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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c395230 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #62456 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62456) diff --git a/old/62456-0.txt b/old/62456-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d140af3..0000000 --- a/old/62456-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3299 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Heliodora, by Hilda Doolittle - -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 Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Heliodora - And Other Poems - -Author: Hilda Doolittle - -Release Date: June 23, 2020 [EBook #62456] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HELIODORA *** - - - - -Produced by Tim Lindell, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - HELIODORA - _And Other Poems_ - - - - - Heliodora - _And Other Poems - by_ H. D. - - Boston and New York - Houghton Mifflin Company - - MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN - - - MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY - BUTLER AND TANNER LTD., FROME AND LONDON - - -Acknowledgment for the permission to reprint certain poems is due to: -_Nation_, _Sphere_, _Egoist_ (London); _Bookman_, _Poetry_, _Double -Dealer_ (New York, Chicago, New Orleans); _Transatlantic_, _Gargoyle_ -(Paris); _The Imagist Anthologies_ and the _Miscellany of American -Poetry_ (1922). - - - - -_Note_ - - -The poem Lais has in italics a translation of the Plato epigram in the -Greek Anthology. Heliodora has in italics the two Meleager epigrams from -the Anthology. In Nossis is the translation of the opening lines of the -Garland of Meleager and the poem of Nossis herself in the Greek -Anthology. The four Sappho fragments are re-worked freely. The Odyssey -is a translation of the opening of the first book. The Ion is a -translation of the latter part of the first long choros of the Ion of -Euripides. - - - - -_Contents_ - - - PAGE - -WASH OF COLD RIVER 11 - -HOLY SATYR 13 - -LAIS 15 - -HELIODORA 18 - -HELEN 24 - -NOSSIS 25 - -CENTAUR SONG 29 - -OREAD 31 - -THE POOL 32 - -THETIS 33 - -AT ITHACA 39 - -WE TWO 42 - -FRAGMENT THIRTY-SIX 44 - -FLUTE SONG 48 - -AFTER TROY 49 - -CASSANDRA 51 - -EPIGRAMS 55 - -FRAGMENT FORTY 57 - -TOWARD THE PIRÆUS 61 - -MOONRISE 67 - -AT ELEUSIS 68 - -FRAGMENT FORTY-ONE 70 - -TELESILA 76 - -FRAGMENT SIXTY-EIGHT 81 - -LETHE 85 - -SITALKAS 86 - -HERMONAX 87 - -ORION DEAD 89 - -CHARIOTEER 91 - -THE LOOK-OUT 102 - -ODYSSEY 108 - -HYACINTH 116 - -ION 124 - - - - - _Wash of cold river - in a glacial land, - Ionian water, - chill, snow-ribbed sand, - drift of rare flowers, - clear, with delicate shell- - like leaf enclosing - frozen lily-leaf, - camellia texture, - colder than a rose;_ - - _wind-flower - that keeps the breath - of the north-wind-- - these and none other;_ - - _intimate thoughts and kind - reach out to share - the treasure of my mind, - intimate hands and dear - draw garden-ward and sea-ward - all the sheer rapture - that I would take - to mould a clear - and frigid statue;_ - - _rare, of pure texture, - beautiful space and line, - marble to grace - your inaccessible shrine._ - - - - - _Holy Satyr_ - - - Most holy Satyr, - like a goat, - with horns and hooves - to match thy coat - of russet brown, - I make leaf-circlets - and a crown of honey-flowers - for thy throat; - where the amber petals - drip to ivory, - I cut and slip - each stiffened petal - in the rift - of carven petal; - honey horn - has wed the bright - virgin petal of the white - flower cluster: lip to lip - let them whisper, - let them lilt, quivering. - - Most holy Satyr, - like a goat, - hear this our song, - accept our leaves, - love-offering, - return our hymn, - like echo fling - a sweet song, - answering note for note. - - - - - _Lais_ - - - Let her who walks in Paphos - take the glass, - let Paphos take the mirror - and the work of frosted fruit, - gold apples set - with silver apple-leaf, - white leaf of silver - wrought with vein of gilt. - - Let Paphos lift the mirror, - let her look - into the polished centre of the disk. - - Let Paphos take the mirror; - did she press - flowerlet of flame-flower - to the lustrous white - of the white forehead? - did the dark veins beat - a deeper purple - than the wine-deep tint - of the dark flower? - - Did she deck black hair - one evening, with the winter-white - flower of the winter-berry, - did she look (reft of her lover) - at a face gone white - under the chaplet - of white virgin-breath? - - Lais, exultant, tyrannizing Greece, - Lais who kept her lovers in the porch, - lover on lover waiting, - (but to creep - where the robe brushed the threshold - where still sleeps Lais,) - so she creeps, Lais, - to lay her mirror at the feet - of her who reigns in Paphos. - - Lais has left her mirror - for she sees no longer in its depth - the Lais’ self - that laughed exultant - tyrannizing Greece. - - Lais has left her mirror, - for she weeps no longer, - finding in its depth, - a face, but other - than dark flame and white - feature of perfect marble. - - _Lais has left her mirror_, - (so one wrote) - _to her who reigns in Paphos; - Lais who laughed a tyrant over Greece, - Lais who turned the lovers from the porch, - that swarm for whom now - Lais has no use; - Lais is now no lover of the glass, - seeing no more the face as once it was, - wishing to see that face and finding this_. - - - - - _Heliodora_ - - - He and I sought together, - over the spattered table, - rhymes and flowers, - gifts for a name. - - He said, among others, - I will bring - (and the phrase was just and good, - but not as good as mine,) - “the narcissus that loves the rain.” - - We strove for a name, - while the light of the lamps burnt thin - and the outer dawn came in, - a ghost, the last at the feast - or the first, - to sit within - with the two that remained - to quibble in flowers and verse - over a girl’s name. - - He said, “the rain loving,” - I said, “the narcissus, drunk, - drunk with the rain.” - - Yet I had lost - for he said, - “the rose, the lover’s gift, - is loved of love,” - he said it, - “loved of love;” - I waited, even as he spoke, - to see the room filled with a light, - as when in winter - the embers catch in a wind - when a room is dank; - so it would be filled, I thought, - our room with a light - when he said - (and he said it first,) - “the rose, the lover’s delight, - is loved of love,” - but the light was the same. - - Then he caught, - seeing the fire in my eyes, - my fire, my fever, perhaps, - for he leaned - with the purple wine - stained on his sleeve, - and said this: - “did you ever think - a girl’s mouth - caught in a kiss, - is a lily that laughs?” - - I had not. - I saw it now - as men must see it forever afterwards; - no poet could write again, - “the red-lily, - a girl’s laugh caught in a kiss;” - it was his to pour in the vat - from which all poets dip and quaff, - for poets are brothers in this. - - So I saw the fire in his eyes, - it was almost my fire, - (he was younger,) - I saw the face so white, - my heart beat, - it was almost my phrase; - I said, “surprise the muses, - take them by surprise; - it is late, - rather it is dawn-rise, - those ladies sleep, the nine, - our own king’s mistresses.” - - A name to rhyme, - flowers to bring to a name, - what was one girl faint and shy, - with eyes like the myrtle, - (I said: “her underlids - are rather like myrtle,”) - to vie with the nine? - - Let him take the name, - he had the rhymes, - “the rose, loved of love, - the lily, a mouth that laughs,” - he had the gift, - “the scented crocus, - the purple hyacinth,” - what was one girl to the nine? - - He said: - “I will make her a wreath;” - he said: - “I will write it thus: - - _I will bring you the lily that laughs,_ - _I will twine_ - _with soft narcissus, the myrtle,_ - _sweet crocus, white violet,_ - _the purple hyacinth, and last,_ - _the rose, loved-of-love,_ - _that these may drip on your hair_ - _the less soft flowers,_ - _may mingle sweet with the sweet_ - _of Heliodora’s locks,_ - _myrrh-curled._” - - (He wrote myrrh-curled, - I think, the first.) - - I said: - “they sleep, the nine,” - when he shouted swift and passionate: - “_that_ for the nine! - above the hills - the sun is about to wake, - _and to-day white violets_ - _shine beside white lilies_ - _adrift on the mountain side;_ - _to-day the narcissus opens_ - _that loves the rain_.” - - I watched him to the door, - catching his robe - as the wine-bowl crashed to the floor, - spilling a few wet lees, - (ah, his purple hyacinth!) - I saw him out of the door, - I thought: - there will never be a poet - in all the centuries after this, - who will dare write, - after my friend’s verse, - “a girl’s mouth - is a lily kissed.” - - - - - _Helen_ - - - All Greece hates - the still eyes in the white face, - the lustre as of olives - where she stands, - and the white hands. - - All Greece reviles - the wan face when she smiles, - hating it deeper still - when it grows wan and white, - remembering past enchantments - and past ills. - - Greece sees unmoved, - God’s daughter, born of love, - the beauty of cool feet - and slenderest knees, - could love indeed the maid, - only if she were laid, - white ash amid funereal cypresses. - - - - - _Nossis_ - - - I thought to hear him speak - the girl might rise - and make the garden silver, - as the white moon breaks, - “Nossis,” he cried, “a flame.” - - I said: - “a girl that’s dead - some hundred years; - a poet--what of that? - for in the islands, - in the haunts of Greek Ionia, - Rhodes and Cyprus, - girls are cheap.” - - I said, to test his mood, - to make him rage or laugh or sing or weep, - “in Greek Ionia and in Cyprus, - many girls are found - with wreaths and apple-branches.” - - “Only a hundred years or two or three, - has she lain dead - yet men forget;” - he said, - “I want a garden,” - and I thought - he wished to make a terrace on the hill, - bend the stream to it, - set out daffodils, - plant Phrygian violets, - such was his will and whim, - I thought, - to name and watch each flower. - - His was no garden - bright with Tyrian violets, - his was a shelter - wrought of flame and spirit, - and as he flung her name - against the dark, - I thought the iris-flowers - that lined the path - must be the ghost of Nossis. - - “_Who made the wreath,_ - _for what man was it wrought?_ - _speak, fashioned all of fruit-buds,_ - _song, my loveliest,_ - _say Meleager brought to Diodes_, - (_a gift for that enchanting friend_) - _memories with names of poets._ - - _He sought for Moero, lilies, - and those many, - red-lilies for Anyte, - for Sappho, roses, - with those few, he caught - that breath of the sweet-scented - leaf of iris, - the myrrh-iris, - to set beside the tablet - and the wax - which Love had burnt, - when scarred across by Nossis._” - - when she wrote: - - “_I Nossis stand by this: - I state that love is sweet: - if you think otherwise - assert what beauty - or what charm_ - _after the charm of love, - retains its grace?_ - - _“Honey” you say: - honey? I say “I spit - honey out of my mouth: - nothing is second-best - after the sweet of Eros.”_ - - _I Nossis stand and state - that he whom Love neglects - has naught, no flower, no grace, - who lacks that rose, her kiss._” - - I thought to hear him speak - the girl might rise - and make the garden silver - as the white moon breaks, - “Nossis,” he cried, “a flame.” - - - - - _Centaur Song_ - - - Now that the day is done, - now that the night creeps soft - and dims the chestnut clusters’ - radiant spike of flower, - O sweet, till dawn - break through the branches - of our orchard-garden, - rest in this shelter - of the osier-wood and thorn. - - They fall, - the apple-flowers; - nor softer grace has Aphrodite - in the heaven afar, - nor at so fair a pace - open the flower-petals - as your face bends down, - while, breath on breath, - your mouth wanders - from my mouth o’er my face. - - What have I left - to bring you in this place, - already sweet with violets? - (those you brought - with swathes of earliest grass, - forest and meadow balm, - flung from your giant arms - for us to rest upon.) - - Fair are these petals - broken by your feet; - your horse’s hooves - tread softer than a deer’s; - your eyes, startled, - are like the deer eyes - while your heart - trembles more than the deer. - - O earth, O god, - O forest, stream or river, - what shall I bring - that all the day hold back, - that Dawn remember Love - and rest upon her bed, - and Zeus, forgetful not of Danæ or Maia, - - bid the stars shine forever. - - - - - _Oread_ - - - Whirl up, sea-- - whirl your pointed pines, - splash your great pines - on our rocks, - hurl your green over us, - cover us with your pools of fir. - - - - - _The Pool_ - - - Are you alive? - I touch you. - You quiver like a sea-fish. - I cover you with my net. - What are you--banded one? - - - - - _Thetis_ - - - He had asked for immortal life - in the old days and had grown old, - now he had aged apace, - he asked for his youth, - and I, Thetis, granted him - - freedom under the sea - drip and welter of weeds, - the drift of the fringing grass, - the gift of the never-withering moss, - and the flowering reed, - - and most, - beauty of fifty nereids, - sisters of nine, - I one of their least, - yet great and a goddess, - granted Pelius, - - love under the sea, - beauty, grace infinite: - - So I crept, at last, - a crescent, a curve of a wave, - (a man would have thought, - had he watched for his nets - on the beach) - a dolphin, a glistening fish, - that burnt and caught for its light, - the light of the undercrest - of the lifting tide, - a fish with silver for breast, - with no light but the light - of the sea it reflects. - - Little he would have guessed, - (had such a one - watched by his nets,) - that a goddess flung from the crest - of the wave the blue of its own - bright tress of hair, - the blue of the painted stuff - it wore for dress. - - No man would have known save he, - whose coming I sensed as I strung - my pearl and agate and pearl, - to mark the beat and the stress - of the lilt of my song. - - _Who dreams of a son, - save one, - childless, having no bright - face to flatter its own, - who dreams of a son?_ - - _Nereids under the sea, - my sisters, fifty and one_, - (_counting myself_) - _they dream of a child - of water and sea, - with hair of the softest, - to lie along the curve - of fragile, tiny bones, - yet more beautiful each than each, - hair more bright and long, - to rival its own._ - - _Nereids under the wave, - who dreams of a son - save I, Thetis, alone?_ - - _Each would have for a child, - a stray self, furtive and wild, - to dive and leap to the wind, - to wheedle and coax_ - _the stray birds bright and bland - of foreign strands, - to crawl and stretch on the sands, - each would have for its own, - a daughter for child._ - - _Who dreams, who sings of a son? - I, Thetis, alone._ - - When I had finished my song, - and dropped the last seed-pearl, - and flung the necklet - about my throat - and found it none too bright, - not bright enough nor pale - enough, not like the moon that creeps - beneath the sea, - between the lift of crest and crest, - had tried it on - and found it not - quite fair enough - to fill the night - of my blue folds of bluest dress - with moon for light, - I cast the beads aside and leapt, - myself all blue - with no bright gloss - of pearls for crescent light; - - but one alert, all blue and wet, - I flung myself, an arrow’s flight, - straight upward - through the blue of night - that was my palace wall, - and crept to where I saw the mark - of feet, a rare foot-fall: - - Achilles’ sandal on the beach, - could one mistake? - perhaps a lover or a nymph, - lost from the tangled fern and brake, - that lines the upper shelf of land, - perhaps a goddess or a nymph - might so mistake - Achilles’ footprint for the trace - of a bright god alert to track - the panther where he slinks for thirst - across the sand; - - perhaps a goddess or a nymph, - might think a god had crossed the track - of weed and drift, - had broken here this stem of reed, - had turned this sea-shell to the light: - - So she must stoop, this goddess girl, - or nymph, with crest of blossoming wood - about her hair for cap or crown, - must stoop and kneel and bending down, - must kiss the print of such a one. - - Not I, the mother, Thetis self, - I stretched and lay, a river’s slim - dark length, - a rivulet where it leaves the wood, - and meets the sea, - I lay along the burning sand, - a river’s blue. - - - - - _At Ithaca_ - - - Over and back, - the long waves crawl - and track the sand with foam; - night darkens and the sea - takes on that desperate tone - of dark that wives put on - when all their love is done. - - Over and back, - the tangled thread falls slack, - over and up and on; - over and all is sewn; - now while I bind the end, - I wish some fiery friend - would sweep impetuously - these fingers from the loom. - - My weary thoughts - play traitor to my soul, - just as the toil is over; - swift while the woof is whole, - turn now my spirit, swift, - and tear the pattern there, - the flowers so deftly wrought, - the border of sea-blue, - the sea-blue coast of home. - - The web was over-fair, - that web of pictures there, - enchantments that I thought - he had, that I had lost; - weaving his happiness - within the stitching frame, - weaving his fire and fame, - I thought my work was done, - I prayed that only one - of those that I had spurned, - might stoop and conquer this - long waiting with a kiss. - - But each time that I see - my work so beautifully - inwoven and would keep - the picture and the whole, - Athene steels my soul, - slanting across my brain, - I see as shafts of rain - his chariot and his shafts, - I see the arrows fall, - I see my lord who moves - like Hector, lord of love, - I see him matched with fair - bright rivals and I see - those lesser rivals flee. - - - - - _We Two_ - - - We two are left: - I with small grace reveal - distaste and bitterness; - you with small patience - take my hands; - though effortless, - you scald their weight - as a bowl, lined with embers, - wherein droop - great petals of white rose, - forced by the heat - too soon to break. - - We two are left: - as a blank wall, the world, - earth and the men who talk, - saying their space of life - is good and gracious, - with eyes blank - as that blank surface - their ignorance mistakes - for final shelter - and a resting-place. - - We two remain: - yet by what miracle, - searching within the tangles of my brain, - I ask again, - have we two met within - this maze of dædal paths - in-wound mid grievous stone, - where once I stood alone? - - - - - _Fragment Thirty-six_ - - I know not what to do: - my mind is divided. - - - SAPPHO - - - I know not what to do, - my mind is reft: - is song’s gift best? - is love’s gift loveliest? - I know not what to do, - now sleep has pressed - weight on your eyelids. - - Shall I break your rest, - devouring, eager? - is love’s gift best? - nay, song’s the loveliest: - yet were you lost, - what rapture - could I take from song? - what song were left? - - I know not what to do: - to turn and slake - the rage that burns, - with my breath burn - and trouble your cool breath? - so shall I turn and take - snow in my arms? - (is love’s gift best?) - yet flake on flake - of snow were comfortless, - did you lie wondering, - wakened yet unawake. - - Shall I turn and take - comfortless snow within my arms? - press lips to lips - that answer not, - press lips to flesh - that shudders not nor breaks? - - Is love’s gift best? - shall I turn and slake - all the wild longing? - O I am eager for you! - as the Pleiads shake - white light in whiter water - so shall I take you? - - My mind is quite divided, - my minds hesitate, - so perfect matched, - I know not what to do: - each strives with each - as two white wrestlers - standing for a match, - ready to turn and clutch - yet never shake muscle nor nerve nor tendon; - so my mind waits - to grapple with my mind, - yet I lie quiet, - I would seem at rest. - - I know not what to do: - strain upon strain, - sound surging upon sound - makes my brain blind; - as a wave-line may wait to fall - yet (waiting for its falling) - still the wind may take - from off its crest, - white flake on flake of foam, - that rises, - seeming to dart and pulse - and rend the light, - so my mind hesitates - above the passion - quivering yet to break, - so my mind hesitates - above my mind, - listening to song’s delight. - - I know not what to do: - will the sound break, - rending the night - with rift on rift of rose - and scattered light? - will the sound break at last - as the wave hesitant, - or will the whole night pass - and I lie listening awake? - - - - - _Flute Song_ - - - Little scavenger away, - touch not the door, - beat not the portal down, - cross not the sill, - silent until - my song, bright and shrill, - breathes out its lay. - - Little scavenger avaunt, - tempt me with jeer and taunt, - yet you will wait to-day; - for it were surely ill - to mock and shout and revel; - it were more fit to tell - with flutes and calathes, - your mother’s praise. - - - - - _After Troy_ - - - We flung against their gods, - invincible, clear hate; - we fought; - frantic, we flung the last - imperious, desperate shaft - - and lost: - we knew the loss - before they ever guessed - fortune had tossed to them - her favour and her whim; - but how were we depressed? - we lost yet as we pressed - our spearsmen on their best, - we knew their line invincible - because there fell - on them no shiverings - of the white enchanteress, - radiant Aphrodite’s spell: - - we hurled our shafts of passion, - noblest hate, - and knew their cause was blest, - and knew their gods were nobler, - better taught in skill, - subtler with wit of thought, - yet had it been God’s will - that _they_ not we should fall, - we know those fields had bled - with roses lesser red. - - - - - _Cassandra_ - - _O Hymen king._ - - - Hymen, O Hymen king, - what bitter thing is this? - what shaft, tearing my heart? - what scar, what light, what fire - searing my eye-balls and my eyes with flame? - nameless, O spoken name, - king, lord, speak blameless Hymen. - - Why do you blind my eyes? - why do you dart and pulse - till all the dark is home, - then find my soul - and ruthless draw it back? - scaling the scaleless, - opening the dark? - speak, nameless, power and might; - when will you leave me quite? - when will you break my wings - or leave them utterly free - to scale heaven endlessly? - - A bitter, broken thing, - my heart, O Hymen lord, - yet neither drought nor sword - baffles men quite, - why must they feign to fear - my virgin glance? - feigned utterly or real - why do they shrink? - my trance frightens them, - breaks the dance, - empties the market place; - if I but pass they fall - back, frantically; - must always people mock? - unless they shrink and reel - as in the temple - at your uttered will. - - O Hymen king, - lord, greatest, power, might, - look for my face is dark, - burnt with your light, - your fire, O Hymen lord; - is there none left - can equal me - in ecstasy, desire? - is there none left - can bear with me - the kiss of your white fire? - is there not one, - Phrygian or frenzied Greek, - poet, song-swept, or bard, - one meet to take from me - this bitter power of song, - one fit to speak, Hymen, - your praises, lord? - - May I not wed - as you have wed? - may it not break, beauty, - from out my hands, my head, my feet? - may Love not lie beside me - till his heat - burn me to ash? - may he not comfort me, then, - spent of all that fire and heat, - still, ashen-white and cool - as the wet laurels, - white, before your feet - step on the mountain-slope, - before your fiery hand - lift up the mantle - covering flower and land, - as a man lifts, - O Hymen, from his bride, - (cowering with woman eyes,) the veil? - O Hymen lord, be kind. - - - - - _Epigrams_ - - - 1 - - O ruthless, perilous, imperious hate, - you can not thwart - the promptings of my soul, - you can not weaken nay nor dominate - Love that is mateless, - Love the rite, - the whole measure of being: - would you crush with bondage? - nay, you would love me not - were I your slave. - - - 2 - - Torture me not with this or that or this, - Love is my master, - you his lesser self; - while you are Love, - I love you generously, - be Eros, - not a tyrannous, bitter mate: - Love has no charm - when Love is swept to earth: - you’d make a lop-winged god, - frozen and contrite, - of god up-darting, - winged for passionate flight. - - - - - _Fragment Forty_ - - _Love ... bitter-sweet._ - - SAPPHO - - - 1 - - Keep love and he wings - with his bow, - up, mocking us, - keep love and he taunts us - and escapes. - - Keep love and he sways apart - in another world, - outdistancing us. - - Keep love and he mocks, - ah, bitter and sweet, - your sweetness is more cruel - than your hurt. - - Honey and salt, - fire burst from the rocks - to meet fire - spilt from Hesperus. - - Fire darted aloft and met fire: - in that moment - love entered us. - - - 2 - - Could Eros be kept? - he were prisoned long since - and sick with imprisonment; - could Eros be kept? - others would have broken - and crushed out his life. - - Could Eros be kept? - we too sinning, by Kypris, - might have prisoned him outright. - - Could Eros be kept? - nay, thank him and the bright goddess - that he left us. - - - 3 - - Ah, love is bitter and sweet, - but which is more sweet, - the sweetness - or the bitterness? - none has spoken it. - - Love is bitter, - but can salt taint sea-flowers, - grief, happiness? - - Is it bitter to give back - love to your lover - if he crave it? - - Is it bitter to give back - love to your lover - if he wish it - for a new favourite? - who can say, - or is it sweet? - - Is it sweet - to possess utterly? - or is it bitter, - bitter as ash? - - - 4 - - I had thought myself frail; - a petal, - with light equal - on leaf and under-leaf. - - I had thought myself frail; - a lamp, - shell, ivory or crust of pearl, - about to fall shattered, - with flame spent. - - I cried: - “I must perish, - I am deserted, - an outcast, desperate - in this darkness,” - (such fire rent me with Hesperus,) - then the day broke. - - - 5 - - What need of a lamp - when day lightens us, - what need to bind love - when love stands - with such radiant wings - over us? - - What need-- - yet to sing love, - love must first shatter us. - - - - - _Toward the Piræus_ - - - _Slay with your eyes, Greek, - men over the face of the earth, - slay with your eyes, the host, - puny, passionless, weak._ - - _Break as the ranks of steel - broke when the Persian lost: - craven, we hated them then: - now we would count them Gods - beside these, spawn of the earth._ - - _Grant us your mantle, Greek; - grant us but one - to fright (as your eyes) with a sword, - men, craven and weak, - grant us but one to strike - one blow for you, passionate Greek._ - - - 1 - - You would have broken my wings, - but the very fact that you knew - I had wings, set some seal - on my bitter heart, my heart - broke and fluttered and sang. - - You would have snared me, - and scattered the strands of my nest; - but the very fact that you saw, - sheltered me, claimed me, - set me apart from the rest - - Of men--of _men_, made you a god, - and me, claimed me, set me apart - and the song in my breast, - yours, yours forever-- - if I escape your evil heart. - - - 2 - - I loved you: - men have writ and women have said - they loved, - but as the Pythoness stands by the altar, - intense and may not move, - - till the fumes pass over; - and may not falter or break, - till the priest has caught the words - that mar or make - a deme or a ravaged town; - so I, though my knees tremble, - my heart break, - must note the rumbling, - heed only the shuddering - down in the fissure beneath the rock - of the temple floor; - - must wait and watch - and may not turn nor move, - nor break from my trance to speak - so slight, so sweet, - so simple a word as love. - - - 3 - - What had you done - had you been true, - I can not think, - I may not know. - - What could we do - were I not wise, - what play invent, - what joy devise? - - What could we do - if you were great? - - (Yet were you lost, - who were there then, - to circumvent - the tricks of men?) - - What can we do, - for curious lies - have filled your heart, - and in my eyes - sorrow has writ - that I am wise. - - - 4 - - If I had been a boy, - I would have worshipped your grace, - I would have flung my worship - before your feet, - I would have followed apart, - glad, rent with an ecstasy - to watch you turn - your great head, set on the throat, - thick, dark with its sinews, - burned and wrought - like the olive stalk, - and the noble chin - and the throat. - - I would have stood, - and watched and watched - and burned, - and when in the night, - from the many hosts, your slaves, - and warriors and serving men - you had turned - to the purple couch and the flame - of the woman, tall like the cypress tree - that flames sudden and swift and free - as with crackle of golden resin - and cones and the locks flung free - like the cypress limbs, - bound, caught and shaken and loosed, - bound, caught and riven and bound - and loosened again, - as in rain of a kingly storm - or wind full from a desert plain. - - So, when you had risen - from all the lethargy of love and its heat, - you would have summoned me, - me alone, - and found my hands, - beyond all the hands in the world, - cold, cold, cold, - intolerably cold and sweet. - - - 5 - - It was not chastity that made me cold nor fear, - only I knew that you, like myself, were sick - of the puny race that crawls and quibbles and lisps - of love and love and lovers and love’s deceit. - - It was not chastity that made me wild, but fear - that my weapon, tempered in different heat, - was over-matched by yours, and your hand - skilled to yield death-blows, might break - - With the slightest turn--no ill will meant-- - my own lesser, yet still somewhat fine-wrought, - fiery-tempered, delicate, over-passionate steel. - - - - - _Moonrise_ - - - Will you glimmer on the sea? - will you fling your spear-head - on the shore? - what note shall we pitch? - we have a song, - on the bank we share our arrows; - the loosed string tells our note: - - O flight, - bring her swiftly to our song. - she is great, - we measure her by the pine trees. - - - - - _At Eleusis_ - - - _What they did, - they did for Dionysos, - for ecstasy’s sake:_ - - now take the basket, - think; - think of the moment you count - most foul in your life; - conjure it, - supplicate, - pray to it; - your face is bleak, you retract, - you dare not remember it: - - stop; - it is too late. - the next stands by the altar step, - a child’s face yet not innocent, - it will prove adequate, but you, - I could have spelt your peril at the gate, - yet for your mind’s sake, - though you could not enter, - wait. - - _What they did, - they did for Dionysos, - for ecstasy’s sake:_ - - Now take the basket basket-- - (ah face in a dream, - did I not know your heart, - I would falter, - for each that fares onward - is my child; - ah can you wonder - that my hands shake, - that my knees tremble, - I a mortal, set in the goddess’ place?) - - - - - _Fragment Forty-one_ - - _ ... thou flittest to Andromeda._ - - SAPPHO - - - 1 - - Am I blind alas, - am I blind? - I too have followed - her path. - I too have bent at her feet. - I too have wakened to pluck - amaranth in the straight shaft, - amaranth purple in the cup, - scorched at the edge to white. - - Am I blind? - am I the less ready for her sacrifice? - am I the less eager to give - what she asks, - she the shameless and radiant? - - Am I quite lost, - I towering above you and her glance, - walking with swifter pace, - with clearer sight, - with intensity - beside which you two - are as spent ash? - - Nay, I give back to the goddess the gift - she tendered me in a moment - of great bounty. - I return it. I lay it again - on the white slab of her house, - the beauty she cast out - one moment, careless. - - Nor do I cry out: - “why did I stoop? - why did I turn aside - one moment from the rocks - marking the sea-path? - Aphrodite, shameless and radiant, - have pity, turn, answer us.” - - Ah no--though I stumble toward - her altar-step, - though my flesh is scorched and rent, - shattered, cut apart, - slashed open; - though my heels press my own wet life - black, dark to purple, - on the smooth, rose-streaked - threshold of her pavement. - - - 2 - - Am I blind alas, deaf too - that my ears lost all this? - nay, O my lover, - shameless and still radiant, - I tell you this: - - I was not asleep, - I did not lie asleep on those hot rocks - while you waited. - I was not unaware when I glanced - out toward the sea - watching the purple ships. - - I was not blind when I turned. - I was not indifferent when I strayed aside - or loitered as we three went - or seemed to turn a moment from the path - for that same amaranth. - - I was not dull and dead when I fell - back on our couch at night. - I was not indifferent when I turned - and lay quiet. - I was not dead in my sleep. - - - 3 - - Lady of all beauty, - I give you this: - say I have offered small sacrifice, - say I am unworthy your touch, - but say not: - “she turned to some cold, calm god, - silent, pitiful, in preference.” - - Lady of all beauty, - I give you this: - say not: - “she deserted my altar-step, - the fire on my white hearth - was too great, - she fell back at my first glance.” - - Lady, radiant and shameless, - I have brought small wreaths, - (they were a child’s gift,) - I have offered myrrh-leaf, - crisp lentisk, - I have laid rose-petal - and white rock-rose from the beach. - - But I give now a greater, - I give life and spirit with this. - I render a grace - no one has dared to speak, - lest men at your altar greet him - as slave, callous to your art; - I dare more than the singer - offering her lute, - the girl her stained veils, - the woman her swathes of birth, - or pencil and chalk, - mirror and unguent box. - - I offer more than the lad - singing at your steps, - praise of himself, - his mirror his friend’s face, - more than any girl, - I offer you this: - (grant only strength - that I withdraw not my gift,) - I give you my praise and this: - the love of my lover - for his mistress. - - - - - _Telesila_ - - _In Argos--that statue of her; - at her feet the scroll of her - love-poetry, in her hand a helmet._ - - - War is a fevered god - who takes alike - maiden and king and clod, - and yet another one, - (ah withering peril!) - deprives alike, - with equal skill, - alike indifferently, - hoar spearsman of his shaft, - wan maiden of her zone, - even he, - Love who is great War’s - very over-lord. - - War bent - and kissed the forehead, - yet Love swift, - planted on chin - and tenderest cyclamen lift - of fragrant mouth, - fevered and honeyed breath, - breathing o’er and o’er - those tendrils of her hair, - soft kisses - like bright flowers. - - Love took - and laid the sweet, - (being extravagant,) - on lip and chin and cheek, - but ah he failed - even he, - before the luminous eyes - that dart - no suave appeal, - alas, impelling me - to brave incontinent, - grave Pallas’ high command. - - And yet the mouth! - ah Love ingratiate, - how was it you, - so poignant, swift and sure, - could not have taken all - and left me free, - free to desert the Argives, - let them burn, - free yet to turn - and let the city fall: - yea, let high War - take all his vengeful way, - for what am I? - I cannot save nor stay - the city’s fall. - - War is a fevered god, - (yet who has writ as she - the power of Love?) - War bent and kissed the forehead, - that bright brow, - ignored the chin - and the sweet mouth, - for that and the low laugh were his, - Eros ingratiate, - who sadly missed - in all the kisses count, - those eyebrows - and swart eyes, - O valiant one - who bowed - falsely and vilely trapped us, - traitorous lord. - - And yet, - (remembrance mocks,) - should I have bent the maiden - to a kiss? - Ares the lover - or enchanting Love? - but had I moved - I feared - for that astute regard; - for that bright vision, - how might I have erred? - I might have marred and swept - another not so sweet - into my exile; - I might have kept a look - recalling many and many a woman’s look, - not this alone, - astute, imperious, proud. - - And yet - I turn and ask - again, again, again, - who march to death, - what was it worth, - reserve and pride and hurt? - what is it worth - to such as I - who turn to meet - the invincible Spartans’ - massed and serried host? - what had it cost, a kiss? - - - - - _Fragment Sixty-eight_ - - _ ... even in the house of Hades._ - - SAPPHO - - - 1 - - I envy you your chance of death, - how I envy you this. - I am more covetous of him - even than of your glance, - I wish more from his presence - though he torture me in a grasp, - terrible, intense. - - Though he clasp me in an embrace - that is set against my will - and rack me with his measure, - effortless yet full of strength, - and slay me - in that most horrible contest, - still, how I envy you your chance. - - Though he pierce me--imperious-- - iron--fever--dust-- - though beauty is slain - when I perish, - I envy you death. - - What is beauty to me? - has she not slain me enough, - have I not cried in agony of love, - birth, hate, - in pride crushed? - - What is left after this? - what can death loose in me - after your embrace? - your touch, - your limbs are more terrible - to do me hurt. - - What can death mar in me - that you have not? - - - 2 - - What can death send me - that you have not? - you gathered violets, - you spoke: - “your hair is not less black, - nor less fragrant, - nor in your eyes is less light, - your hair is not less sweet - with purple in the lift of lock;” - why were those slight words - and the violets you gathered - of such worth? - - How I envy you death; - what could death bring, - more black, more set with sparks - to slay, to affright, - than the memory of those first violets, - the chance lift of your voice, - the chance blinding frenzy - as you bent? - - - 3 - - So the goddess has slain me - for your chance smile - and my scarf unfolding - as you stooped to it; - so she trapped me - with the upward sweep of your arm - as you lifted the veil, - and the swift smile and selfless. - - Could I have known? - nay, spare pity, - though I break, - crushed under the goddess’ hate, - though I fall beaten at last, - so high have I thrust my glance - up into her presence. - - Do not pity me, spare that, - but how I envy you - your chance of death. - - - - - _Lethe_ - - - Nor skin nor hide nor fleece - Shall cover you, - Nor curtain of crimson nor fine - Shelter of cedar-wood be over you, - Nor the fir-tree - Nor the pine. - - Nor sight of whin nor gorse - Nor river-yew, - Nor fragrance of flowering bush, - Nor wailing of reed-bird to waken you, - Nor of linnet, - Nor of thrush. - - Nor word nor touch nor sight - Of lover, you - Shall long through the night but for this: - The roll of the full tide to cover you - Without question, - Without kiss. - - - - - _Sitalkas_ - - - Thou art come at length - more beautiful - than any cool god - in a chamber under - Lycia’s far coast, - than any high god - who touches us not - here in the seeded grass: - aye, than Argestes - scattering the broken leaves. - - - - - _Hermonax_ - - - Gods of the sea; - Ino, - leaving warm meads - for the green, grey-green fastnesses - of the great deeps; - and Palemon, - bright seeker of sea-shaft, - hear me. - - Let all whom the sea loves, - come to its altar front, - and I - who can offer no other sacrifice to thee - bring this. - - Broken by great waves, - the wavelets flung it here, - this sea-gliding creature, - this strange creature like a weed, - covered with salt foam, - torn from the hillocks of rock. - - I, Hermonax, - caster of nets, - risking chance, - plying the sea craft, - came on it. - - Thus to sea god, - gift of sea wrack; - I, Hermonax, offer it - to thee, Ino, - and to Palemon. - - - - - _Orion Dead_ - - -(Artemis speaks.) - - The cornel-trees - uplift from the furrows, - the roots at their bases, - strike lower through the barley-sprays. - - So arise and face me. - I am poisoned with the rage of song. - - I once pierced the flesh - of the wild deer, - now I am afraid to touch - the blue and the gold-veined hyacinths? - - I will tear the full flowers - and the little heads - of the grape-hyacinths, - I will strip the life from the bulb - until the ivory layers - lie like narcissus petals - on the black earth. - - Arise, - lest I bend an ash-tree - into a taut bow, - and slay--and tear - all the roots from the earth. - - The cornel-wood blazes - and strikes through the barley-sprays - but I have lost heart for this. - - I break a staff, - I break the tough branch. - I know no light in the woods. - I have lost pace with the wind. - - - - - _Charioteer_ - - _In that manner_ (_archaic_) _he finished the statue of his - brother. It stands mid-way in the hall of laurels ... between the - Siphnians’ offering and the famous tripod of Naxos._ - - - Only the priest - of the inmost house - has such height, - only the faun - in the glade - such light, strong ankles, - only the shade of the bay-tree - such rare dark - as the darkness - caught under the fillet - that covers your brow, - only the blade - of the ash-tree - such length, such beauty - as thou, - O my brother; - and only the gods - have such love - as I bring you; - but now, - taut with love, - more than any bright lover, - I vowed - to the innermost - god of the temple, - this vow. - - God of beauty, I cried, - as the four stood alert, - awaiting the shout - at the goal - to be off; - god of beauty, - I cried to that god, - if he merit the laurel, - I dedicate all of my soul - to you; to you - all my strength and my power; - if he merit the bay, - I will fashion a statue - of him, of my brother, - out of thought, - and the strength of my wrist - and the fire of my brain; - I will strive night and day - till I mould from the clay, - till I strike from the bronze, - till I conjure the rock, - the chisle, the tool, - to embody this image; - an image to startle, - to capture men’s hearts, - to make all other bronze, - all art to come after, - a mock, - all beauty to follow, - a shell that is empty; - I’ll stake all my soul - on that beauty, - till God shall awake - again in men’s hearts, - who have said he is dead, - our King and our Lover. - - Then the start, - ah the sight, - ah but dim, veiled with tears, - (so Achilles must weep - who finds his friend dead,) - will he win? - then the ring of the steel - as two met at the goal, - entangled and foul, - misplaced at the start, - who, who blunders? not you? - what omens are set? - alas, gods of the track, - what ill wreaks its hate, - speak it clear, - let me know - what evil, what fate? - for the ring of sharp steel - told two were in peril, - two, two, one is you, - already involved - with the fears of defeat; - two grazed; - which must go? - - As the wind, - Althaia’s beauty came; - as one after a cruel march, - catches sight, - toward the cold dusk, - of the flower - that’s her name-sake, - strayed apart - toward the road-dust, - from the stream - in the wood-depth, - so I in that darkness, - my mouth bitter - with sheer loss, - took courage, - my heart spoke, - remembering how she spoke: - “I will seek hour by hour - fresh cones, resin - and pine-flowers, - flower of pine, - laurel flower; - I will pray: - ‘let him come - back to us, - to our home, - with the trophy of zeal, - with the love and the proof - of the favour of god; - let him merit the bay.’ - (I expect it,) - I myself on earth pray - that our father may pray; - his voice nearer the gods - must carry beyond - my mere mortal prayer: - ‘O my father beyond, - look down and be proud, - ask this thing - that we win, - ask it straight of the gods.’” - - Was he glad, - did he know? - for the strength - of his prayer and her prayer - met me now - in one flame, - all my head, all my brow - was one flame, - taut and beaten - and faintly aglow, - as the wine-cup - encrusted and beaten and fine - with the pattern of leaves, - (so my brow,) - yet metallic and cool, - as the gold of the frigid metal - that circles the heat - of the wine. - - Then the axel-tree cleft, - not ours, gods be blest; - now but three of you left, - three alert and abreast, - three--one streak of what fire? - three straight for the goal: - ah defeat, - ah despair, - still fate tricked our mares, - for they swerved, - flanks quivering and wet, - as the wind - at the mid-stretch - caught and fluttered a white scarf; - a veil shivering, - only the fluttering - of a white band, - yet unnerved and champing, - they turned, - (only knowing the swards of Achæa) - and he, O my love, - that stranger, - his stallions - stark frenzied and black, - had taken the inmost course, - overtook, - overcame, - overleapt, - and crowded you back. - - O those horses - we loved and we prized; - I had gathered Alea mint - and soft branch - of the vine-stock in flower, - I had stroked Elaphia; - as one prays to a woman - “be kind,” - I had prayed Daphnaia; - I had threatened Orea - for her trick - of out-pacing the three, - even these, - I had almost despaired - at her fleet, proud pace, - O the four, - O swift mares of Achæa. - - Should I pray them again? - or the gods of the track? - or Althaia at home? - or our father who died for Achæa? - or our fathers beyond - who had vanquished the east? - should I threaten or pray? - - The sun struck the ridge of white marble - before me: - white sun on white marble - was black: - the day was of ash, - blind, unrepentant, despoiled, - my soul cursed the race and the track, - you had lost. - - _You_, lost at the last? - - Ah fools, - so you threatened to win? - ah fools, - so you knew my brother? - - Greeks all, - all crafty and feckless, - even so, had you guessed - what ran in his veins and mine, - what blood of Achæa, - had you dared, - dared enter the contest, - dared aspire with the rest? - - You had gained, - you outleapt them; - a sudden, swift lift of the reins, - a sudden, swift, taut grip of the reins, - as suddenly loosed, - you had gained. - - When death comes - I will see - no vision of after, - (as some count - there may be an hereafter,) - no thought of old lover, - no girl, no woman, - neither mother, - nor yet my father - who died for Achæa, - neither God with the harp - and the sun on His brow, - but thou, - O my brother. - - When death comes, - instead of a vision, - (I will catch it in bronze) - you will stand - as you stood at the end, - (as the herald announced it, - proclaiming aloud, - “Achæa has won,”) - in-reining them now, - so quiet, - not turning to answer - the shout of the crowd. - - - - - _The Look-out_ - - - Better the wind, the sea, the salt - in your eyes, - than this, this, this. - - You grumble and sweat; - my ears are acute - to catch your complaint, - almost the sea’s roar is less - than your constant threat - of “back and back to the shore, - and let us rest.” - - You grumble and curse your luck - and I hear: - “O Lynceus, - aloft by the prow, - his head on his arms, - his eyes half closed, - almost asleep, - to watch for a rock, - (and hardly ever we need - his ‘to left’ or ‘to right’) - let Lynceus have my part, - let me rest like Lynceus.” - - “Rest like Lynceus!” - I’d change my fate for yours, - the very least, - I’d take an oar with the rest. - - “Like Lynceus,” - as if my lot were the best. - - O God, if I could speak, - if I could taunt the lot - of the wretched crew, - with my fate, my work. - - But I may not, - I may not tell - of the forms that pass and pass, - of that constant old, old face - that leaps from each wave - to wait underneath the boat - in the hope that at last she’s lost. - - Could I speak, - I would tell of great mountains - that flow, great weeds - that float and float - to tangle our oars - if I fail “to left, to right;” - where the dolphin leaps - you saw a sign from the god, - I saw why he leapt from the deep. - - “To right, to left;” - it is easy enough - to lean on the prow, half asleep, - and you think, - “no work for Lynceus.” - No work? - - If only you’d let me take an oar, - if only my back could break with the hurt, - if the sun could blister my feet, - pain, pain that I might forget - the face that just this moment - passed through the prow - when you said, “asleep.” - - Many and many a sight - if I could speak, - many and many tales I’d tell, - many and many a struggle, - many a death, - many and many my hurts - and my pain so great, - I’d gladly die - if I did not love the quest. - - Grumble and swear and curse, - brother, god and the boat, - and the great waves, - but could you guess - what strange terror lurks in the sea-depth, - you’d thank the gods for the ship, - the timber and giant oars, god-like, - and the god-like quest. - - If you could see as I, - what lurks in the sea-depth, - you’d pray to the ropes - and the solid timbers - like god, like god; - - you’d pray to the oars and your work, - you’d pray and thank - the boat for her very self; - timber and oar and plank - and sail and the sail-ropes, - these are beautiful things and great. - - But Lynceus at the prow - has nothing to do but wait - till we reach a shoal or some rocks - and then he has only to lift his arms, - right, left; - O brother, - I’d change my place - for the worst seat - in the cramped bench, - for an oar, for an hour’s toil, - for sweat and the solid floor. - - I’d change my place - as I sit with eyes half closed, - if only I could see just the ring - cut by the boat, - if only I could see just the water, - the crest and the broken crest, - the bit of weed that rises on the crest, - the dolphin only when he leaps. - - But Lynceus, - though they cannot guess - the hurt, though they do not thank - the oars for the dead peace - of heart and brain worn out, - you must wait, - alert, alert, alert. - - - - - _Odyssey_ - - _Muse, - tell me of this man of wit, - who roamed long years - after he had sacked - Troy’s sacred streets._ - - - All the rest - who had escaped death, - returned, - fleeing battle and the sea; - only Odysseus, - captive of a goddess, - desperate and home-sick, - thought but of his wife and palace; - but Calypso, - that nymph and spirit, - yearning in the furrowed rock-shelf, - burned - and sought to be his mistress; - but years passed, - the time was ripe, - the gods decreed, - (although traitors plot - to betray him in his own court,) - he was to return - to Ithaca; - and all the gods pitied him; - but Poseidon - steadfast to the last - hated - god-like Odysseus. - - The sea-god visited - a distant folk, - Ethiopians, - who at the edge of earth - are divided into two parts, - (half watch the sun rise, - half, the sun set,) - there the hecatomb - of slain sheep and oxen - await his revels: - and while he rejoiced, - seated at the feast, - the rest of the gods - gathered in the palace of Olympian Zeus; - and the father of men and of gods spoke thus: - (for he remembered bright Egisthus, - slain of Agamemnon’s child, - great Orestes:) - - O you spirits, - how men hate the gods, - for they say evil comes of us, - when they themselves, - by their own wickedness, - court peril - beyond their fate; - so Egisthus, defiant, - sought Agamemnon’s wife - and slew Agamemnon - returning to his own palace, - though we ourselves - sent bright Hermes, - slayer of Argos, - to warn him - lest Orestes, - attaining to man’s estate, - demand his inheritance - and take vengeance: - we forbade him to strike the king, - we warned him to respect his wife: - but could Hermes - of gracious aspect, - subtle with kindly speech, - thus avert the foul work? - - Then the grey-eyed Athene, - the goddess, spoke: - O my father, Kronos begot, - first among the great, - his death at least was just, - so may all perish who err thus; - but my heart is rent - for the prudent Odysseus, - who, exiled from his friends, - is kept too long distressed - in an island, sea swept, - in the sea midst, - a forest island, - haunt of a spirit, - child of Atlas, - crafty of thought, - who knows the sea depth, - who supports the high pillars - which cut sky from earth; - it is his child - who keeps Odysseus - lamenting with broken heart, - ceaseless to tempt him - with soft and tender speech, - that he forget Ithaca; - but Odysseus, - yearning to see but the smoke - drift above his own house, - prefers death; - your heart, is it not touched, - O Olympian? - did not Odysseus please you - when he made sacrifice - before the Grecian ships - in great Troy? - why are you angry, Zeus? - - Then Zeus, - keeper of the clouds, - answering her, spoke: - O my child, - what quaint words - have sped your lips, - for how could I forget - the god-like Odysseus, - a spirit surpassing men, - first to make sacrifice - to the deathless - in the sky-space? - but Poseidon - girder of earth, - though yet he spares his life, - nurtures unending hate; - he goads him from place to place - because of the Cyclops - blinded of Odysseus, - Polyphemus, half-god, - greatest of the Cyclops, - whom the nymph Thoosa, - child of Phorcys, - king of the waste sea, begot - when she lay with Poseidon - among the shallow rocks: - but come, - let us plot - to reinstate Odysseus, - and Poseidon must abandon his wrath; - for what can one god accomplish, - striving alone - to defy all the deathless? - - Then the grey-eyed Athene, - the goddess, spoke: - O my father, Kronos begot, - first among the great, - if then it seems just - to the highest, - that Odysseus return - to his own house, - let us swiftly send - Hermes, slayer of Argos, - your attendant, - that he state - to the fair-haired nymph, - our irrevocable wish, - that Odysseus, - valiant of heart, - be sent back: - and I will depart to Ithaca, - to incite his son, - to put courage in his heart, - that he call to the market place - the long-haired Greeks - and shut his gates - to the pretendants - who ceaselessly devour his flocks, - sheep and horned oxen - of gentle pace: - that he strive - for his father’s sake - and gain favour - in men’s thoughts, - I will send him to Sparta, - to Pylos’ sandy waste. - - _She spoke - and about her feet - clasped bright sandals, - gold-wrought, imperishable, - which lift her above sea, - across the land stretch, - wind-like, - like the wind breath._ - - - - - _From the Masque_ - - - - - _Hyacinth_ - - - 1 - - Your anger charms me, - and yet all the time - I think of chaste, slight hands, - veined snow; - snow craters filled - with first wild-flowerlets; - glow of ice-gentian, - whitest violet; - snow craters - and the ice ridge - spilling light; - dawn and the lover - chaste dawn leaves bereft-- - I think of these - and snow-cooled Phrygian wine. - - Your anger charms me subtly - and I know - that you would take - the still hands - where I’d rest; - you would despoil - for very joy of theft; - list, lady, - I would give you one last hint: - quench your red mouth - in some cold forest lake, - cover your russet locks - with arum leaf, - quench out the colour, - still the fevered glance, - cover your want, - your fire insatiate, - I can not match your fervour, - nay, nor still my ache - with any - but white hands inviolate. - - - 2 - - Take the red spoil - of grape and pomegranate, - the red camellia, - the most, most red rose; - take all the garden spills, - inveterate, - prodigal spender - just as summer goes, - the red scales of the deep in-folded spice, - the Indian, Persian and the Syrian pink, - their scent undaunted - even in that faint, - unmistakable fragrance - of the late tuberose, - (heavy its petals, - eye-lids of dark eyes - that open languorous - and more languorous close--the east, - further than scent - of our wind-smitten isle,) - take these: - - O lady, take them, - prodigal - I cull and offer this and this and these - last definite whorls - of clustered peonies, - the last, the first - that stained our stainless ledge - of blue and white - and the white foam of sea, - rocks, - and that strait ledge - whiter than the rock - the Parians break - from their enchanted hill; - take, lady, - but leave me with my weed and shell - and those slight, hovering gull-wings that recall - silver of far Hymettus’ asphodel. - - - 3 - - Take all - for you have taken everything, - but do not let me see you taking this; - Adonis lying spent with Venus’ care, - Adonis dying were a lesser ache - than this, - to have even your slightest breath - breathe in the crystal air - where he takes breath. - - Take all - for you have taken everything, - save the broad ledge of sea - which no man takes, - take all - for you have taken mirth and ease - and all the small delights - of simple poets, - the lilt of rhyme, - the sway and lift and fall, - the first spring gold - your fire has scorched to ash, - the fresh winds - that go halt - where you have passed, - the Tyrian iris - I so greatly loved, - its dark head speared - through its wet spray of leaves. - - Take all, - but ah, lady, a fool, a poet - may even know when you have taken all: - up on the mountain slope - one last flower cleaves - to the wet marge of ice, - the blue of snow, - keep all your riot - in the swales below, - of grape and autumn, - take all, taking these, - for you and autumn yet - can not prevail - against that flame, that flower, - (ice, spark or jewel,) - the cyclamen, - parting its white cyclamen leaves. - - - 4 - - O, I am ill with dust - as you with stain, - O, I am worthless, - weary, world-bedragged, - nevertheless to mountains - still the rain - falls on the tangle - of dead under-brush, - freshens the loam, - the earth and broken leaves - for that hoar-frost - of later star or flower, - the fragile host - of Greek anemones. - - Say I am little meet - to call the youth, - say I have little magic - to enchant, - but is that reason - why your flaring will - should sweep and scorch, - should lap and seethe and fill - with last red flame - the tender ditch and runnel - which the spring freshet - soon must fill again? - - White violets - have no place - on your hot brow; - how can I bring you - what the spring must bring? - what can I offer? - lush and heady mallow? - the fire-grass - or the serpent-spotted - fire-flower? - O take them, - for I stand a ruinous cloud - between you - and the chaste uplifted hill. - - O take them swiftly - and more swiftly go, - for spring is distant yet, - for spring is far; - you have your tense, short space - of blazing sun, - your melons, vines, - your terraces of fruit; - now all you have, - all, all I gladly give - who long but for the ridge, - the crest and hollow, - the lift and fall, - the reach and distant ledge - of the sun-smitten, - wind-indented snow. - - - - - _The bird-choros of Ion_ - - - Birds from Parnassus, - swift - you dart - from the loftiest peaks; - you hover, dip, - you sway and perch - undaunted on the gold-set cornice; - you eagle, - god’s majestic legate, - who tear, who strike - song-birds in mid-flight, - my arrow whistles toward you, - swift - be off; - - ah drift, - ah drift - so soft, so light, - your scarlet foot so deftly placed - to waft you neatly - to the pavement, - swan, swan - and do you really think - your song - that tunes the harp of Helios, - will save you - from the arrow-flight? - turn back, - back - to the lake of Delos; - - lest all the song notes - pause and break - across a blood-stained throat - gone songless, - turn back, - back - ere it be too late, - to wave-swept Delos. - - Alas, and still another, - what? - you’d place your mean nest - in the cornice? - sing, sing - my arrow-string, - tell to the thief - that plaits its house - for fledglings - in the god’s own house, - that still the Alpheus - whispers sweet - to lure - the birdlets to the place, - that still the Isthmus - shines with forests; - on the white statues - must be found - no straw nor litter - of bird-down, - Phœbos must have his portal fair; - - and yet, O birds, - though this my labour - is set, - though this my task is clear, - though I must slay you, - I, god’s servant, - I who take here - my bread and life - and sweep the temple, - still I swear - that I would save you, - birds or spirits, - winged songs - that tell to men god’s will; - - still, still - the Alpheus whispers clear - to lure the bird-folk - to its waters, - ah still - the Isthmus - blossoms fair; - lest all the song notes - pause and break - across a blood-stained throat - gone songless, - turn back, - back - ere it be too late, - to wave-swept Delos. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Heliodora, by Hilda Doolittle - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HELIODORA *** - -***** This file should be named 62456-0.txt or 62456-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/4/5/62456/ - -Produced by Tim Lindell, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -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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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Heliodora - And Other Poems - -Author: Hilda Doolittle - -Release Date: June 23, 2020 [EBook #62456] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HELIODORA *** - - - - -Produced by Tim Lindell, Chuck Greif and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - -</pre> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<div class="c"> -<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="" height="550" /> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_1" id="page_1">{1}</a></span> </p> - -<p class="cb">H E L I O D O R A<br /> -<i>And Other Poems</i></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_2" id="page_2">{2}</a></span> </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_3" id="page_3">{3}</a></span> </p> - -<h1> -Heliodora</h1> - -<p class="cbig"><i>And Other Poems<br /><br /> -by</i> <big>H. D.</big><br /> -<br /><br /><br /><br /> -Boston and New York<br /> -Houghton Mifflin Company<br /> -<br /></p> - -<p class="c"><small>MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN</small><br /></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_4" id="page_4">{4}</a></span> </p> - -<p class="c"><small>MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY<br /> -BUTLER AND TANNER LTD., FROME AND LONDON</small><br /></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_5" id="page_5">{5}</a></span> </p> - -<div class="blk"> -<p>Acknowledgment for the permission to reprint certain poems is due to: -<i>Nation</i>, <i>Sphere</i>, <i>Egoist</i> (London); <i>Bookman</i>, <i>Poetry</i>, <i>Double -Dealer</i> (New York, Chicago, New Orleans); <i>Transatlantic</i>, <i>Gargoyle</i> -(Paris); <i>The Imagist Anthologies</i> and the <i>Miscellany of American -Poetry</i> (1922).<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_7" id="page_7">{7}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_6" id="page_6">{6}</a></span></p> - -<h2><a name="Note" id="Note"></a><i>Note</i></h2> - -<p>The poem Lais has in italics a translation of the Plato epigram in the -Greek Anthology. Heliodora has in italics the two Meleager epigrams from -the Anthology. In Nossis is the translation of the opening lines of the -Garland of Meleager and the poem of Nossis herself in the Greek -Anthology. The four Sappho fragments are re-worked freely. The Odyssey -is a translation of the opening of the first book. The Ion is a -translation of the latter part of the first long choros of the Ion of -Euripides.</p> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_8" id="page_8">{8}</a></span> </p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_9" id="page_9">{9}</a></span> </p> - -<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> -<tr><td> </td><td><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Wash_Of_Cold_River">WASH OF COLD RIVER</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_11">11</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Holy_Satyr">HOLY SATYR</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_13">13</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Lais">LAIS</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_15">15</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Heliodora">HELIODORA</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_18">18</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Helen">HELEN</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_24">24</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Nossis">NOSSIS</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_25">25</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Centaur_Song">CENTAUR SONG</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_29">29</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Oread">OREAD</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_31">31</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#The_Pool">THE POOL</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_32">32</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Thetis">THETIS</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_33">33</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#At_Ithaca">AT ITHACA</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_39">39</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#We_Two">WE TWO</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_42">42</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Fragment_Thirty-six">FRAGMENT THIRTY-SIX</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_44">44</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Flute_Song">FLUTE SONG</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_48">48</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#After_Troy">AFTER TROY</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_49">49</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Cassandra">CASSANDRA</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_51">51</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Epigrams">EPIGRAMS</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_55">55</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Fragment_Forty">FRAGMENT FORTY</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_57">57</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Toward_the_Piraeus">TOWARD THE PIRÆUS</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_61">61</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Moonrise">MOONRISE</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_67">67</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#At_Eleusis">AT ELEUSIS</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_68">68</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Fragment_Forty-one">FRAGMENT FORTY-ONE</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_70">70</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_10" id="page_10">{10}</a></span><a href="#Telesila">TELESILA</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_76">76</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Fragment_Sixty-eight">FRAGMENT SIXTY-EIGHT</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_81">81</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Lethe">LETHE</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_85">85</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Sitalkas">SITALKAS</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_86">86</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Hermonax">HERMONAX</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_87">87</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Orion_Dead">ORION DEAD</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_89">89</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Charioteer">CHARIOTEER</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_91">91</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#The_Look-out">THE LOOK-OUT</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_102">102</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Odyssey">ODYSSEY</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_108">108</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Hyacinth">HYACINTH</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_116">116</a></td></tr> - -<tr><td valign="top"><a href="#Ion">ION</a></td><td class="rt" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_124">124</a></td></tr> -</table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_11" id="page_11">{11}</a></span> </p> - -<p><a name="Wash_Of_Cold_River" id="Wash_Of_Cold_River"></a></p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><i><span class="letra">W</span><span class="uplettre">ASH</span> of cold river</i><br /></span> -<span class="ih"><i>in a glacial land,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>Ionian water,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>chill, snow-ribbed sand,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>drift of rare flowers,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>clear, with delicate shell-</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>like leaf enclosing</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>frozen lily-leaf,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>camellia texture,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>colder than a rose;</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>wind-flower</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>that keeps the breath</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>of the north-wind—</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>these and none other;</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>intimate thoughts and kind</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>reach out to share</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>the treasure of my mind,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>intimate hands and dear</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>draw garden-ward and sea-ward</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>all the sheer rapture</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>that I would take</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>to mould a clear</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>and frigid statue;</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>rare, of pure texture,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>beautiful space and line,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>marble to grace</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>your inaccessible shrine.</i><br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_13" id="page_13">{13}</a></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_12" id="page_12">{12}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Holy_Satyr" id="Holy_Satyr"></a><i>Holy Satyr</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">M</span><span class="uplettre">OST</span> holy Satyr,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">like a goat,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with horns and hooves<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to match thy coat<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of russet brown,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I make leaf-circlets<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and a crown of honey-flowers<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for thy throat;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">where the amber petals<br /></span> -<span class="i0">drip to ivory,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I cut and slip<br /></span> -<span class="i0">each stiffened petal<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in the rift<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of carven petal;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">honey horn<br /></span> -<span class="i0">has wed the bright<br /></span> -<span class="i0">virgin petal of the white<br /></span> -<span class="i0">flower cluster: lip to lip<br /></span> -<span class="i0">let them whisper,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">let them lilt, quivering.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Most holy Satyr,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">like a goat,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_14" id="page_14">{14}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">hear this our song,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">accept our leaves,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">love-offering,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">return our hymn,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">like echo fling<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a sweet song,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">answering note for note.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_15" id="page_15">{15}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Lais" id="Lais"></a><i>Lais</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">L</span><span class="uplettre">ET</span> her who walks in Paphos<br /></span> -<span class="ih">take the glass,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">let Paphos take the mirror<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the work of frosted fruit,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">gold apples set<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with silver apple-leaf,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">white leaf of silver<br /></span> -<span class="i0">wrought with vein of gilt.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Let Paphos lift the mirror,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">let her look<br /></span> -<span class="i0">into the polished centre of the disk.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Let Paphos take the mirror;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">did she press<br /></span> -<span class="i0">flowerlet of flame-flower<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to the lustrous white<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the white forehead?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">did the dark veins beat<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a deeper purple<br /></span> -<span class="i0">than the wine-deep tint<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the dark flower?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_16" id="page_16">{16}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Did she deck black hair<br /></span> -<span class="i0">one evening, with the winter-white<br /></span> -<span class="i0">flower of the winter-berry,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">did she look (reft of her lover)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">at a face gone white<br /></span> -<span class="i0">under the chaplet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of white virgin-breath?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Lais, exultant, tyrannizing Greece,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Lais who kept her lovers in the porch,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">lover on lover waiting,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(but to creep<br /></span> -<span class="i0">where the robe brushed the threshold<br /></span> -<span class="i0">where still sleeps Lais,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so she creeps, Lais,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to lay her mirror at the feet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of her who reigns in Paphos.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Lais has left her mirror<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for she sees no longer in its depth<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the Lais’ self<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that laughed exultant<br /></span> -<span class="i0">tyrannizing Greece.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Lais has left her mirror,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for she weeps no longer,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_17" id="page_17">{17}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">finding in its depth,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a face, but other<br /></span> -<span class="i0">than dark flame and white<br /></span> -<span class="i0">feature of perfect marble.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>Lais has left her mirror</i>,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(so one wrote)<br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>to her who reigns in Paphos;</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>Lais who laughed a tyrant over Greece,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>Lais who turned the lovers from the porch,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>that swarm for whom now</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>Lais has no use;</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>Lais is now no lover of the glass,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>seeing no more the face as once it was,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>wishing to see that face and finding this</i>.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_18" id="page_18">{18}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Heliodora" id="Heliodora"></a><i>Heliodora</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">H</span><span class="uplettre">E</span> and I sought together,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">over the spattered table,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">rhymes and flowers,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">gifts for a name.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">He said, among others,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I will bring<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(and the phrase was just and good,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but not as good as mine,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“the narcissus that loves the rain.”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">We strove for a name,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">while the light of the lamps burnt thin<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the outer dawn came in,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a ghost, the last at the feast<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or the first,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to sit within<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with the two that remained<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to quibble in flowers and verse<br /></span> -<span class="i0">over a girl’s name.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">He said, “the rain loving,”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I said, “the narcissus, drunk,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">drunk with the rain.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_19" id="page_19">{19}</a></span>”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Yet I had lost<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for he said,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“the rose, the lover’s gift,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is loved of love,”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">he said it,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“loved of love;”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I waited, even as he spoke,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to see the room filled with a light,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as when in winter<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the embers catch in a wind<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when a room is dank;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so it would be filled, I thought,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">our room with a light<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when he said<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(and he said it first,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“the rose, the lover’s delight,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is loved of love,”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but the light was the same.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Then he caught,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">seeing the fire in my eyes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my fire, my fever, perhaps,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for he leaned<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with the purple wine<br /></span> -<span class="i0">stained on his sleeve,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_20" id="page_20">{20}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">and said this:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“did you ever think<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a girl’s mouth<br /></span> -<span class="i0">caught in a kiss,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is a lily that laughs?”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I had not.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I saw it now<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as men must see it forever afterwards;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">no poet could write again,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“the red-lily,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a girl’s laugh caught in a kiss;”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">it was his to pour in the vat<br /></span> -<span class="i0">from which all poets dip and quaff,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for poets are brothers in this.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">So I saw the fire in his eyes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">it was almost my fire,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(he was younger,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I saw the face so white,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my heart beat,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">it was almost my phrase;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I said, “surprise the muses,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">take them by surprise;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_21" id="page_21">{21}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">it is late,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">rather it is dawn-rise,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">those ladies sleep, the nine,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">our own king’s mistresses.”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">A name to rhyme,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">flowers to bring to a name,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what was one girl faint and shy,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with eyes like the myrtle,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(I said: “her underlids<br /></span> -<span class="i0">are rather like myrtle,”)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to vie with the nine?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Let him take the name,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">he had the rhymes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“the rose, loved of love,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the lily, a mouth that laughs,”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">he had the gift,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“the scented crocus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the purple hyacinth,”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what was one girl to the nine?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">He said:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“I will make her a wreath;”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">he said:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“I will write it thus:<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_22" id="page_22">{22}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>I will bring you the lily that laughs,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>I will twine</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>with soft narcissus, the myrtle,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>sweet crocus, white violet,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>the purple hyacinth, and last,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>the rose, loved-of-love,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>that these may drip on your hair</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>the less soft flowers,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>may mingle sweet with the sweet</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>of Heliodora’s locks,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>myrrh-curled.</i>”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">(He wrote myrrh-curled,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I think, the first.)<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I said:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“they sleep, the nine,”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when he shouted swift and passionate:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“<i>that</i> for the nine!<br /></span> -<span class="i0">above the hills<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the sun is about to wake,<br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>and to-day white violets</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>shine beside white lilies</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>adrift on the mountain side;</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>to-day the narcissus opens</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>that loves the rain</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_23" id="page_23">{23}</a></span>”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I watched him to the door,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">catching his robe<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as the wine-bowl crashed to the floor,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">spilling a few wet lees,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(ah, his purple hyacinth!)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I saw him out of the door,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I thought:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">there will never be a poet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in all the centuries after this,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who will dare write,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">after my friend’s verse,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“a girl’s mouth<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is a lily kissed.”<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_24" id="page_24">{24}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Helen" id="Helen"></a><i>Helen</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">A</span><span class="uplettre">LL</span> Greece hates<br /></span> -<span class="ih">the still eyes in the white face,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the lustre as of olives<br /></span> -<span class="i0">where she stands,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the white hands.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">All Greece reviles<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the wan face when she smiles,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">hating it deeper still<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when it grows wan and white,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">remembering past enchantments<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and past ills.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Greece sees unmoved,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">God’s daughter, born of love,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the beauty of cool feet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and slenderest knees,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">could love indeed the maid,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">only if she were laid,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">white ash amid funereal cypresses.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_25" id="page_25">{25}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Nossis" id="Nossis"></a><i>Nossis</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">I</span> <span class="uplettre">THOUGHT</span> to hear him speak<br /></span> -<span class="ih">the girl might rise<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and make the garden silver,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as the white moon breaks,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“Nossis,” he cried, “a flame.”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I said:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“a girl that’s dead<br /></span> -<span class="i0">some hundred years;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a poet—what of that?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for in the islands,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in the haunts of Greek Ionia,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Rhodes and Cyprus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">girls are cheap.”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I said, to test his mood,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to make him rage or laugh or sing or weep,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“in Greek Ionia and in Cyprus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">many girls are found<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with wreaths and apple-branches.”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Only a hundred years or two or three,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">has she lain dead<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_26" id="page_26">{26}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet men forget;”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">he said,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“I want a garden,”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and I thought<br /></span> -<span class="i0">he wished to make a terrace on the hill,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">bend the stream to it,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">set out daffodils,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">plant Phrygian violets,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">such was his will and whim,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I thought,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to name and watch each flower.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">His was no garden<br /></span> -<span class="i0">bright with Tyrian violets,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">his was a shelter<br /></span> -<span class="i0">wrought of flame and spirit,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and as he flung her name<br /></span> -<span class="i0">against the dark,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I thought the iris-flowers<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that lined the path<br /></span> -<span class="i0">must be the ghost of Nossis.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“<i>Who made the wreath,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>for what man was it wrought?</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_27" id="page_27">{27}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>speak, fashioned all of fruit-buds,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>song, my loveliest,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>say Meleager brought to Diodes</i>,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(<i>a gift for that enchanting friend</i>)<br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>memories with names of poets.</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>He sought for Moero, lilies,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>and those many,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>red-lilies for Anyte,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>for Sappho, roses,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>with those few, he caught</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>that breath of the sweet-scented</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>leaf of iris,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>the myrrh-iris,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>to set beside the tablet</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>and the wax</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>which Love had burnt,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>when scarred across by Nossis.</i>”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">when she wrote:<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“<i>I Nossis stand by this:</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>I state that love is sweet:</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>if you think otherwise</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>assert what beauty</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>or what charm</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_28" id="page_28">{28}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>after the charm of love,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>retains its grace?</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>“Honey” you say:</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>honey? I say “I spit</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>honey out of my mouth:</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>nothing is second-best</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>after the sweet of Eros.”</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>I Nossis stand and state</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>that he whom Love neglects</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>has naught, no flower, no grace,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>who lacks that rose, her kiss.</i>”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I thought to hear him speak<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the girl might rise<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and make the garden silver<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as the white moon breaks,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“Nossis,” he cried, “a flame.”<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_29" id="page_29">{29}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Centaur_Song" id="Centaur_Song"></a><i>Centaur Song</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">N</span><span class="uplettre">OW</span> that the day is done,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">now that the night creeps soft<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and dims the chestnut clusters’<br /></span> -<span class="i0">radiant spike of flower,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O sweet, till dawn<br /></span> -<span class="i0">break through the branches<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of our orchard-garden,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">rest in this shelter<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the osier-wood and thorn.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">They fall,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the apple-flowers;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nor softer grace has Aphrodite<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in the heaven afar,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nor at so fair a pace<br /></span> -<span class="i0">open the flower-petals<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as your face bends down,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">while, breath on breath,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your mouth wanders<br /></span> -<span class="i0">from my mouth o’er my face.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">What have I left<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to bring you in this place,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_30" id="page_30">{30}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">already sweet with violets?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(those you brought<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with swathes of earliest grass,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">forest and meadow balm,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">flung from your giant arms<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for us to rest upon.)<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Fair are these petals<br /></span> -<span class="i0">broken by your feet;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your horse’s hooves<br /></span> -<span class="i0">tread softer than a deer’s;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your eyes, startled,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">are like the deer eyes<br /></span> -<span class="i0">while your heart<br /></span> -<span class="i0">trembles more than the deer.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">O earth, O god,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O forest, stream or river,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what shall I bring<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that all the day hold back,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that Dawn remember Love<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and rest upon her bed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and Zeus, forgetful not of Danæ or Maia,<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">bid the stars shine forever.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_31" id="page_31">{31}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Oread" id="Oread"></a><i>Oread</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">W</span><span class="uplettre">HIRL</span> up, sea—<br /></span> -<span class="ih">whirl your pointed pines,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">splash your great pines<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on our rocks,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">hurl your green over us,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">cover us with your pools of fir.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_32" id="page_32">{32}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="The_Pool" id="The_Pool"></a><i>The Pool</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">A</span><span class="uplettre">RE</span> you alive?<br /></span> -<span class="ih">I touch you.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">You quiver like a sea-fish.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I cover you with my net.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">What are you—banded one?<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_33" id="page_33">{33}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Thetis" id="Thetis"></a><i>Thetis</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">H</span><span class="uplettre">E</span> had asked for immortal life<br /></span> -<span class="ih">in the old days and had grown old,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">now he had aged apace,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">he asked for his youth,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and I, Thetis, granted him<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">freedom under the sea<br /></span> -<span class="i0">drip and welter of weeds,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the drift of the fringing grass,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the gift of the never-withering moss,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the flowering reed,<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">and most,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">beauty of fifty nereids,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">sisters of nine,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I one of their least,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet great and a goddess,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">granted Pelius,<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">love under the sea,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">beauty, grace infinite:<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">So I crept, at last,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a crescent, a curve of a wave,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_34" id="page_34">{34}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">(a man would have thought,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">had he watched for his nets<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on the beach)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a dolphin, a glistening fish,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that burnt and caught for its light,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the light of the undercrest<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the lifting tide,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a fish with silver for breast,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with no light but the light<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the sea it reflects.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Little he would have guessed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(had such a one<br /></span> -<span class="i0">watched by his nets,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that a goddess flung from the crest<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the wave the blue of its own<br /></span> -<span class="i0">bright tress of hair,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the blue of the painted stuff<br /></span> -<span class="i0">it wore for dress.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">No man would have known save he,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">whose coming I sensed as I strung<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my pearl and agate and pearl,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to mark the beat and the stress<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the lilt of my song.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_35" id="page_35">{35}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>Who dreams of a son,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>save one,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>childless, having no bright</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>face to flatter its own,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>who dreams of a son?</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>Nereids under the sea,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>my sisters, fifty and one</i>,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(<i>counting myself</i>)<br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>they dream of a child</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>of water and sea,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>with hair of the softest,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>to lie along the curve</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>of fragile, tiny bones,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>yet more beautiful each than each,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>hair more bright and long,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>to rival its own.</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>Nereids under the wave,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>who dreams of a son</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>save I, Thetis, alone?</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>Each would have for a child,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>a stray self, furtive and wild,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>to dive and leap to the wind,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>to wheedle and coax</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="page_36" id="page_36">{36}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>the stray birds bright and bland</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>of foreign strands,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>to crawl and stretch on the sands,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>each would have for its own,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>a daughter for child.</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>Who dreams, who sings of a son?</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>I, Thetis, alone.</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">When I had finished my song,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and dropped the last seed-pearl,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and flung the necklet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">about my throat<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and found it none too bright,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">not bright enough nor pale<br /></span> -<span class="i0">enough, not like the moon that creeps<br /></span> -<span class="i0">beneath the sea,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">between the lift of crest and crest,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">had tried it on<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and found it not<br /></span> -<span class="i0">quite fair enough<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to fill the night<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of my blue folds of bluest dress<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with moon for light,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I cast the beads aside and leapt,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_37" id="page_37">{37}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">myself all blue<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with no bright gloss<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of pearls for crescent light;<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">but one alert, all blue and wet,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I flung myself, an arrow’s flight,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">straight upward<br /></span> -<span class="i0">through the blue of night<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that was my palace wall,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and crept to where I saw the mark<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of feet, a rare foot-fall:<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Achilles’ sandal on the beach,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">could one mistake?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">perhaps a lover or a nymph,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">lost from the tangled fern and brake,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that lines the upper shelf of land,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">perhaps a goddess or a nymph<br /></span> -<span class="i0">might so mistake<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Achilles’ footprint for the trace<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of a bright god alert to track<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the panther where he slinks for thirst<br /></span> -<span class="i0">across the sand;<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">perhaps a goddess or a nymph,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">might think a god had crossed the track<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_38" id="page_38">{38}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">of weed and drift,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">had broken here this stem of reed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">had turned this sea-shell to the light:<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">So she must stoop, this goddess girl,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or nymph, with crest of blossoming wood<br /></span> -<span class="i0">about her hair for cap or crown,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">must stoop and kneel and bending down,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">must kiss the print of such a one.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Not I, the mother, Thetis self,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I stretched and lay, a river’s slim<br /></span> -<span class="i0">dark length,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a rivulet where it leaves the wood,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and meets the sea,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I lay along the burning sand,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a river’s blue.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_39" id="page_39">{39}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="At_Ithaca" id="At_Ithaca"></a><i>At Ithaca</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">O</span><span class="uplettre">VER</span> and back,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">the long waves crawl<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and track the sand with foam;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">night darkens and the sea<br /></span> -<span class="i0">takes on that desperate tone<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of dark that wives put on<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when all their love is done.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Over and back,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the tangled thread falls slack,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">over and up and on;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">over and all is sewn;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">now while I bind the end,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I wish some fiery friend<br /></span> -<span class="i0">would sweep impetuously<br /></span> -<span class="i0">these fingers from the loom.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">My weary thoughts<br /></span> -<span class="i0">play traitor to my soul,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">just as the toil is over;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">swift while the woof is whole,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">turn now my spirit, swift,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and tear the pattern there,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the flowers so deftly wrought,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_40" id="page_40">{40}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">the border of sea-blue,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the sea-blue coast of home.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">The web was over-fair,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that web of pictures there,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">enchantments that I thought<br /></span> -<span class="i0">he had, that I had lost;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">weaving his happiness<br /></span> -<span class="i0">within the stitching frame,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">weaving his fire and fame,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I thought my work was done,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I prayed that only one<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of those that I had spurned,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">might stoop and conquer this<br /></span> -<span class="i0">long waiting with a kiss.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">But each time that I see<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my work so beautifully<br /></span> -<span class="i0">inwoven and would keep<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the picture and the whole,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Athene steels my soul,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">slanting across my brain,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I see as shafts of rain<br /></span> -<span class="i0">his chariot and his shafts,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_41" id="page_41">{41}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">I see the arrows fall,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I see my lord who moves<br /></span> -<span class="i0">like Hector, lord of love,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I see him matched with fair<br /></span> -<span class="i0">bright rivals and I see<br /></span> -<span class="i0">those lesser rivals flee.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_42" id="page_42">{42}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="We_Two" id="We_Two"></a><i>We Two</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">W</span><span class="uplettre">E</span> two are left:<br /></span> -<span class="ih">I with small grace reveal<br /></span> -<span class="i0">distaste and bitterness;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you with small patience<br /></span> -<span class="i0">take my hands;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though effortless,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you scald their weight<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as a bowl, lined with embers,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">wherein droop<br /></span> -<span class="i0">great petals of white rose,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">forced by the heat<br /></span> -<span class="i0">too soon to break.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">We two are left:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as a blank wall, the world,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">earth and the men who talk,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">saying their space of life<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is good and gracious,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with eyes blank<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as that blank surface<br /></span> -<span class="i0">their ignorance mistakes<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for final shelter<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and a resting-place.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_43" id="page_43">{43}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">We two remain:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet by what miracle,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">searching within the tangles of my brain,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I ask again,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">have we two met within<br /></span> -<span class="i0">this maze of dædal paths<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in-wound mid grievous stone,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">where once I stood alone?<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_44" id="page_44">{44}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Fragment_Thirty-six" id="Fragment_Thirty-six"></a><i>Fragment Thirty-six</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I know not what to do:<br /></span> -<span class="i2">my mind is divided.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<p class="c">SAPPHO</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">I</span> <span class="uplettre">KNOW</span> not what to do,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">my mind is reft:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is song’s gift best?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is love’s gift loveliest?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I know not what to do,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">now sleep has pressed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">weight on your eyelids.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Shall I break your rest,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">devouring, eager?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is love’s gift best?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nay, song’s the loveliest:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet were you lost,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what rapture<br /></span> -<span class="i0">could I take from song?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what song were left?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I know not what to do:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to turn and slake<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the rage that burns,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with my breath burn<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_45" id="page_45">{45}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">and trouble your cool breath?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so shall I turn and take<br /></span> -<span class="i0">snow in my arms?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(is love’s gift best?)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet flake on flake<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of snow were comfortless,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">did you lie wondering,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">wakened yet unawake.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Shall I turn and take<br /></span> -<span class="i0">comfortless snow within my arms?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">press lips to lips<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that answer not,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">press lips to flesh<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that shudders not nor breaks?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Is love’s gift best?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">shall I turn and slake<br /></span> -<span class="i0">all the wild longing?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O I am eager for you!<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as the Pleiads shake<br /></span> -<span class="i0">white light in whiter water<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so shall I take you?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">My mind is quite divided,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my minds hesitate,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_46" id="page_46">{46}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">so perfect matched,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I know not what to do:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">each strives with each<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as two white wrestlers<br /></span> -<span class="i0">standing for a match,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ready to turn and clutch<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet never shake muscle nor nerve nor tendon;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so my mind waits<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to grapple with my mind,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet I lie quiet,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I would seem at rest.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I know not what to do:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">strain upon strain,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">sound surging upon sound<br /></span> -<span class="i0">makes my brain blind;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as a wave-line may wait to fall<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet (waiting for its falling)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">still the wind may take<br /></span> -<span class="i0">from off its crest,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">white flake on flake of foam,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that rises,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">seeming to dart and pulse<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and rend the light,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so my mind hesitates<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_47" id="page_47">{47}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">above the passion<br /></span> -<span class="i0">quivering yet to break,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so my mind hesitates<br /></span> -<span class="i0">above my mind,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">listening to song’s delight.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I know not what to do:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">will the sound break,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">rending the night<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with rift on rift of rose<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and scattered light?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">will the sound break at last<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as the wave hesitant,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or will the whole night pass<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and I lie listening awake?<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_48" id="page_48">{48}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Flute_Song" id="Flute_Song"></a><i>Flute Song</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">L</span><span class="uplettre">ITTLE</span> scavenger away,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">touch not the door,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">beat not the portal down,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">cross not the sill,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">silent until<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my song, bright and shrill,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">breathes out its lay.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Little scavenger avaunt,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">tempt me with jeer and taunt,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet you will wait to-day;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for it were surely ill<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to mock and shout and revel;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">it were more fit to tell<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with flutes and calathes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your mother’s praise.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_49" id="page_49">{49}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="After_Troy" id="After_Troy"></a><i>After Troy</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">W</span><span class="uplettre">E</span> flung against their gods,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">invincible, clear hate;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">we fought;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">frantic, we flung the last<br /></span> -<span class="i0">imperious, desperate shaft<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">and lost:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">we knew the loss<br /></span> -<span class="i0">before they ever guessed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">fortune had tossed to them<br /></span> -<span class="i0">her favour and her whim;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but how were we depressed?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">we lost yet as we pressed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">our spearsmen on their best,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">we knew their line invincible<br /></span> -<span class="i0">because there fell<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on them no shiverings<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the white enchanteress,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">radiant Aphrodite’s spell:<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">we hurled our shafts of passion,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">noblest hate,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and knew their cause was blest,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and knew their gods were nobler,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_50" id="page_50">{50}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">better taught in skill,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">subtler with wit of thought,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet had it been God’s will<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that <i>they</i> not we should fall,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">we know those fields had bled<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with roses lesser red.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_51" id="page_51">{51}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Cassandra" id="Cassandra"></a><i>Cassandra</i><br /><br /> -<small><i>O Hymen king.</i></small></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">H</span><span class="uplettre">YMEN</span>, O Hymen king,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">what bitter thing is this?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what shaft, tearing my heart?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what scar, what light, what fire<br /></span> -<span class="i0">searing my eye-balls and my eyes with flame?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nameless, O spoken name,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">king, lord, speak blameless Hymen.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Why do you blind my eyes?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">why do you dart and pulse<br /></span> -<span class="i0">till all the dark is home,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">then find my soul<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and ruthless draw it back?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">scaling the scaleless,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">opening the dark?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">speak, nameless, power and might;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when will you leave me quite?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when will you break my wings<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or leave them utterly free<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to scale heaven endlessly?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">A bitter, broken thing,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my heart, O Hymen lord,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_52" id="page_52">{52}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet neither drought nor sword<br /></span> -<span class="i0">baffles men quite,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">why must they feign to fear<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my virgin glance?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">feigned utterly or real<br /></span> -<span class="i0">why do they shrink?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my trance frightens them,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">breaks the dance,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">empties the market place;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if I but pass they fall<br /></span> -<span class="i0">back, frantically;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">must always people mock?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">unless they shrink and reel<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as in the temple<br /></span> -<span class="i0">at your uttered will.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">O Hymen king,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">lord, greatest, power, might,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">look for my face is dark,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">burnt with your light,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your fire, O Hymen lord;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is there none left<br /></span> -<span class="i0">can equal me<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in ecstasy, desire?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is there none left<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_53" id="page_53">{53}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">can bear with me<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the kiss of your white fire?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is there not one,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Phrygian or frenzied Greek,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">poet, song-swept, or bard,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">one meet to take from me<br /></span> -<span class="i0">this bitter power of song,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">one fit to speak, Hymen,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your praises, lord?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">May I not wed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as you have wed?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">may it not break, beauty,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">from out my hands, my head, my feet?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">may Love not lie beside me<br /></span> -<span class="i0">till his heat<br /></span> -<span class="i0">burn me to ash?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">may he not comfort me, then,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">spent of all that fire and heat,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">still, ashen-white and cool<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as the wet laurels,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">white, before your feet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">step on the mountain-slope,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">before your fiery hand<br /></span> -<span class="i0">lift up the mantle<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_54" id="page_54">{54}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">covering flower and land,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as a man lifts,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O Hymen, from his bride,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(cowering with woman eyes,) the veil?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O Hymen lord, be kind.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_55" id="page_55">{55}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Epigrams" id="Epigrams"></a><i>Epigrams</i></h2> - -<h3>1</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">O</span> <span class="uplettre">RUTHLESS</span>, perilous, imperious hate,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">you can not thwart<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the promptings of my soul,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you can not weaken nay nor dominate<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Love that is mateless,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Love the rite,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the whole measure of being:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">would you crush with bondage?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nay, you would love me not<br /></span> -<span class="i0">were I your slave.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>2</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">T</span><span class="uplettre">ORTURE</span> me not with this or that or this,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">Love is my master,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you his lesser self;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">while you are Love,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I love you generously,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">be Eros,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">not a tyrannous, bitter mate:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Love has no charm<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when Love is swept to earth:<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_56" id="page_56">{56}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">you’d make a lop-winged god,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">frozen and contrite,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of god up-darting,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">winged for passionate flight.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_57" id="page_57">{57}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Fragment_Forty" id="Fragment_Forty"></a><i>Fragment Forty</i><br /><br /> -<small><i>Love ... bitter-sweet.</i></small><br /><br /> -<small>SAPPHO</small></h2> - -<h3>1</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">K</span><span class="uplettre">EEP</span> love and he wings<br /></span> -<span class="ih">with his bow,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">up, mocking us,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">keep love and he taunts us<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and escapes.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Keep love and he sways apart<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in another world,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">outdistancing us.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Keep love and he mocks,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ah, bitter and sweet,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your sweetness is more cruel<br /></span> -<span class="i0">than your hurt.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Honey and salt,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">fire burst from the rocks<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to meet fire<br /></span> -<span class="i0">spilt from Hesperus.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_58" id="page_58">{58}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Fire darted aloft and met fire:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in that moment<br /></span> -<span class="i0">love entered us.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>2</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">C</span><span class="uplettre">OULD</span> Eros be kept?<br /></span> -<span class="ih">he were prisoned long since<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and sick with imprisonment;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">could Eros be kept?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">others would have broken<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and crushed out his life.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Could Eros be kept?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">we too sinning, by Kypris,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">might have prisoned him outright.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Could Eros be kept?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nay, thank him and the bright goddess<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that he left us.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>3</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">A</span><span class="uplettre">H</span>, love is bitter and sweet,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">but which is more sweet,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the sweetness<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or the bitterness?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">none has spoken it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_59" id="page_59">{59}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Love is bitter,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but can salt taint sea-flowers,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">grief, happiness?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Is it bitter to give back<br /></span> -<span class="i0">love to your lover<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if he crave it?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Is it bitter to give back<br /></span> -<span class="i0">love to your lover<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if he wish it<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for a new favourite?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who can say,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or is it sweet?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Is it sweet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to possess utterly?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or is it bitter,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">bitter as ash?<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>4</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I had thought myself frail;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a petal,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with light equal<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on leaf and under-leaf.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_60" id="page_60">{60}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I had thought myself frail;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a lamp,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">shell, ivory or crust of pearl,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">about to fall shattered,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with flame spent.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I cried:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“I must perish,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I am deserted,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">an outcast, desperate<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in this darkness,”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(such fire rent me with Hesperus,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">then the day broke.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>5</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">W</span><span class="uplettre">HAT</span> need of a lamp<br /></span> -<span class="ih">when day lightens us,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what need to bind love<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when love stands<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with such radiant wings<br /></span> -<span class="i0">over us?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">What need—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet to sing love,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">love must first shatter us.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_61" id="page_61">{61}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Toward_the_Piraeus" id="Toward_the_Piraeus"></a><i>Toward the Piræus</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i><span class="letra">S</span><span class="uplettre">LAY</span> with your eyes, Greek,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>men over the face of the earth,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>slay with your eyes, the host,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>puny, passionless, weak.</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>Break as the ranks of steel</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>broke when the Persian lost:</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>craven, we hated them then:</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>now we would count them Gods</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>beside these, spawn of the earth.</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>Grant us your mantle, Greek;</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>grant us but one</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>to fright (as your eyes) with a sword,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>men, craven and weak,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>grant us but one to strike</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>one blow for you, passionate Greek.</i><br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>1</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">Y</span><span class="uplettre">OU</span> would have broken my wings,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">but the very fact that you knew<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I had wings, set some seal<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on my bitter heart, my heart<br /></span> -<span class="i0">broke and fluttered and sang.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_62" id="page_62">{62}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">You would have snared me,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and scattered the strands of my nest;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but the very fact that you saw,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">sheltered me, claimed me,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">set me apart from the rest<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Of men—of <i>men</i>, made you a god,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and me, claimed me, set me apart<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the song in my breast,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yours, yours forever—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if I escape your evil heart.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>2</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I loved you:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">men have writ and women have said<br /></span> -<span class="i0">they loved,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but as the Pythoness stands by the altar,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">intense and may not move,<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">till the fumes pass over;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and may not falter or break,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">till the priest has caught the words<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that mar or make<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a deme or a ravaged town;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_63" id="page_63">{63}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">so I, though my knees tremble,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my heart break,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">must note the rumbling,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">heed only the shuddering<br /></span> -<span class="i0">down in the fissure beneath the rock<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the temple floor;<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">must wait and watch<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and may not turn nor move,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nor break from my trance to speak<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so slight, so sweet,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so simple a word as love.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>3</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">W</span><span class="uplettre">HAT</span> had you done<br /></span> -<span class="ih">had you been true,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I can not think,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I may not know.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">What could we do<br /></span> -<span class="i0">were I not wise,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what play invent,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what joy devise?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_64" id="page_64">{64}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">What could we do<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if you were great?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">(Yet were you lost,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who were there then,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to circumvent<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the tricks of men?)<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">What can we do,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for curious lies<br /></span> -<span class="i0">have filled your heart,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and in my eyes<br /></span> -<span class="i0">sorrow has writ<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that I am wise.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>4</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">I</span><span class="uplettre">F</span> I had been a boy,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">I would have worshipped your grace,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I would have flung my worship<br /></span> -<span class="i0">before your feet,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I would have followed apart,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">glad, rent with an ecstasy<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to watch you turn<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your great head, set on the throat,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">thick, dark with its sinews,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_65" id="page_65">{65}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">burned and wrought<br /></span> -<span class="i0">like the olive stalk,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the noble chin<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the throat.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I would have stood,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and watched and watched<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and burned,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and when in the night,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">from the many hosts, your slaves,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and warriors and serving men<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you had turned<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to the purple couch and the flame<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the woman, tall like the cypress tree<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that flames sudden and swift and free<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as with crackle of golden resin<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and cones and the locks flung free<br /></span> -<span class="i0">like the cypress limbs,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">bound, caught and shaken and loosed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">bound, caught and riven and bound<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and loosened again,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as in rain of a kingly storm<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or wind full from a desert plain.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">So, when you had risen<br /></span> -<span class="i0">from all the lethargy of love and its heat,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_66" id="page_66">{66}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">you would have summoned me,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">me alone,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and found my hands,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">beyond all the hands in the world,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">cold, cold, cold,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">intolerably cold and sweet.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>5</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">I</span><span class="uplettre">T</span> was not chastity that made me cold nor fear,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">only I knew that you, like myself, were sick<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the puny race that crawls and quibbles and lisps<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of love and love and lovers and love’s deceit.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">It was not chastity that made me wild, but fear<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that my weapon, tempered in different heat,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">was over-matched by yours, and your hand<br /></span> -<span class="i0">skilled to yield death-blows, might break<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">With the slightest turn—no ill will meant—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my own lesser, yet still somewhat fine-wrought,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">fiery-tempered, delicate, over-passionate steel.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_67" id="page_67">{67}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Moonrise" id="Moonrise"></a><i>Moonrise</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">W</span><span class="uplettre">ILL</span> you glimmer on the sea?<br /></span> -<span class="ih">will you fling your spear-head<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on the shore?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what note shall we pitch?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">we have a song,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on the bank we share our arrows;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the loosed string tells our note:<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">O flight,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">bring her swiftly to our song.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">she is great,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">we measure her by the pine trees.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_68" id="page_68">{68}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="At_Eleusis" id="At_Eleusis"></a><i>At Eleusis</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i><span class="letra">W</span><span class="uplettre">HAT</span> they did,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>they did for Dionysos,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>for ecstasy’s sake:</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">now take the basket,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">think;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">think of the moment you count<br /></span> -<span class="i0">most foul in your life;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">conjure it,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">supplicate,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">pray to it;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your face is bleak, you retract,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you dare not remember it:<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">stop;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">it is too late.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the next stands by the altar step,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a child’s face yet not innocent,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">it will prove adequate, but you,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I could have spelt your peril at the gate,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet for your mind’s sake,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though you could not enter,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">wait.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_69" id="page_69">{69}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>What they did,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>they did for Dionysos,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>for ecstasy’s sake:</i><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Now take the basket basket—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(ah face in a dream,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">did I not know your heart,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I would falter,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for each that fares onward<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is my child;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ah can you wonder<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that my hands shake,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that my knees tremble,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I a mortal, set in the goddess’ place?)<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_70" id="page_70">{70}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Fragment_Forty-one" id="Fragment_Forty-one"></a><i>Fragment Forty-one</i><br /><br /> -<small><i> ... thou flittest to Andromeda.</i></small><br /><br /> -<small>SAPPHO</small></h2> - -<h3>1</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">A</span><span class="uplettre">M</span> I blind alas,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">am I blind?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I too have followed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">her path.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I too have bent at her feet.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I too have wakened to pluck<br /></span> -<span class="i0">amaranth in the straight shaft,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">amaranth purple in the cup,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">scorched at the edge to white.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Am I blind?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">am I the less ready for her sacrifice?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">am I the less eager to give<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what she asks,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">she the shameless and radiant?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Am I quite lost,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I towering above you and her glance,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">walking with swifter pace,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_71" id="page_71">{71}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">with clearer sight,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with intensity<br /></span> -<span class="i0">beside which you two<br /></span> -<span class="i0">are as spent ash?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Nay, I give back to the goddess the gift<br /></span> -<span class="i0">she tendered me in a moment<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of great bounty.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I return it. I lay it again<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on the white slab of her house,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the beauty she cast out<br /></span> -<span class="i0">one moment, careless.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Nor do I cry out:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“why did I stoop?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">why did I turn aside<br /></span> -<span class="i0">one moment from the rocks<br /></span> -<span class="i0">marking the sea-path?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Aphrodite, shameless and radiant,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">have pity, turn, answer us.”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Ah no—though I stumble toward<br /></span> -<span class="i0">her altar-step,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though my flesh is scorched and rent,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">shattered, cut apart,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">slashed open;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_72" id="page_72">{72}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">though my heels press my own wet life<br /></span> -<span class="i0">black, dark to purple,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on the smooth, rose-streaked<br /></span> -<span class="i0">threshold of her pavement.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>2</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">A</span><span class="uplettre">M</span> I blind alas, deaf too<br /></span> -<span class="ih">that my ears lost all this?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nay, O my lover,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">shameless and still radiant,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I tell you this:<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I was not asleep,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I did not lie asleep on those hot rocks<br /></span> -<span class="i0">while you waited.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I was not unaware when I glanced<br /></span> -<span class="i0">out toward the sea<br /></span> -<span class="i0">watching the purple ships.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I was not blind when I turned.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I was not indifferent when I strayed aside<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or loitered as we three went<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or seemed to turn a moment from the path<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for that same amaranth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_73" id="page_73">{73}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I was not dull and dead when I fell<br /></span> -<span class="i0">back on our couch at night.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I was not indifferent when I turned<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and lay quiet.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I was not dead in my sleep.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>3</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Lady of all beauty,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I give you this:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">say I have offered small sacrifice,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">say I am unworthy your touch,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but say not:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“she turned to some cold, calm god,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">silent, pitiful, in preference.”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Lady of all beauty,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I give you this:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">say not:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“she deserted my altar-step,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the fire on my white hearth<br /></span> -<span class="i0">was too great,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">she fell back at my first glance.”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Lady, radiant and shameless,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I have brought small wreaths,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_74" id="page_74">{74}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">(they were a child’s gift,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I have offered myrrh-leaf,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">crisp lentisk,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I have laid rose-petal<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and white rock-rose from the beach.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">But I give now a greater,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I give life and spirit with this.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I render a grace<br /></span> -<span class="i0">no one has dared to speak,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">lest men at your altar greet him<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as slave, callous to your art;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I dare more than the singer<br /></span> -<span class="i0">offering her lute,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the girl her stained veils,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the woman her swathes of birth,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or pencil and chalk,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">mirror and unguent box.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I offer more than the lad<br /></span> -<span class="i0">singing at your steps,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">praise of himself,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">his mirror his friend’s face,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">more than any girl,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I offer you this:<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_75" id="page_75">{75}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">(grant only strength<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that I withdraw not my gift,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I give you my praise and this:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the love of my lover<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for his mistress.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_76" id="page_76">{76}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Telesila" id="Telesila"></a><i>Telesila</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i><span class="letra">I</span><span class="uplettre">N</span> Argos—that statue of her;</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>at her feet the scroll of her</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>love-poetry, in her hand a helmet.</i><br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">W</span><span class="uplettre">AR</span> is a fevered god<br /></span> -<span class="ih">who takes alike<br /></span> -<span class="i0">maiden and king and clod,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and yet another one,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(ah withering peril!)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">deprives alike,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with equal skill,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">alike indifferently,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">hoar spearsman of his shaft,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">wan maiden of her zone,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">even he,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Love who is great War’s<br /></span> -<span class="i0">very over-lord.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">War bent<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and kissed the forehead,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet Love swift,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">planted on chin<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and tenderest cyclamen lift<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of fragrant mouth,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_77" id="page_77">{77}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">fevered and honeyed breath,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">breathing o’er and o’er<br /></span> -<span class="i0">those tendrils of her hair,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">soft kisses<br /></span> -<span class="i0">like bright flowers.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Love took<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and laid the sweet,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(being extravagant,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on lip and chin and cheek,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but ah he failed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">even he,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">before the luminous eyes<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that dart<br /></span> -<span class="i0">no suave appeal,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">alas, impelling me<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to brave incontinent,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">grave Pallas’ high command.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">And yet the mouth!<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ah Love ingratiate,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">how was it you,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so poignant, swift and sure,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">could not have taken all<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and left me free,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_78" id="page_78">{78}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">free to desert the Argives,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">let them burn,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">free yet to turn<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and let the city fall:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yea, let high War<br /></span> -<span class="i0">take all his vengeful way,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for what am I?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I cannot save nor stay<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the city’s fall.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">War is a fevered god,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(yet who has writ as she<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the power of Love?)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">War bent and kissed the forehead,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that bright brow,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ignored the chin<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the sweet mouth,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for that and the low laugh were his,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Eros ingratiate,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who sadly missed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in all the kisses count,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">those eyebrows<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and swart eyes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O valiant one<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who bowed<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_79" id="page_79">{79}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">falsely and vilely trapped us,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">traitorous lord.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">And yet,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(remembrance mocks,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">should I have bent the maiden<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to a kiss?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Ares the lover<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or enchanting Love?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but had I moved<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I feared<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for that astute regard;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for that bright vision,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">how might I have erred?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I might have marred and swept<br /></span> -<span class="i0">another not so sweet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">into my exile;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I might have kept a look<br /></span> -<span class="i0">recalling many and many a woman’s look,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">not this alone,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">astute, imperious, proud.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">And yet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I turn and ask<br /></span> -<span class="i0">again, again, again,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_80" id="page_80">{80}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">who march to death,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what was it worth,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">reserve and pride and hurt?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what is it worth<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to such as I<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who turn to meet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the invincible Spartans’<br /></span> -<span class="i0">massed and serried host?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what had it cost, a kiss?<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_81" id="page_81">{81}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Fragment_Sixty-eight" id="Fragment_Sixty-eight"></a><i>Fragment Sixty-eight</i><br /><br /> -<small><i> ... even in the house of Hades.</i></small><br /><br /> -<small>SAPPHO</small></h2> - -<h3>1</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">I</span> <span class="uplettre">ENVY</span> you your chance of death,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">how I envy you this.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I am more covetous of him<br /></span> -<span class="i0">even than of your glance,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I wish more from his presence<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though he torture me in a grasp,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">terrible, intense.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Though he clasp me in an embrace<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that is set against my will<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and rack me with his measure,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">effortless yet full of strength,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and slay me<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in that most horrible contest,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">still, how I envy you your chance.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Though he pierce me—imperious—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">iron—fever—dust—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though beauty is slain<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when I perish,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I envy you death.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_82" id="page_82">{82}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">What is beauty to me?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">has she not slain me enough,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">have I not cried in agony of love,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">birth, hate,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in pride crushed?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">What is left after this?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what can death loose in me<br /></span> -<span class="i0">after your embrace?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your touch,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your limbs are more terrible<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to do me hurt.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">What can death mar in me<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that you have not?<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>2</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">What can death send me<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that you have not?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you gathered violets,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you spoke:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“your hair is not less black,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nor less fragrant,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nor in your eyes is less light,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your hair is not less sweet<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_83" id="page_83">{83}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">with purple in the lift of lock;”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">why were those slight words<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the violets you gathered<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of such worth?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">How I envy you death;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what could death bring,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">more black, more set with sparks<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to slay, to affright,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">than the memory of those first violets,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the chance lift of your voice,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the chance blinding frenzy<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as you bent?<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>3</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">So the goddess has slain me<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for your chance smile<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and my scarf unfolding<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as you stooped to it;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so she trapped me<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with the upward sweep of your arm<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as you lifted the veil,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the swift smile and selfless.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_84" id="page_84">{84}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Could I have known?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nay, spare pity,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though I break,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">crushed under the goddess’ hate,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though I fall beaten at last,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so high have I thrust my glance<br /></span> -<span class="i0">up into her presence.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Do not pity me, spare that,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but how I envy you<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your chance of death.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_85" id="page_85">{85}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Lethe" id="Lethe"></a><i>Lethe</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">N</span><span class="uplettre">OR</span> skin nor hide nor fleece<br /></span> -<span class="ih">Shall cover you,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Nor curtain of crimson nor fine<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Shelter of cedar-wood be over you,<br /></span> -<span class="i4">Nor the fir-tree<br /></span> -<span class="i4">Nor the pine.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Nor sight of whin nor gorse<br /></span> -<span class="i4">Nor river-yew,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Nor fragrance of flowering bush,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Nor wailing of reed-bird to waken you,<br /></span> -<span class="i4">Nor of linnet,<br /></span> -<span class="i4">Nor of thrush.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Nor word nor touch nor sight<br /></span> -<span class="i4">Of lover, you<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Shall long through the night but for this:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">The roll of the full tide to cover you<br /></span> -<span class="i4">Without question,<br /></span> -<span class="i4">Without kiss.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_86" id="page_86">{86}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Sitalkas" id="Sitalkas"></a><i>Sitalkas</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">T</span><span class="uplettre">HOU</span> art come at length<br /></span> -<span class="ih">more beautiful<br /></span> -<span class="i0">than any cool god<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in a chamber under<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Lycia’s far coast,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">than any high god<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who touches us not<br /></span> -<span class="i0">here in the seeded grass:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">aye, than Argestes<br /></span> -<span class="i0">scattering the broken leaves.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_87" id="page_87">{87}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Hermonax" id="Hermonax"></a><i>Hermonax</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">G</span><span class="uplettre">ODS</span> of the sea;<br /></span> -<span class="ih">Ino,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">leaving warm meads<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for the green, grey-green fastnesses<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the great deeps;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and Palemon,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">bright seeker of sea-shaft,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">hear me.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Let all whom the sea loves,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">come to its altar front,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and I<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who can offer no other sacrifice to thee<br /></span> -<span class="i0">bring this.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Broken by great waves,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the wavelets flung it here,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">this sea-gliding creature,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">this strange creature like a weed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">covered with salt foam,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">torn from the hillocks of rock.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I, Hermonax,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">caster of nets,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_88" id="page_88">{88}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">risking chance,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">plying the sea craft,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">came on it.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Thus to sea god,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">gift of sea wrack;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I, Hermonax, offer it<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to thee, Ino,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and to Palemon.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_89" id="page_89">{89}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Orion_Dead" id="Orion_Dead"></a><i>Orion Dead</i></h2> - -<p class="c">(Artemis speaks.)</p> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">T</span><span class="uplettre">HE</span> cornel-trees<br /></span> -<span class="ih">uplift from the furrows,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the roots at their bases,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">strike lower through the barley-sprays.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">So arise and face me.<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I am poisoned with the rage of song.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i2">I once pierced the flesh<br /></span> -<span class="i2">of the wild deer,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">now I am afraid to touch<br /></span> -<span class="i2">the blue and the gold-veined hyacinths?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i2">I will tear the full flowers<br /></span> -<span class="i2">and the little heads<br /></span> -<span class="i2">of the grape-hyacinths,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">I will strip the life from the bulb<br /></span> -<span class="i2">until the ivory layers<br /></span> -<span class="i2">lie like narcissus petals<br /></span> -<span class="i2">on the black earth.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i2">Arise,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">lest I bend an ash-tree<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_90" id="page_90">{90}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i2">into a taut bow,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">and slay—and tear<br /></span> -<span class="i2">all the roots from the earth.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i2">The cornel-wood blazes<br /></span> -<span class="i2">and strikes through the barley-sprays<br /></span> -<span class="i2">but I have lost heart for this.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i2">I break a staff,<br /></span> -<span class="i2">I break the tough branch.<br /></span> -<span class="i2">I know no light in the woods.<br /></span> -<span class="i2">I have lost pace with the wind.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_91" id="page_91">{91}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Charioteer" id="Charioteer"></a><i>Charioteer</i></h2> - -<div class="blockquot"><p><i>In that manner</i> (<i>archaic</i>) <i>he finished the statue of his -brother. It stands mid-way in the hall of laurels ... between the -Siphnians’ offering and the famous tripod of Naxos.</i></p></div> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">O</span><span class="uplettre">NLY</span> the priest<br /></span> -<span class="ih">of the inmost house<br /></span> -<span class="i0">has such height,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">only the faun<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in the glade<br /></span> -<span class="i0">such light, strong ankles,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">only the shade of the bay-tree<br /></span> -<span class="i0">such rare dark<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as the darkness<br /></span> -<span class="i0">caught under the fillet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that covers your brow,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">only the blade<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the ash-tree<br /></span> -<span class="i0">such length, such beauty<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as thou,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O my brother;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and only the gods<br /></span> -<span class="i0">have such love<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as I bring you;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_92" id="page_92">{92}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">but now,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">taut with love,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">more than any bright lover,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I vowed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to the innermost<br /></span> -<span class="i0">god of the temple,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">this vow.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">God of beauty, I cried,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as the four stood alert,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">awaiting the shout<br /></span> -<span class="i0">at the goal<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to be off;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">god of beauty,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I cried to that god,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if he merit the laurel,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I dedicate all of my soul<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to you; to you<br /></span> -<span class="i0">all my strength and my power;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if he merit the bay,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I will fashion a statue<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of him, of my brother,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">out of thought,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the strength of my wrist<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the fire of my brain;<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_93" id="page_93">{93}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">I will strive night and day<br /></span> -<span class="i0">till I mould from the clay,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">till I strike from the bronze,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">till I conjure the rock,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the chisle, the tool,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to embody this image;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">an image to startle,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to capture men’s hearts,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to make all other bronze,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">all art to come after,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a mock,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">all beauty to follow,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a shell that is empty;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I’ll stake all my soul<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on that beauty,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">till God shall awake<br /></span> -<span class="i0">again in men’s hearts,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who have said he is dead,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">our King and our Lover.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Then the start,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ah the sight,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ah but dim, veiled with tears,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(so Achilles must weep<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who finds his friend dead,)<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_94" id="page_94">{94}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">will he win?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">then the ring of the steel<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as two met at the goal,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">entangled and foul,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">misplaced at the start,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who, who blunders? not you?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what omens are set?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">alas, gods of the track,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what ill wreaks its hate,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">speak it clear,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">let me know<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what evil, what fate?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for the ring of sharp steel<br /></span> -<span class="i0">told two were in peril,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">two, two, one is you,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">already involved<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with the fears of defeat;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">two grazed;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">which must go?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">As the wind,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Althaia’s beauty came;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as one after a cruel march,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">catches sight,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">toward the cold dusk,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the flower<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_95" id="page_95">{95}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">that’s her name-sake,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">strayed apart<br /></span> -<span class="i0">toward the road-dust,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">from the stream<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in the wood-depth,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so I in that darkness,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my mouth bitter<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with sheer loss,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">took courage,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my heart spoke,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">remembering how she spoke:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“I will seek hour by hour<br /></span> -<span class="i0">fresh cones, resin<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and pine-flowers,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">flower of pine,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">laurel flower;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I will pray:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">‘let him come<br /></span> -<span class="i0">back to us,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to our home,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with the trophy of zeal,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with the love and the proof<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the favour of god;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">let him merit the bay.’<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(I expect it,)<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_96" id="page_96">{96}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">I myself on earth pray<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that our father may pray;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">his voice nearer the gods<br /></span> -<span class="i0">must carry beyond<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my mere mortal prayer:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">‘O my father beyond,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">look down and be proud,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ask this thing<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that we win,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ask it straight of the gods.’<span class="lftspc">”</span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Was he glad,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">did he know?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for the strength<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of his prayer and her prayer<br /></span> -<span class="i0">met me now<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in one flame,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">all my head, all my brow<br /></span> -<span class="i0">was one flame,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">taut and beaten<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and faintly aglow,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as the wine-cup<br /></span> -<span class="i0">encrusted and beaten and fine<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with the pattern of leaves,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(so my brow,)<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_97" id="page_97">{97}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet metallic and cool,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as the gold of the frigid metal<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that circles the heat<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the wine.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Then the axel-tree cleft,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">not ours, gods be blest;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">now but three of you left,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">three alert and abreast,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">three—one streak of what fire?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">three straight for the goal:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ah defeat,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ah despair,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">still fate tricked our mares,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for they swerved,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">flanks quivering and wet,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as the wind<br /></span> -<span class="i0">at the mid-stretch<br /></span> -<span class="i0">caught and fluttered a white scarf;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a veil shivering,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">only the fluttering<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of a white band,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yet unnerved and champing,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">they turned,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(only knowing the swards of Achæa)<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_98" id="page_98">{98}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">and he, O my love,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that stranger,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">his stallions<br /></span> -<span class="i0">stark frenzied and black,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">had taken the inmost course,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">overtook,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">overcame,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">overleapt,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and crowded you back.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">O those horses<br /></span> -<span class="i0">we loved and we prized;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I had gathered Alea mint<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and soft branch<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the vine-stock in flower,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I had stroked Elaphia;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as one prays to a woman<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“be kind,”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I had prayed Daphnaia;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I had threatened Orea<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for her trick<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of out-pacing the three,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">even these,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I had almost despaired<br /></span> -<span class="i0">at her fleet, proud pace,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_99" id="page_99">{99}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">O the four,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O swift mares of Achæa.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Should I pray them again?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or the gods of the track?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or Althaia at home?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or our father who died for Achæa?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or our fathers beyond<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who had vanquished the east?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">should I threaten or pray?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">The sun struck the ridge of white marble<br /></span> -<span class="i0">before me:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">white sun on white marble<br /></span> -<span class="i0">was black:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the day was of ash,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">blind, unrepentant, despoiled,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my soul cursed the race and the track,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you had lost.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>You</i>, lost at the last?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Ah fools,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so you threatened to win?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ah fools,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so you knew my brother?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_100" id="page_100">{100}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Greeks all,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">all crafty and feckless,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">even so, had you guessed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what ran in his veins and mine,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what blood of Achæa,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">had you dared,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">dared enter the contest,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">dared aspire with the rest?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">You had gained,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you outleapt them;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a sudden, swift lift of the reins,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a sudden, swift, taut grip of the reins,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as suddenly loosed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you had gained.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">When death comes<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I will see<br /></span> -<span class="i0">no vision of after,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(as some count<br /></span> -<span class="i0">there may be an hereafter,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">no thought of old lover,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">no girl, no woman,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">neither mother,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nor yet my father<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_101" id="page_101">{101}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">who died for Achæa,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">neither God with the harp<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the sun on His brow,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but thou,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O my brother.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">When death comes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">instead of a vision,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(I will catch it in bronze)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you will stand<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as you stood at the end,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(as the herald announced it,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">proclaiming aloud,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“Achæa has won,”)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in-reining them now,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so quiet,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">not turning to answer<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the shout of the crowd.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_102" id="page_102">{102}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="The_Look-out" id="The_Look-out"></a><i>The Look-out</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">B</span><span class="uplettre">ETTER</span> the wind, the sea, the salt<br /></span> -<span class="ih">in your eyes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">than this, this, this.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">You grumble and sweat;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my ears are acute<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to catch your complaint,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">almost the sea’s roar is less<br /></span> -<span class="i0">than your constant threat<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of “back and back to the shore,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and let us rest.”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">You grumble and curse your luck<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and I hear:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“O Lynceus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">aloft by the prow,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">his head on his arms,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">his eyes half closed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">almost asleep,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to watch for a rock,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(and hardly ever we need<br /></span> -<span class="i0">his ‘to left’ or ‘to right’)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">let Lynceus have my part,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">let me rest like Lynceus.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_103" id="page_103">{103}</a></span>”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Rest like Lynceus!”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I’d change my fate for yours,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the very least,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I’d take an oar with the rest.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“Like Lynceus,”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as if my lot were the best.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">O God, if I could speak,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if I could taunt the lot<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the wretched crew,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with my fate, my work.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">But I may not,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I may not tell<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the forms that pass and pass,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of that constant old, old face<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that leaps from each wave<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to wait underneath the boat<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in the hope that at last she’s lost.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Could I speak,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I would tell of great mountains<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that flow, great weeds<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that float and float<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to tangle our oars<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_104" id="page_104">{104}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">if I fail “to left, to right;”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">where the dolphin leaps<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you saw a sign from the god,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I saw why he leapt from the deep.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">“To right, to left;”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">it is easy enough<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to lean on the prow, half asleep,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and you think,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">“no work for Lynceus.”<br /></span> -<span class="i0">No work?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">If only you’d let me take an oar,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if only my back could break with the hurt,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if the sun could blister my feet,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">pain, pain that I might forget<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the face that just this moment<br /></span> -<span class="i0">passed through the prow<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when you said, “asleep.”<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Many and many a sight<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if I could speak,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">many and many tales I’d tell,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">many and many a struggle,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">many a death,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_105" id="page_105">{105}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">many and many my hurts<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and my pain so great,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I’d gladly die<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if I did not love the quest.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Grumble and swear and curse,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">brother, god and the boat,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the great waves,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but could you guess<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what strange terror lurks in the sea-depth,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you’d thank the gods for the ship,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the timber and giant oars, god-like,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the god-like quest.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">If you could see as I,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what lurks in the sea-depth,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you’d pray to the ropes<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the solid timbers<br /></span> -<span class="i0">like god, like god;<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">you’d pray to the oars and your work,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you’d pray and thank<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the boat for her very self;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">timber and oar and plank<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and sail and the sail-ropes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">these are beautiful things and great.<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_106" id="page_106">{106}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">But Lynceus at the prow<br /></span> -<span class="i0">has nothing to do but wait<br /></span> -<span class="i0">till we reach a shoal or some rocks<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and then he has only to lift his arms,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">right, left;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O brother,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I’d change my place<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for the worst seat<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in the cramped bench,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for an oar, for an hour’s toil,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for sweat and the solid floor.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">I’d change my place<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as I sit with eyes half closed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if only I could see just the ring<br /></span> -<span class="i0">cut by the boat,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if only I could see just the water,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the crest and the broken crest,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the bit of weed that rises on the crest,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the dolphin only when he leaps.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">But Lynceus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though they cannot guess<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the hurt, though they do not thank<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_107" id="page_107">{107}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">the oars for the dead peace<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of heart and brain worn out,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you must wait,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">alert, alert, alert.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_108" id="page_108">{108}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Odyssey" id="Odyssey"></a><i>Odyssey</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i><span class="letra">M</span><span class="uplettre">USE</span>,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>tell me of this man of wit,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>who roamed long years</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>after he had sacked</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>Troy’s sacred streets.</i><br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">A</span><span class="uplettre">LL</span> the rest<br /></span> -<span class="ih">who had escaped death,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">returned,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">fleeing battle and the sea;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">only Odysseus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">captive of a goddess,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">desperate and home-sick,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">thought but of his wife and palace;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but Calypso,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that nymph and spirit,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yearning in the furrowed rock-shelf,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">burned<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and sought to be his mistress;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but years passed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the time was ripe,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the gods decreed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(although traitors plot<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_109" id="page_109">{109}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">to betray him in his own court,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">he was to return<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to Ithaca;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and all the gods pitied him;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but Poseidon<br /></span> -<span class="i0">steadfast to the last<br /></span> -<span class="i0">hated<br /></span> -<span class="i0">god-like Odysseus.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">The sea-god visited<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a distant folk,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Ethiopians,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who at the edge of earth<br /></span> -<span class="i0">are divided into two parts,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(half watch the sun rise,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">half, the sun set,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">there the hecatomb<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of slain sheep and oxen<br /></span> -<span class="i0">await his revels:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and while he rejoiced,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">seated at the feast,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the rest of the gods<br /></span> -<span class="i0">gathered in the palace of Olympian Zeus;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the father of men and of gods spoke thus:<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_110" id="page_110">{110}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">(for he remembered bright Egisthus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">slain of Agamemnon’s child,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">great Orestes:)<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">O you spirits,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">how men hate the gods,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for they say evil comes of us,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when they themselves,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">by their own wickedness,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">court peril<br /></span> -<span class="i0">beyond their fate;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so Egisthus, defiant,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">sought Agamemnon’s wife<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and slew Agamemnon<br /></span> -<span class="i0">returning to his own palace,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though we ourselves<br /></span> -<span class="i0">sent bright Hermes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">slayer of Argos,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to warn him<br /></span> -<span class="i0">lest Orestes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">attaining to man’s estate,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">demand his inheritance<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and take vengeance:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">we forbade him to strike the king,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">we warned him to respect his wife:<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_111" id="page_111">{111}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">but could Hermes<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of gracious aspect,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">subtle with kindly speech,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">thus avert the foul work?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Then the grey-eyed Athene,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the goddess, spoke:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O my father, Kronos begot,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">first among the great,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">his death at least was just,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so may all perish who err thus;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but my heart is rent<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for the prudent Odysseus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who, exiled from his friends,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is kept too long distressed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in an island, sea swept,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in the sea midst,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">a forest island,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">haunt of a spirit,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">child of Atlas,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">crafty of thought,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who knows the sea depth,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who supports the high pillars<br /></span> -<span class="i0">which cut sky from earth;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">it is his child<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_112" id="page_112">{112}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">who keeps Odysseus<br /></span> -<span class="i0">lamenting with broken heart,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ceaseless to tempt him<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with soft and tender speech,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that he forget Ithaca;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but Odysseus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">yearning to see but the smoke<br /></span> -<span class="i0">drift above his own house,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">prefers death;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your heart, is it not touched,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O Olympian?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">did not Odysseus please you<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when he made sacrifice<br /></span> -<span class="i0">before the Grecian ships<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in great Troy?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">why are you angry, Zeus?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Then Zeus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">keeper of the clouds,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">answering her, spoke:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O my child,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what quaint words<br /></span> -<span class="i0">have sped your lips,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for how could I forget<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the god-like Odysseus,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_113" id="page_113">{113}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">a spirit surpassing men,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">first to make sacrifice<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to the deathless<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in the sky-space?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but Poseidon<br /></span> -<span class="i0">girder of earth,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though yet he spares his life,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nurtures unending hate;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">he goads him from place to place<br /></span> -<span class="i0">because of the Cyclops<br /></span> -<span class="i0">blinded of Odysseus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Polyphemus, half-god,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">greatest of the Cyclops,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">whom the nymph Thoosa,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">child of Phorcys,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">king of the waste sea, begot<br /></span> -<span class="i0">when she lay with Poseidon<br /></span> -<span class="i0">among the shallow rocks:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but come,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">let us plot<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to reinstate Odysseus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and Poseidon must abandon his wrath;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for what can one god accomplish,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">striving alone<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to defy all the deathless?<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_114" id="page_114">{114}</a></span><br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Then the grey-eyed Athene,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the goddess, spoke:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O my father, Kronos begot,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">first among the great,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">if then it seems just<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to the highest,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that Odysseus return<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to his own house,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">let us swiftly send<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Hermes, slayer of Argos,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your attendant,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that he state<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to the fair-haired nymph,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">our irrevocable wish,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that Odysseus,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">valiant of heart,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">be sent back:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and I will depart to Ithaca,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to incite his son,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to put courage in his heart,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that he call to the market place<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the long-haired Greeks<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and shut his gates<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to the pretendants<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who ceaselessly devour his flocks,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_115" id="page_115">{115}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">sheep and horned oxen<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of gentle pace:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that he strive<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for his father’s sake<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and gain favour<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in men’s thoughts,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I will send him to Sparta,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to Pylos’ sandy waste.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0"><i>She spoke</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>and about her feet</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>clasped bright sandals,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>gold-wrought, imperishable,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>which lift her above sea,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>across the land stretch,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>wind-like,</i><br /></span> -<span class="i0"><i>like the wind breath.</i><br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_116" id="page_116">{116}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><i>From the Masque</i></h2> - -<h2><a name="Hyacinth" id="Hyacinth"></a><i>Hyacinth</i></h2> - -<h3>1</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">Y</span><span class="uplettre">OUR</span> anger charms me,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">and yet all the time<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I think of chaste, slight hands,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">veined snow;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">snow craters filled<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with first wild-flowerlets;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">glow of ice-gentian,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">whitest violet;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">snow craters<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the ice ridge<br /></span> -<span class="i0">spilling light;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">dawn and the lover<br /></span> -<span class="i0">chaste dawn leaves bereft—<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I think of these<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and snow-cooled Phrygian wine.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Your anger charms me subtly<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and I know<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that you would take<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the still hands<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_117" id="page_117">{117}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">where I’d rest;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you would despoil<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for very joy of theft;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">list, lady,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I would give you one last hint:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">quench your red mouth<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in some cold forest lake,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">cover your russet locks<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with arum leaf,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">quench out the colour,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">still the fevered glance,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">cover your want,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your fire insatiate,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I can not match your fervour,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nay, nor still my ache<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with any<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but white hands inviolate.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>2</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Take the red spoil<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of grape and pomegranate,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the red camellia,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the most, most red rose;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">take all the garden spills,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">inveterate,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_118" id="page_118">{118}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">prodigal spender<br /></span> -<span class="i0">just as summer goes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the red scales of the deep in-folded spice,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the Indian, Persian and the Syrian pink,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">their scent undaunted<br /></span> -<span class="i0">even in that faint,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">unmistakable fragrance<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the late tuberose,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(heavy its petals,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">eye-lids of dark eyes<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that open languorous<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and more languorous close—the east,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">further than scent<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of our wind-smitten isle,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">take these:<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">O lady, take them,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">prodigal<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I cull and offer this and this and these<br /></span> -<span class="i0">last definite whorls<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of clustered peonies,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the last, the first<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that stained our stainless ledge<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of blue and white<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the white foam of sea,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_119" id="page_119">{119}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">rocks,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and that strait ledge<br /></span> -<span class="i0">whiter than the rock<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the Parians break<br /></span> -<span class="i0">from their enchanted hill;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">take, lady,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but leave me with my weed and shell<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and those slight, hovering gull-wings that recall<br /></span> -<span class="i0">silver of far Hymettus’ asphodel.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>3</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Take all<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for you have taken everything,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but do not let me see you taking this;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Adonis lying spent with Venus’ care,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Adonis dying were a lesser ache<br /></span> -<span class="i0">than this,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to have even your slightest breath<br /></span> -<span class="i0">breathe in the crystal air<br /></span> -<span class="i0">where he takes breath.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Take all<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for you have taken everything,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">save the broad ledge of sea<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_120" id="page_120">{120}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">which no man takes,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">take all<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for you have taken mirth and ease<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and all the small delights<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of simple poets,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the lilt of rhyme,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the sway and lift and fall,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the first spring gold<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your fire has scorched to ash,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the fresh winds<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that go halt<br /></span> -<span class="i0">where you have passed,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the Tyrian iris<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I so greatly loved,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">its dark head speared<br /></span> -<span class="i0">through its wet spray of leaves.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Take all,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but ah, lady, a fool, a poet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">may even know when you have taken all:<br /></span> -<span class="i0">up on the mountain slope<br /></span> -<span class="i0">one last flower cleaves<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to the wet marge of ice,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the blue of snow,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">keep all your riot<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_121" id="page_121">{121}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">in the swales below,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of grape and autumn,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">take all, taking these,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for you and autumn yet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">can not prevail<br /></span> -<span class="i0">against that flame, that flower,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">(ice, spark or jewel,)<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the cyclamen,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">parting its white cyclamen leaves.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<h3>4</h3> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">O, I am ill with dust<br /></span> -<span class="i0">as you with stain,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O, I am worthless,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">weary, world-bedragged,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">nevertheless to mountains<br /></span> -<span class="i0">still the rain<br /></span> -<span class="i0">falls on the tangle<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of dead under-brush,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">freshens the loam,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the earth and broken leaves<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for that hoar-frost<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of later star or flower,<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_122" id="page_122">{122}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">the fragile host<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of Greek anemones.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Say I am little meet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to call the youth,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">say I have little magic<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to enchant,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">but is that reason<br /></span> -<span class="i0">why your flaring will<br /></span> -<span class="i0">should sweep and scorch,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">should lap and seethe and fill<br /></span> -<span class="i0">with last red flame<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the tender ditch and runnel<br /></span> -<span class="i0">which the spring freshet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">soon must fill again?<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">White violets<br /></span> -<span class="i0">have no place<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on your hot brow;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">how can I bring you<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what the spring must bring?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what can I offer?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">lush and heady mallow?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the fire-grass<br /></span> -<span class="i0">or the serpent-spotted<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_123" id="page_123">{123}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">fire-flower?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">O take them,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for I stand a ruinous cloud<br /></span> -<span class="i0">between you<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and the chaste uplifted hill.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">O take them swiftly<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and more swiftly go,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for spring is distant yet,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for spring is far;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you have your tense, short space<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of blazing sun,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your melons, vines,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your terraces of fruit;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">now all you have,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">all, all I gladly give<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who long but for the ridge,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the crest and hollow,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the lift and fall,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the reach and distant ledge<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of the sun-smitten,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">wind-indented snow.<br /></span> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_124" id="page_124">{124}</a></span></div></div> -</div> - -<h2><a name="Ion" id="Ion"></a><i>The bird-choros of Ion</i></h2> - -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="ig"><span class="letra">B</span><span class="uplettre">IRDS</span> from Parnassus,<br /></span> -<span class="ih">swift<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you dart<br /></span> -<span class="i0">from the loftiest peaks;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you hover, dip,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you sway and perch<br /></span> -<span class="i0">undaunted on the gold-set cornice;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you eagle,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">god’s majestic legate,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">who tear, who strike<br /></span> -<span class="i0">song-birds in mid-flight,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my arrow whistles toward you,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">swift<br /></span> -<span class="i0">be off;<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">ah drift,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ah drift<br /></span> -<span class="i0">so soft, so light,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your scarlet foot so deftly placed<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to waft you neatly<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to the pavement,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">swan, swan<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_125" id="page_125">{125}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">and do you really think<br /></span> -<span class="i0">your song<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that tunes the harp of Helios,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">will save you<br /></span> -<span class="i0">from the arrow-flight?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">turn back,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">back<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to the lake of Delos;<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">lest all the song notes<br /></span> -<span class="i0">pause and break<br /></span> -<span class="i0">across a blood-stained throat<br /></span> -<span class="i0">gone songless,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">turn back,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">back<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ere it be too late,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to wave-swept Delos.<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Alas, and still another,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">what?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">you’d place your mean nest<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in the cornice?<br /></span> -<span class="i0">sing, sing<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my arrow-string,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">tell to the thief<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_126" id="page_126">{126}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">that plaits its house<br /></span> -<span class="i0">for fledglings<br /></span> -<span class="i0">in the god’s own house,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that still the Alpheus<br /></span> -<span class="i0">whispers sweet<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to lure<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the birdlets to the place,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that still the Isthmus<br /></span> -<span class="i0">shines with forests;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">on the white statues<br /></span> -<span class="i0">must be found<br /></span> -<span class="i0">no straw nor litter<br /></span> -<span class="i0">of bird-down,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">Phœbos must have his portal fair;<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">and yet, O birds,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though this my labour<br /></span> -<span class="i0">is set,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though this my task is clear,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">though I must slay you,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I, god’s servant,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">I who take here<br /></span> -<span class="i0">my bread and life<br /></span> -<span class="i0">and sweep the temple,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">still I swear<span class="pagenum"><a name="page_127" id="page_127">{127}</a></span><br /></span> -<span class="i0">that I would save you,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">birds or spirits,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">winged songs<br /></span> -<span class="i0">that tell to men god’s will;<br /></span> -</div><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">still, still<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the Alpheus whispers clear<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to lure the bird-folk<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to its waters,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ah still<br /></span> -<span class="i0">the Isthmus<br /></span> -<span class="i0">blossoms fair;<br /></span> -<span class="i0">lest all the song notes<br /></span> -<span class="i0">pause and break<br /></span> -<span class="i0">across a blood-stained throat<br /></span> -<span class="i0">gone songless,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">turn back,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">back<br /></span> -<span class="i0">ere it be too late,<br /></span> -<span class="i0">to wave-swept Delos.<br /></span> -</div></div> -</div> - -<hr class="full" /> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Heliodora, by Hilda Doolittle - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HELIODORA *** - -***** This file should be named 62456-h.htm or 62456-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be 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