast,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christine unto her turret-room returned--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her dark eyes bright and all her face aglow,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As if some new-lit rapture in her burned.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>About her little chamber swift she moved,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Until, at length, in travelling array,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She paused to rest, and all-impatient lay</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon her snow-white bed, and watched the light</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Fail from the lilied arras that she loved</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Because her hand had wrought each petal white</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And slender, emerald stem. The falling night</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Was lit for her with many a memory</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of little things she could no longer see,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That had been with her in old, happy hours,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Before her girlish joys had taken flight</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As morning dews from noon-unfolding flowers.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For her, with laggard pace the minutes trailed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Till night seemed to eternity outdrawn.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>At last, an hour before the summer-dawn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She rose and once again, with noiseless tread,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Crept down the stair, grey-cloaked and closely veiled,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While every shadow struck her cold with dread</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Lest, drawing back the arras, Hild should stand</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With mocking smile before her; but, unstayed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She reached the stair-foot, and, no more afraid,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She sought a low and shadow-hidden door,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Slid back the silent bolts with eager hand,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And stepped into the garden dim once more.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She quickly crossed a dewy-plashing lawn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, passing through a little wicket-gate,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She reached the road. Not long had she to wait</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Ere, with two bridled horses, Philip came.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Silent they mounted; far they fared ere dawn</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Burnished the castle-weathercock to flame.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">V.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Northward they climbed from out the valley mist;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Northward they crossed the sun-enchanted fells;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Northward they plunged down deep, fern-hidden dells;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And northward yet--until the sapphire noon</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Had burned and glowed to thunderous amethyst</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of evening skies about an opal moon;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Northward they followed fast the loud-tongued fame</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of young Sir Geoffrey of the golden helm;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Until it seemed that storm must overwhelm</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Their weary flight. They sought a lodging-place,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And soon upon a lonely cell they came</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Wherein a hermit laboured after grace.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>On beds of withered bracken, soft and warm,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>He housed them, and himself, all night, alone,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Knelt in long vigil on the aching stone,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Within his little chapel, though, all night,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His prayers were drowned by thunders of the storm,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And all about him flashed blue, pulsing light.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christine in calm, undreaming slumber lay,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Nor stirred till, clear and glittering, the morn</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sang through the forest; though, with roots uptorn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The mightiest-limbed and highest-soaring oak</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Had fallen charred, with green leaves shrivelled grey.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>At tinkling of the matin-bell she woke,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And soon with Philip left the woodland boughs</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>For barer uplands. Over tawny bent</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And purpling heath they rode till day was spent;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When, down within a broad, green-dusking dale,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They sought the shelter of the holy house</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of God's White Sisters of the Virgin's Veil.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>So, day by day, they ever northward pressed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Until they left the lands of peace behind,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And rode among the border-hills, where blind</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Insatiate warfare ever rages fierce;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where night-winds ever fan a fiery crest,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And dawn's light breaks on bright, embattled spears:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A land whose barren hills are helmed with towers;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A lone, grey land of battle-wasted shires;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A land of blackened barns and empty byres;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A land of rock-bound holds and robber-hordes,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of slumberous noons and wakeful midnight hours,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of ambushed dark and moonlight flashing swords.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With hand on hilt and ever-kindling eyes,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Flushed face and quivering nostril, Philip rode;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But nought assailed them; every lone abode</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Forsaken seemed; all empty lay the land</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Beneath the empty sky; only the cries</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of plovers pierced the blue on either hand;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Until, at sudden cresting of a hill,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The clang of battle sounded on their ears,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And, far below, they saw a surge of spears</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Crash on unyielding ranks; while, from the sea</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of striving steel, with deathly singing shrill,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A spray of arrows flickered fitfully.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Amazed they stood, wide-eyed, with holden breath;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When, of a sudden, flashed upon their sight</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The golden helm in midmost of the fight,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Where, with high-lifted head and undismayed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sir Geoffrey rode, a very lord of death,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With ever-leaping, ever-crashing blade.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christine watched long, now cold with quaking dread,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Now hot with hope as each assailant fell;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The bright sword held her gaze as by a spell;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Because love blinded her to all but love,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unmoved she watched the foemen shudder dead,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She whose heart erst the meanest woe could move.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, dazed, she saw a solitary shaft,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unloosed with certain aim from out the bow,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Strike clean through Geoffrey's hauberk, and bring low</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The golden helm, while o'er him swiftly met</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The tides of fight. Christine a little laughed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With rattling throat, and stood with still eyes set.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Scarce Philip dared to raise his eyes to hers</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To see the terror there. No word she spake,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But leaned a little forward through the brake</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>That bloomed about her in a golden blaze;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her hands were torn to bleeding by the furze,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet nothing could disturb that dreadful gaze.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then, gradually, the heaving battle swerved</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To northward, faltering broken, and afar</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>It closed again, where, round a jutting scar,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The flashing torrent of the river curved.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With eager step Christine ran down the hill,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And sped across the late-forsaken field</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To where, with shattered sword and splintered shield,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Among the mounded bodies Geoffrey lay.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She loosed his helm, but deathly pale and still</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>His young face gleamed within the light of day.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christine beside him knelt, as Philip sought</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A draught of water from the peat-born stream;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When, in his eyes, at last, a fitful gleam</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Flickered, and bending low, with straining ears,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The laboured breathing of her name she caught;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And over his dead face fell fast her tears.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Once more towards them the tide of battle swept;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Christine moved not. Young Philip on her cried,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And strove, in vain, to draw her safe aside.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A random shaft in her unshielded breast--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though hot to stay its course her brother leapt--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Struck quivering, and she slowly sank to rest.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 2em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="medium">VI.</span></p> -<div class="line-block outermost"> -<div class="line"><span>Queen Hild sat weaving in her garden-close,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When on her startled ear there fell the news</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of Christine's flight before the darkling dews</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Had thrilled with dawn. A strand of golden thread</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Slipped from her trembling fingers as she rose</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And hastened to the castle with drooped head.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All morn she paced within her blinded room,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unresting, to and fro, her white hands clenched;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>All morn within her tearless eyes, unquenched,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Blue fires of anger smouldered, yet no moan</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Escaped her lips. Without, in summer bloom,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The garden murmured with bliss-burdened drone</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of hover-flies and lily-charmed bees;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sometimes a finch lit on the window-ledge,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With shrilly pipe, or, from the rose-hung hedge,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A blackbird fluted; yet she neither heard</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Nor heeded aught; until, by rich degrees,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Drowsed into noon the noise of bee and bird.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yea, even when, without her chamber, stayed</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A doubtful step, and timid fingers knocked,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She answered not, but, swiftly striding, locked</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yet more secure, with angry-clicking key,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The bolted door, and the affrighted maid</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unto the waiting hall fled, fearfully.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Wearied at last, upon her bed Queen Hild</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In fitful slumber sank; but evil dreams</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Of battle-stricken lands and blood-red streams</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Swirled through her brain. Then, suddenly, she woke,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Wide-eyed, and sat upright, with body chilled,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though in her throat the hot air seemed to choke.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Swiftly she rose; then, binding her loosed hair,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She bathed her throbbing brows, and, cold and calm,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Downstairs she glided, while the evening-psalm</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In maiden-voices quavered, faint and sweet,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And from the chapel-tower, through quivering air,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The bell's clear silver-tinkling clove the heat.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She strode into the hall where yet the King</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sat with his knights; a weary minstrel stirred</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Cool, throbbing wood-notes, throated like a bird,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From his soft-stringèd lute. With scornful eyes</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Hild looked on them and spake: "Can nothing sting</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Your slumberous hearts from slothful peace to rise?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Must only stripling-knights and maidens ride</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To battle, where, unceasing, foemen wage</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>War on your marches, and your wardens rage</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In impotent despair with desperate swords,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>While you, O King, with sheathèd arms abide?"</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She paused, and, wondering, the King and lords</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Looked on her mutely; then, again, she spake:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"Shall I, then, and my maidens sally forth</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With battle-brands to conquer the wild north?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Yea, I will go! Who follows after me?"</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>As by a blow struck suddenly awake,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The King leapt up, and, like a clamorous sea,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The knights about him. Scornfully the Queen</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Looked on them: "So my woman's words have roused</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The hands that slumbered and the hearts that drowsed.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Make ready then for battle; ere seven days</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Have passed, the dawn must light your armour's sheen,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And in the sun your pennoned lances blaze."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Her voice ceased; and a pulsing flame of light</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Flashed through the hall; in crashing thunder broke</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The heavy, hanging heat; the rafters woke</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In echo as the rainy torrent poured;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Bright gleamed the rapid lightning; yet more bright</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The war-lust kindled hot in every lord.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>To clang of armour the seventh morning stirred</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>From slumber; restless hoof and champing bit</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Aroused the garth; and day, arising, lit</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A hundred lances, as, each bolt withdrawn,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The courtyard-gate swung wide with noise far-heard,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And flickering pennons rode into the dawn--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Before his knights, the King, and at his side,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Queen Hild, with ever-northward-gazing eyes;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>But, ere they far had fared, in mute surprise</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They stayed and all drew rein, as down the road</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They saw a little band of warriors ride--</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sore travel-stained--who bore a heavy load</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Upon a branch-hung litter; while before</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Came Philip, bearing a war-broken lance.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Though King and lords looked, wondering, in a glance</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Queen Hild had read the sorrow of his face</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And pierced the leaf-hid secret--which e'ermore</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A brand of fire upon her heart would trace.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Darkness about her swirled, but, with a fierce</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Wild, conquering shudder, shaking herself free,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Unto the light she clung, though like a sea</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>It surged and eddied round her; yet so still</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She sat, none knew her steely eyes could pierce</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The leafy screen. With guilty terror chill,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>She heard the king speak--sadly riding forth:</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>"Whence come you, Philip, battle-stained and slow?</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>What burden bear you with such brows of woe?"</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Then Philip answered, mournfully: "I bring</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Two wanderers home from out the perilous north.</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Prepare to gaze on death's defeat, O King."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>They lowered the litter slowly to the ground;</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Back fell the branches; in the light of day,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>In calm, white sleep Christine and Geoffrey lay,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And at their feet the baleful Helm of Strife</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Sword-cloven. Hushed stood all the knights around,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>When spake the King, alighting: "Come, O wife,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>And let us twain, with humble heads low-bowed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Even at the feet of love triumphant stand,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>A little while together, hand in hand."</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>The Queen obeyed; but, fearfully, she shrank</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>Before the eyes of death, and, quaking, cowed,</span></div> -<div class="line"><span>With moaning cry, low in the dust she sank.</span></div> -</div> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 3em"> -</div> -<p class="center pfirst"><span class="small">PRINTED BY R. FOLKARD AND SON, -<br />23, DEVONSHIRE STREET, QUEEN SQUARE, BLOOMSBURY.</span></p> -<div class="vspace" style="height: 6em"> -</div> -<!-- -*- encoding: utf-8 -*- --> -<div class="backmatter"> -</div> -<p class="pfirst" id="pg-end-line"><span>*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK </span><span>THE GOLDEN HELM</span><span> ***</span></p> -<div class="cleardoublepage"> -</div> -<div class="language-en level-2 pgfooter section" id="a-word-from-project-gutenberg" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> -<span id="pg-footer"></span><h2 class="level-2 pfirst section-title title"><span>A Word from Project Gutenberg</span></h2> -<p class="pfirst"><span>We will update this book if we find any errors.</span></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>This book can be found under: </span><a class="reference external" href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42052"><span>http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42052</span></a></p> -<p class="pnext"><span>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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