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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ballads and Lyrics of Old France
+by Andrew Lang
+(#6 in our series by Andrew Lang)
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
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+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: Ballads and Lyrics of Old France: with other Poems
+
+Author: Andrew Lang
+
+Release Date: January, 1997 [EBook #795]
+[This file was first posted on January 31, 1997]
+[Most recently updated: September 25, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, BALLADS AND LYRICS OF OLD FRANCE ***
+
+
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1872 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David
+Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+
+
+
+
+BALLADS AND LYRICS OF OLD FRANCE: WITH OTHER POEMS
+
+
+
+
+Translations
+
+
+
+LIST OF POETS TRANSLATED
+
+
+
+I. CHARLES D'ORLEANS, who has sometimes, for no very obvious
+reason, been styled the father of French lyric poetry, was born in
+May, 1391. He was the son of Louis D'Orleans, the grandson of
+Charles V., and the father of Louis XII. Captured at Agincourt, he
+was kept in England as a prisoner from 1415 to 1440, when he
+returned to France, where he died in 1465. His verses, for the
+most part roundels on two rhymes, are songs of love and spring, and
+retain the allegorical forms of the Roman de la Rose.
+
+II. FRANCOIS VILLON, 1431-14-? Nothing is known of Villon's birth
+or death, and only too much of his life. In his poems the ancient
+forms of French verse are animated with the keenest sense of
+personal emotion, of love, of melancholy, of mocking despair, and
+of repentance for a life passed in taverns and prisons.
+
+III. JOACHIM DU BELLAY, 1525-1560. The exact date of Du Bellay's
+birth is unknown. He was certainly a little younger than Ronsard,
+who was born in September, 1524, although an attempt has been made
+to prove that his birth took place in 1525, as a compensation from
+Nature to France for the battle of Pavia. As a poet Du Bellay had
+the start, by a few mouths, of Ronsard; his Recueil was published
+in 1549. The question of priority in the new style of poetry
+caused a quarrel, which did not long separate the two singers. Du
+Bellay is perhaps the most interesting of the Pleiad, that company
+of Seven, who attempted to reform French verse, by inspiring it
+with the enthusiasm of the Renaissance. His book L'Illustration de
+la langue Francaise is a plea for the study of ancient models and
+for the improvement of the vernacular. In this effort Du Bellay
+and Ronsard are the predecessors of Malherbe, and of Andre Chenier,
+more successful through their frank eagerness than the former, less
+fortunate in the possession of critical learning and appreciative
+taste than the latter. There is something in Du Bellay's life, in
+the artistic nature checked by occupation in affairs--he was the
+secretary of Cardinal Du Bellay--in the regret and affection with
+which Rome depressed and allured him, which reminds the English
+reader of the thwarted career of Clough.
+
+IV. REMY BELLEAU, 1528-1577. Du Belleau's life was spent in the
+household of Charles de Lorraine, Marquis d'Elboeuf, and was marked
+by nothing more eventful than the usual pilgrimage to Italy, the
+sacred land and sepulchre of art.
+
+V. PIERRE RONSARD, 1524-1585. Ronsard's early years gave little
+sign of his vocation. He was for some time a page of the court,
+was in the service of James V. of Scotland, and had his share of
+shipwrecks, battles, and amorous adventures. An illness which
+produced total deafness made him a scholar and poet, as in another
+age and country it might have made him a saint and an ascetic.
+With all his industry, and almost religious zeal for art, he is one
+of the poets who make themselves, rather than are born singers.
+His epic, the Franciade, is as tedious as other artificial epics,
+and his odes are almost unreadable. We are never allowed to forget
+that he is the poet who read the Iliad through in three days. He
+is, as has been said of Le Brun, more mythological than Pindar.
+His constant allusion to his grey hair, an affectation which may be
+noticed in Shelley, is borrowed from Anacreon. Many of the sonnets
+in which he 'petrarquizes,' retain the faded odour of the roses he
+loved; and his songs have fire and melancholy and a sense as of
+perfume from 'a closet long to quiet vowed, with mothed and
+dropping arras hung.' Ronsard's great fame declined when is
+Malherbe came to 'bind the sweet influences of the Pleiad,' but he
+has been duly honoured by the newest school of French poetry.
+
+VI. JACQUES TAHUREAU, 1527-1555. The amorous poetry of Jacques
+Tahureau has the merit, rare in his, or in any age, of being the
+real expression of passion. His brief life burned itself away
+before he had exhausted the lyric effusion of his youth. 'Le plus
+beau gentilhomme de son siecle, et le plus dextre a toutes sortes
+de gentillesses,' died at the age of twenty-eight, fulfilling the
+presentiment which tinges, but scarcely saddens his poetry.
+
+VII. JEAN PASSERAT, 1534-1602. Better known as a political
+satirist than as a poet.
+
+
+POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+VICTOR HUGO.
+ALFRED DE MUSSET, 1810-1857.
+GERARD DE NERVAL, 1801-1855.
+HENRI MURGER, 1822-1861.
+
+BALLADS.
+
+The originals of the French folk-songs here translated are to be
+found in the collections of MM. De Puymaigre and Gerard de Nerval,
+and in the report of M. Ampere.
+
+The verses called a 'Lady of High Degree' are imitated from a very
+early chanson in Bartsch's collection.
+
+The Greek ballads have been translated with the aid of the French
+versions by M. Fauriel.
+
+
+
+SPRING.
+CHARLES D'ORLEANS, 1391-1465.
+
+
+
+[The new-liveried year.--Sir Henry Wotton.]
+
+The year has changed his mantle cold
+Of wind, of rain, of bitter air;
+And he goes clad in cloth of gold,
+Of laughing suns and season fair;
+No bird or beast of wood or wold
+But doth with cry or song declare
+The year lays down his mantle cold.
+All founts, all rivers, seaward rolled,
+The pleasant summer livery wear,
+With silver studs on broidered vair;
+The world puts off its raiment old,
+The year lays down his mantle cold.
+
+
+
+RONDEL.
+CHARLES D'ORLEANS, 1391-1465.
+
+
+
+[To his Mistress, to succour his heart that is beleaguered by
+jealousy.]
+
+Strengthen, my Love, this castle of my heart,
+And with some store of pleasure give me aid,
+For Jealousy, with all them of his part,
+Strong siege about the weary tower has laid.
+Nay, if to break his bands thou art afraid,
+Too weak to make his cruel force depart,
+Strengthen at least this castle of my heart,
+And with some store of pleasure give me aid.
+Nay, let not Jealousy, for all his art
+Be master, and the tower in ruin laid,
+That still, ah Love! thy gracious rule obeyed.
+Advance, and give me succour of thy part;
+Strengthen, my Love, this castle of my heart.
+
+
+
+RONDEL.
+FRANCOIS VILLON, 1460
+
+
+
+Goodbye! the tears are in my eyes;
+Farewell, farewell, my prettiest;
+Farewell, of women born the best;
+Good-bye! the saddest of good-byes.
+Farewell! with many vows and sighs
+My sad heart leaves you to your rest;
+Farewell! the tears are in my eyes;
+Farewell! from you my miseries
+Are more than now may be confessed,
+And most by thee have I been blessed,
+Yea, and for thee have wasted sighs;
+Goodbye! the last of my goodbyes.
+
+
+
+ARBOR AMORIS.
+FRANCOIS VILLON, 1460
+
+
+
+I have a tree, a graft of Love,
+That in my heart has taken root;
+Sad are the buds and blooms thereof,
+And bitter sorrow is its fruit;
+Yet, since it was a tender shoot,
+So greatly hath its shadow spread,
+That underneath all joy is dead,
+And all my pleasant days are flown,
+Nor can I slay it, nor instead
+Plant any tree, save this alone.
+
+Ah, yet, for long and long enough
+My tears were rain about its root,
+And though the fruit be harsh thereof,
+I scarcely looked for better fruit
+Than this, that carefully I put
+In garner, for the bitter bread
+Whereon my weary life is fed:
+Ah, better were the soil unsown
+That bears such growths; but Love instead
+Will plant no tree, but this alone.
+
+Ah, would that this new spring, whereof
+The leaves and flowers flush into shoot,
+I might have succour and aid of Love,
+To prune these branches at the root,
+That long have borne such bitter fruit,
+And graft a new bough, comforted
+With happy blossoms white and red;
+So pleasure should for pain atone,
+Nor Love slay this tree, nor instead
+Plant any tree, but this alone.
+
+L'ENVOY.
+
+Princess, by whom my hope is fed,
+My heart thee prays in lowlihead
+To prune the ill boughs overgrown,
+Nor slay Love's tree, nor plant instead
+Another tree, save this alone.
+
+
+
+BALLAD OF THE GIBBET.
+
+
+
+[An epitaph in the form of a ballad that Francois Villon wrote of
+himself and his company, they expecting shortly to be hanged.]
+
+Brothers and men that shall after us be,
+Let not your hearts be hard to us:
+For pitying this our misery
+Ye shall find God the more piteous.
+Look on us six that are hanging thus,
+And for the flesh that so much we cherished
+How it is eaten of birds and perished,
+And ashes and dust fill our bones' place,
+Mock not at us that so feeble be,
+But pray God pardon us out of His grace.
+
+Listen, we pray you, and look not in scorn,
+Though justly, in sooth, we are cast to die;
+Ye wot no man so wise is born
+That keeps his wisdom constantly.
+Be ye then merciful, and cry
+To Mary's Son that is piteous,
+That His mercy take no stain from us,
+Saving us out of the fiery place.
+We are but dead, let no soul deny
+To pray God succour us of His grace.
+
+The rain out of heaven has washed us clean,
+The sun has scorched us black and bare,
+Ravens and rooks have pecked at our eyne,
+And feathered their nests with our beards and hair.
+Round are we tossed, and here and there,
+This way and that, at the wild wind's will,
+Never a moment my body is still;
+Birds they are busy about my face.
+Live not as we, nor fare as we fare;
+Pray God pardon us out of His grace.
+
+L'ENVOY.
+
+Prince Jesus, Master of all, to thee
+We pray Hell gain no mastery,
+That we come never anear that place;
+And ye men, make no mockery,
+Pray God pardon us out of His grace.
+
+
+
+HYMN TO THE WINDS.
+DU BELLAY, 1550.
+
+
+
+[The winds are invoked by the winnowers of corn.]
+
+To you, troop so fleet,
+That with winged wandering feet,
+Through the wide world pass,
+And with soft murmuring
+Toss the green shades of spring
+In woods and grass,
+Lily and violet
+I give, and blossoms wet,
+Roses and dew;
+This branch of blushing roses,
+Whose fresh bud uncloses,
+Wind-flowers too.
+Ah, winnow with sweet breath,
+Winnow the holt and heath,
+Round this retreat;
+Where all the golden morn
+We fan the gold o' the corn,
+In the sun's heat.
+
+
+
+A VOW TO HEAVENLY VENUS.
+DU BELLAY, 1500
+
+
+
+We that with like hearts love, we lovers twain,
+New wedded in the village by thy fane,
+Lady of all chaste love, to thee it is
+We bring these amaranths, these white lilies,
+A sign, and sacrifice; may Love, we pray,
+Like amaranthine flowers, feel no decay;
+Like these cool lilies may our loves remain,
+Perfect and pure, and know not any stain;
+And be our hearts, from this thy holy hour,
+Bound each to each, like flower to wedded flower.
+
+
+
+TO HIS FRIEND IN ELYSIUM.
+DU BELLAY, 1550.
+
+
+
+So long you wandered on the dusky plain,
+Where flit the shadows with their endless cry,
+You reach the shore where all the world goes by,
+You leave the strife, the slavery, the pain;
+But we, but we, the mortals that remain
+In vain stretch hands; for Charon sullenly
+Drives us afar, we may not come anigh
+Till that last mystic obolus we gain.
+
+But you are happy in the quiet place,
+And with the learned lovers of old days,
+And with your love, you wander ever-more
+In the dim woods, and drink forgetfulness
+Of us your friends, a weary crowd that press
+About the gate, or labour at the oar.
+
+
+
+A SONNET TO HEAVENLY BEAUTY.
+DU BELLAY, 1550.
+
+
+
+If this our little life is but a day
+In the Eternal,--if the years in vain
+Toil after hours that never come again, -
+If everything that hath been must decay,
+Why dreamest thou of joys that pass away,
+My soul, that my sad body doth restrain?
+Why of the moment's pleasure art thou fain?
+Nay, thou hast wings,--nay, seek another stay.
+
+There is the joy whereto each soul aspires,
+And there the rest that all the world desires,
+And there is love, and peace, and gracious mirth;
+And there in the most highest heavens shalt thou
+Behold the Very Beauty, whereof now
+Thou worshippest the shadow upon earth.
+
+
+
+APRIL.
+REMY BELLEAU, 1560.
+
+
+
+April, pride of woodland ways,
+Of glad days,
+April, bringing hope of prime,
+To the young flowers that beneath
+Their bud sheath
+Are guarded in their tender time;
+
+April, pride of fields that be
+Green and free,
+That in fashion glad and gay,
+Stud with flowers red and blue,
+Every hue,
+Their jewelled spring array;
+
+April, pride of murmuring
+Winds of spring,
+That beneath the winnowed air,
+Trap with subtle nets and sweet
+Flora's feet,
+Flora's feet, the fleet and fair;
+
+April, by thy hand caressed,
+From her breast
+Nature scatters everywhere
+Handfuls of all sweet perfumes,
+Buds and blooms,
+Making faint the earth and air.
+
+April, joy of the green hours,
+Clothes with flowers
+Over all her locks of gold
+My sweet Lady; and her breast
+With the blest
+Birds of summer manifold.
+
+April, with thy gracious wiles,
+Like the smiles,
+Smiles of Venus; and thy breath
+Like her breath, the Gods' delight,
+(From their height
+They take the happy air beneath;)
+
+It is thou that, of thy grace,
+From their place
+In the far-oft isles dost bring
+Swallows over earth and sea,
+Glad to be
+Messengers of thee, and Spring.
+
+Daffodil and eglantine,
+And woodbine,
+Lily, violet, and rose
+Plentiful in April fair,
+To the air,
+Their pretty petals do unclose.
+
+Nightingales ye now may hear,
+Piercing clear,
+Singing in the deepest shade;
+Many and many a babbled note
+Chime and float,
+Woodland music through the glade.
+
+April, all to welcome thee,
+Spring sets free
+Ancient flames, and with low breath
+Wakes the ashes grey and old
+That the cold
+Chilled within our hearts to death.
+
+Thou beholdest in the warm
+Hours, the swarm
+Of the thievish bees, that flies
+Evermore from bloom to bloom
+For perfume,
+Hid away in tiny thighs.
+
+Her cool shadows May can boast,
+Fruits almost
+Ripe, and gifts of fertile dew,
+Manna-sweet and honey-sweet,
+That complete
+Her flower garland fresh and new.
+
+Nay, but I will give my praise,
+To these days,
+Named with the glad name of Her {1}
+That from out the foam o' the sea
+Came to be
+Sudden light on earth and air.
+
+
+
+ROSES.
+RONSARD, 1550.
+
+
+
+I send you here a wreath of blossoms blown,
+And woven flowers at sunset gathered,
+Another dawn had seen them ruined, and shed
+Loose leaves upon the grass at random strown.
+By this, their sure example, be it known,
+That all your beauties, now in perfect flower,
+Shall fade as these, and wither in an hour,
+Flowerlike, and brief of days, as the flower sown.
+
+Ah, time is flying, lady--time is flying;
+Nay, 'tis not time that flies but we that go,
+Who in short space shall be in churchyard lying,
+And of our loving parley none shall know,
+Nor any man consider what we were;
+Be therefore kind, my love, whiles thou art fair.
+
+
+
+THE ROSE.
+RONSARD, 1550.
+
+
+
+See, Mignonne, hath not the Rose,
+That this morning did unclose
+Her purple mantle to the light,
+Lost, before the day be dead,
+The glory of her raiment red,
+Her colour, bright as yours is bright?
+
+Ah, Mignonne, in how few hours,
+The petals of her purple flowers
+All have faded, fallen, died;
+Sad Nature, mother ruinous,
+That seest thy fair child perish thus
+'Twixt matin song and even tide.
+
+Hear me, my darling, speaking sooth,
+Gather the fleet flower of your youth,
+Take ye your pleasure at the best;
+Be merry ere your beauty flit,
+For length of days will tarnish it
+Like roses that were loveliest.
+
+
+
+TO THE MOON.
+RONSARD, 1550.
+
+
+
+Hide this one night thy crescent, kindly Moon;
+So shall Endymion faithful prove, and rest
+Loving and unawakened on thy breast;
+So shall no foul enchanter importune
+Thy quiet course; for now the night is boon,
+And through the friendly night unseen I fare,
+Who dread the face of foemen unaware,
+And watch of hostile spies in the bright noon.
+Thou knowest, Moon, the bitter power of Love;
+'Tis told how shepherd Pan found ways to move,
+For little price, thy heart; and of your grace,
+Sweet stars, be kind to this not alien fire,
+Because on earth ye did not scorn desire,
+Bethink ye, now ye hold your heavenly place.
+
+
+
+TO HIS YOUNG MISTRESS.
+RONSARD, 1550.
+
+
+
+Fair flower of fifteen springs, that still
+Art scarcely blossomed from the bud,
+Yet hast such store of evil will,
+A heart so full of hardihood,
+Seeking to hide in friendly wise
+The mischief of your mocking eyes.
+
+If you have pity, child, give o'er;
+Give back the heart you stole from me,
+Pirate, setting so little store
+On this your captive from Love's sea,
+Holding his misery for gain,
+And making pleasure of his pain.
+
+Another, not so fair of face,
+But far more pitiful than you,
+Would take my heart, if of his grace,
+My heart would give her of Love's due;
+And she shall have it, since I find
+That you are cruel and unkind.
+
+Nay, I would rather that it died,
+Within your white hands prisoning,
+Would rather that it still abide
+In your ungentle comforting.
+Than change its faith, and seek to her
+That is more kind, but not so fair.
+
+
+
+DEADLY KISSES.
+RONSARD, 1550.
+
+
+
+All take these lips away; no more,
+No more such kisses give to me.
+My spirit faints for joy; I see
+Through mists of death the dreamy shore,
+And meadows by the water-side,
+Where all about the Hollow Land
+Fare the sweet singers that have died,
+With their lost ladies, hand in hand;
+Ah, Love, how fireless are their eyes,
+How pale their lips that kiss and smile!
+So mine must be in little while
+If thou wilt kiss me in such wise.
+
+
+
+OF HIS LADY'S OLD AGE.
+RONSARD, 1550
+
+
+
+When you are very old, at evening
+You'll sit and spin beside the fire, and say,
+Humming my songs, 'Ah well, ah well-a-day!
+When I was young, of me did Ronsard sing.'
+None of your maidens that doth hear the thing,
+Albeit with her weary task foredone,
+But wakens at my name, and calls you one
+Blest, to be held in long remembering.
+
+I shall be low beneath the earth, and laid
+On sleep, a phantom in the myrtle shade,
+While you beside the fire, a grandame grey,
+My love, your pride, remember and regret;
+Ah, love me, love! we may be happy yet,
+And gather roses, while 'tis called to-day.
+
+
+
+ON HIS LADY'S WAKING.
+RONSARD, 1550
+
+
+
+My lady woke upon a morning fair,
+What time Apollo's chariot takes the skies,
+And, fain to fill with arrows from her eyes
+His empty quiver, Love was standing there:
+I saw two apples that her breast doth bear
+None such the close of the Hesperides
+Yields; nor hath Venus any such as these,
+Nor she that had of nursling Mars the care.
+
+Even such a bosom, and so fair it was,
+Pure as the perfect work of Phidias,
+That sad Andromeda's discomfiture
+Left bare, when Perseus passed her on a day,
+And pale as Death for fear of Death she lay,
+With breast as marble cold, as marble pure.
+
+
+
+HIS LADY'S DEATH.
+RONSARD, 1550.
+
+
+
+Twain that were foes, while Mary lived, are fled;
+One laurel-crowned abides in heaven, and one
+Beneath the earth has fared, a fallen sun,
+A light of love among the loveless dead.
+The first is Chastity, that vanquished
+The archer Love, that held joint empery
+With the sweet beauty that made war on me,
+When laughter of lips with laughing eyes was wed.
+
+Their strife the Fates have closed, with stern control,
+The earth holds her fair body, and her soul
+An angel with glad angels triumpheth;
+Love has no more that he can do; desire
+Is buried, and my heart a faded fire,
+And for Death's sake, I am in love with Death.
+
+
+
+LADY'S TOMB.
+RONSARD, 1550.
+
+
+
+As in the gardens, all through May, the rose,
+Lovely, and young, and fair apparelled,
+Makes sunrise jealous of her rosy red,
+When dawn upon the dew of dawning glows;
+Graces and Loves within her breast repose,
+The woods are faint with the sweet odour shed,
+Till rains and heavy suns have smitten dead
+The languid flower, and the loose leaves unclose, -
+
+So this, the perfect beauty of our days,
+When earth and heaven were vocal of her praise,
+The fates have slain, and her sweet soul reposes;
+And tears I bring, and sighs, and on her tomb
+Pour milk, and scatter buds of many a bloom,
+That dead, as living, she may be with roses.
+
+
+
+SHADOWS OF HIS LADY.
+JACQUES TAHUREAU, 1527-1555.
+
+
+
+Within the sand of what far river lies
+The gold that gleams in tresses of my Love?
+What highest circle of the Heavens above
+Is jewelled with such stars as are her eyes?
+And where is the rich sea whose coral vies
+With her red lips, that cannot kiss enough?
+What dawn-lit garden knew the rose, whereof
+The fled soul lives in her cheeks' rosy guise?
+
+What Parian marble that is loveliest,
+Can match the whiteness of her brow and breast?
+When drew she breath from the Sabaean glade?
+Oh happy rock and river, sky and sea,
+Gardens, and glades Sabaean, all that be
+The far-off splendid semblance of my maid!
+
+
+
+MOONLIGHT.
+JACQUES TAHUREAU, 1527-1555.
+
+
+
+The high Midnight was garlanding her head
+With many a shining star in shining skies,
+And, of her grace, a slumber on mine eyes,
+And, after sorrow, quietness was shed.
+Far in dim fields cicalas jargoned
+A thin shrill clamour of complaints and cries;
+And all the woods were pallid, in strange wise,
+With pallor of the sad moon overspread.
+
+Then came my lady to that lonely place,
+And, from her palfrey stooping, did embrace
+And hang upon my neck, and kissed me over;
+Wherefore the day is far less dear than night,
+And sweeter is the shadow than the light,
+Since night has made me such a happy lover.
+
+
+
+LOVE IN MAY.
+PASSERAT, 1580.
+
+
+
+Off with sleep, love, up from bed,
+This fair morn;
+See, for our eyes the rosy red
+New dawn is born;
+Now that skies are glad and gay
+In this gracious month of May,
+Love me, sweet,
+Fill my joy in brimming measure,
+In this world he hath no pleasure,
+That will none of it.
+
+Come, love, through the woods of spring,
+Come walk with me;
+Listen, the sweet birds jargoning
+From tree to tree.
+List and listen, over all
+Nightingale most musical
+That ceases never;
+Grief begone, and let us be
+For a space as glad as he;
+Time's flitting ever.
+
+Old Time, that loves not lovers, wears
+Wings swift in flight;
+All our happy life he bears
+Far in the night.
+Old and wrinkled on a day,
+Sad and weary shall you say,
+'Ah, fool was I,
+That took no pleasure in the grace
+Of the flower that from my face
+Time has seen die.'
+
+Leave then sorrow, teen, and tears
+Till we be old;
+Young we are, and of our years
+Till youth be cold
+Pluck the flower; while spring is gay
+In this happy month of May,
+Love me, love;
+Fill our joy in brimming measure;
+In this world he hath no pleasure
+That will none thereof.
+
+
+
+THE GRAVE AND THE ROSE.
+VICTOR HUGO.
+
+
+
+The Grave said to the Rose,
+'What of the dews of dawn,
+Love's flower, what end is theirs?'
+'And what of spirits flown,
+The souls whereon doth close
+The tomb's mouth unawares?'
+The Rose said to the Grave.
+
+The Rose said, 'In the shade
+From the dawn's tears is made
+A perfume faint and strange,
+Amber and honey sweet.'
+'And all the spirits fleet
+Do suffer a sky-change,
+More strangely than the dew,
+To God's own angels new,'
+The Grave said to the Rose.
+
+
+
+THE GENESIS OF BUTTERFLIES.
+VICTOR HUGO.
+
+
+
+The dawn is smiling on the dew that covers
+The tearful roses; lo, the little lovers
+That kiss the buds, and all the flutterings
+In jasmine bloom, and privet, of white wings,
+That go and come, and fly, and peep and hide,
+With muffled music, murmured far and wide!
+Ah, Spring time, when we think of all the lays
+That dreamy lovers send to dreamy mays,
+Of the fond hearts within a billet bound,
+Of all the soft silk paper that pens wound,
+The messages of love that mortals write
+Filled with intoxication of delight,
+Written in April, and before the May time
+Shredded and flown, play things for the wind's play-time,
+We dream that all white butterflies above,
+Who seek through clouds or waters souls to love,
+And leave their lady mistress in despair,
+To flit to flowers, as kinder and more fair,
+Are but torn love-letters, that through the skies
+Flutter, and float, and change to Butterflies.
+
+
+
+MORE STRONG THAN TIME.
+VICTOR HUGO.
+
+
+
+Since I have set my lips to your full cup, my sweet,
+Since I my pallid face between your hands have laid,
+Since I have known your soul, and all the bloom of it,
+And all the perfume rare, now buried in the shade;
+
+Since it was given to me to hear one happy while,
+The words wherein your heart spoke all its mysteries,
+Since I have seen you weep, and since I have seen you smile,
+Your lips upon my lips, and your eyes upon my eyes;
+
+Since I have known above my forehead glance and gleam,
+A ray, a single ray, of your star, veiled always,
+Since I have felt the fall, upon my lifetime's stream,
+Of one rose petal plucked from the roses of your days;
+
+I now am bold to say to the swift changing hours,
+Pass, pass upon your way, for I grow never old,
+Fleet to the dark abysm with all your fading flowers,
+One rose that none may pluck, within my heart I hold.
+
+Your flying wings may smite, but they can never spill
+The cup fulfilled of love, from which my lips are wet;
+My heart has far more fire than you have frost to chill,
+My soul more love than you can make my soul forget.
+
+
+
+AN OLD TUNE.
+GERARD DE NERVAL.
+
+
+
+There is an air for which I would disown
+Mozart's, Rossini's, Weber's melodies, -
+A sweet sad air that languishes and sighs,
+And keeps its secret charm for me alone.
+
+Whene'er I hear that music vague and old,
+Two hundred years are mist that rolls away;
+The thirteenth Louis reigns, and I behold
+A green land golden in the dying day.
+
+An old red castle, strong with stony towers,
+The windows gay with many coloured glass;
+Wide plains, and rivers flowing among flowers,
+That bathe the castle basement as they pass.
+
+In antique weed, with dark eyes and gold hair,
+A lady looks forth from her window high;
+It may be that I knew and found her fair,
+In some forgotten life, long time gone by.
+
+
+
+JUANA.
+ALFRED DE MUSSET.
+
+
+
+Again I see you, ah my queen,
+Of all my old loves that have been,
+The first love, and the tenderest;
+Do you remember or forget -
+Ah me, for I remember yet -
+How the last summer days were blest?
+
+Ah lady, when we think of this,
+The foolish hours of youth and bliss,
+How fleet, how sweet, how hard to hold!
+How old we are, ere spring be green!
+You touch the limit of eighteen
+And I am twenty winters old.
+
+My rose, that mid the red roses,
+Was brightest, ah, how pale she is!
+Yet keeps the beauty of her prime;
+Child, never Spanish lady's face
+Was lovely with so wild a grace;
+Remember the dead summer time.
+
+Think of our loves, our feuds of old,
+And how you gave your chain of gold
+To me for a peace offering;
+And how all night I lay awake
+To touch and kiss it for your sake, -
+To touch and kiss the lifeless thing.
+
+Lady, beware, for all we say,
+This Love shall live another day,
+Awakened from his deathly sleep;
+The heart that once has been your shrine
+For other loves is too divine;
+A home, my dear, too wide and deep.
+
+What did I say--why do I dream?
+Why should I struggle with the stream
+Whose waves return not any day?
+Close heart, and eyes, and arms from me;
+Farewell, farewell! so must it be,
+So runs, so runs, the world away,
+
+The season bears upon its wing
+The swallows and the songs of spring,
+And days that were, and days that flit;
+The loved lost hours are far away;
+And hope and fame are scattered spray
+For me, that gave you love a day
+For you that not remember it.
+
+
+
+SPRING IN THE STUDENT'S QUARTER.
+HENRI MURGER.
+
+
+
+Winter is passing, and the bells
+For ever with their silver lay
+Murmur a melody that tells
+Of April and of Easter day.
+High in sweet air the light vane sets,
+The weathercocks all southward twirl;
+A sou will buy her violets
+And make Nini a happy girl.
+
+The winter to the poor was sore,
+Counting the weary winter days,
+Watching his little fire-wood store,
+The bitter snow-flakes fell always;
+And now his last log dimly gleamed,
+Lighting the room with feeble glare,
+Half cinder and half smoke it seemed
+That the wind wafted into air.
+
+Pilgrims from ocean and far isles
+See where the east is reddening,
+The flocks that fly a thousand miles
+From sunsetting to sunsetting;
+Look up, look out, behold the swallows,
+The throats that twitter, the wings that beat;
+And on their song the summer follows,
+And in the summer life is sweet.
+
+* * * * * *
+
+With the green tender buds that know
+The shoot and sap of lusty spring
+My neighbour of a year ago
+Her casement, see, is opening;
+Through all the bitter months that were,
+Forth from her nest she dared not flee,
+She was a study for Boucher,
+She now might sit to Gavarni.
+
+
+
+OLD LOVES.
+HENRI MURGER.
+
+
+
+Louise, have you forgotten yet
+The corner of the flowery land,
+The ancient garden where we met,
+My hand that trembled in your hand?
+Our lips found words scarce sweet enough,
+As low beneath the willow-trees
+We sat; have you forgotten, love?
+Do you remember, love Louise?
+
+Marie, have you forgotten yet
+The loving barter that we made?
+The rings we changed, the suns that set,
+The woods fulfilled with sun and shade?
+The fountains that were musical
+By many an ancient trysting tree -
+Marie, have you forgotten all?
+Do you remember, love Marie?
+
+Christine, do you remember yet
+Your room with scents and roses gay?
+My garret--near the sky 'twas set -
+The April hours, the nights of May?
+The clear calm nights--the stars above
+That whispered they were fairest seen
+Through no cloud-veil? Remember, love!
+Do you remember, love Christine?
+
+Louise is dead, and, well-a-day!
+Marie a sadder path has ta'en;
+And pale Christine has passed away
+In southern suns to bloom again.
+Alas! for one and all of us -
+Marie, Louise, Christine forget;
+Our bower of love is ruinous,
+And I alone remember yet.
+
+
+
+MUSETTE.
+HENRI MURGER. 1850
+
+
+
+Yesterday, watching the swallows' flight
+That bring the spring and the season fair,
+A moment I thought of the beauty bright
+Who loved me, when she had time to spare;
+And dreamily, dreamily all the day,
+I mused on the calendar of the year,
+The year so near and so far away,
+When you were lief, and when I was dear.
+
+Your memory has not had time to pass;
+My youth has days of its lifetime yet;
+If you only knocked at the door, alas,
+My heart would open the door, Musette!
+Still at your name must my sad heart beat;
+Ah Muse, ah maiden of faithlessness!
+Return for a moment, and deign to eat
+The bread that pleasure was wont to bless.
+
+The tables and curtains, the chairs and all,
+Friends of our pleasure that looked on our pain,
+Are glad with the gladness of festival,
+Hoping to see you at home again;
+Come, let the days of their mourning pass,
+The silent friends that are sad for you yet;
+The little sofa, the great wine glass -
+For know you had often my share, Musette.
+
+Come, you shall wear the raiment white
+You wore of old, when the world was gay,
+We will wander in woods of the heart's delight
+The whole of the Sunday holiday.
+Come, we will sit by the wayside inn,
+Come, and your song will gain force to fly,
+Dipping its wing in the clear and thin
+Wine, as of old, ere it scale the sky.
+
+Musette, who had scarcely forgotten withal
+One beautiful dawn of the new year's best,
+Returned at the end of the carnival,
+A flown bird, to a forsaken nest.
+Ah faithless and fair! I embrace her yet,
+With no heart-beat, and with never a sigh;
+And Musette, no longer the old Musette,
+Declares that I am no longer I.
+
+Farewell, my dear that was once so dear,
+Dead with the death of our latest love;
+Our youth is laid in its sepulchre,
+The calendar stands for a stone above.
+'Tis only in searching the dust of the days,
+The ashes of all old memories,
+That we find the key of the woodland ways
+That lead to the place of our paradise.
+
+
+
+
+THE THREE CAPTAINS.
+
+
+
+All beneath the white-rose tree
+Walks a lady fair to see,
+She is as white as the snows,
+She is as fair as the day:
+From her father's garden close
+Three knights have ta'en her away.
+
+He has ta'en her by the hand,
+The youngest of the three -
+'Mount and ride, my bonnie bride,
+On my white horse with me.'
+
+And ever they rode, and better rode,
+Till they came to Senlis town,
+The hostess she looked hard at them
+As they were lighting down.
+
+'And are ye here by force,' she said,
+'Or are ye here for play?
+From out my father's garden close
+Three knights me stole away.
+
+'And fain would I win back,' she said,
+'The weary way I come;
+And fain would see my father dear,
+And fain go maiden home.'
+
+'Oh, weep not, lady fair,' said she,
+'You shall win back,' she said,
+'For you shall take this draught from me
+Will make you lie for dead.'
+
+'Come in and sup, fair lady,' they said,
+'Come busk ye and be bright;
+It is with three bold captains
+That ye must be this night.'
+
+When they had eaten well and drunk,
+She fell down like one slain:
+'Now, out and alas! for my bonny may
+Shall live no more again.'
+
+'Within her father's garden stead
+There are three white lilies;
+With her body to the lily bed,
+With her soul to Paradise.'
+
+They bore her to her father's house,
+They bore her all the three,
+They laid her in her father's close,
+Beneath the white-rose tree.
+
+She had not lain a day, a day,
+A day but barely three,
+When the may awakes, 'Oh, open, father,
+Oh, open the door for me.
+
+''Tis I have lain for dead, father,
+Have lain the long days three,
+That I might maiden come again
+To my mother and to thee.'
+
+
+
+THE BRIDGE OF DEATH.
+
+
+
+'The dance is on the Bridge of Death
+And who will dance with me?'
+'There's never a man of living men
+Will dare to dance with thee.'
+
+Now Margaret's gone within her bower
+Put ashes in her hair,
+And sackcloth on her bonny breast,
+And on her shoulders bare.
+
+There came a knock to her bower door,
+And blithe she let him in;
+It was her brother from the wars,
+The dearest of her kin.
+
+'Set gold within your hair, Margaret,
+Set gold within your hair,
+And gold upon your girdle band,
+And on your breast so fair.
+
+'For we are bidden to dance to-night,
+We may not bide away;
+This one good night, this one fair night,
+Before the red new day.'
+
+'Nay, no gold for my head brother,
+Nay, no gold for my hair;
+It is the ashes and dust of earth
+That you and I must wear.
+
+'No gold work for my girdle band,
+No gold work on my feet;
+But ashes of the fire, my love,
+But dust that the serpents eat.'
+
+* * * * * *
+
+They danced across the bridge of Death,
+Above the black water,
+And the marriage-bell was tolled in hell
+For the souls of him and her.
+
+
+
+LE PERE SEVERE.
+KING LOUIS' DAUGHTER.
+BALLAD OF THE ISLE OF FRANCE.
+
+
+
+King Louis on his bridge is he,
+He holds his daughter on his knee.
+
+She asks a husband at his hand
+That is not worth a rood of land.
+
+'Give up your lover speedily,
+Or you within the tower must lie.'
+
+'Although I must the prison dree,
+I will not change my love for thee.
+
+'I will not change my lover fair
+Not for the mother that me bare.
+
+'I will not change my true lover
+For friends, or for my father dear.'
+
+'Now where are all my pages keen,
+And where are all my serving men?
+
+'My daughter must lie in the tower alway,
+Where she shall never see the day.'
+
+* * * * * *
+
+Seven long years are past and gone
+And there has seen her never one.
+
+At ending of the seventh year
+Her father goes to visit her.
+
+'My child, my child, how may you be?'
+'O father, it fares ill with me.
+
+'My feet are wasted in the mould,
+The worms they gnaw my side so cold.'
+
+'My child, change your love speedily
+Or you must still in prison lie.'
+
+''Tis better far the cold to dree
+Than give my true love up for thee.'
+
+
+
+THE MILK WHITE DOE.
+
+
+
+It was a mother and a maid
+That walked the woods among,
+And still the maid went slow and sad,
+And still the mother sung.
+
+'What ails you, daughter Margaret?
+Why go you pale and wan?
+Is it for a cast of bitter love,
+Or for a false leman?'
+
+'It is not for a false lover
+That I go sad to see;
+But it is for a weary life
+Beneath the greenwood tree.
+
+'For ever in the good daylight
+A maiden may I go,
+But always on the ninth midnight
+I change to a milk white doe.
+
+'They hunt me through the green forest
+With hounds and hunting men;
+And ever it is my fair brother
+That is so fierce and keen.'
+
+* * * * *
+
+'Good-morrow, mother.' 'Good-morrow, son;
+Where are your hounds so good?'
+Oh, they are hunting a white doe
+Within the glad greenwood.
+
+'And three times have they hunted her,
+And thrice she's won away;
+The fourth time that they follow her
+That white doe they shall slay.'
+
+* * * * * *
+
+Then out and spoke the forester,
+As he came from the wood,
+'Now never saw I maid's gold hair
+Among the wild deer's blood.
+
+'And I have hunted the wild deer
+In east lands and in west;
+And never saw I white doe yet
+That had a maiden's breast.'
+
+Then up and spake her fair brother,
+Between the wine and bread,
+'Behold, I had but one sister,
+And I have been her dead.'
+
+'But ye must bury my sweet sister
+With a stone at her foot and her head,
+And ye must cover her fair body
+With the white roses and red.'
+
+And I must out to the greenwood,
+The roof shall never shelter me;
+And I shall lie for seven long years
+On the grass below the hawthorn tree.
+
+
+
+A LADY OF HIGH DEGREE.
+
+
+
+[I be pareld most of prise,
+I ride after the wild fee.]
+
+Will ye that I should sing
+Of the love of a goodly thing,
+Was no vilein's may?
+'Tis sung of a knight so free,
+Under the olive tree,
+Singing this lay.
+
+Her weed was of samite fine,
+Her mantle of white ermine,
+Green silk her hose;
+Her shoon with silver gay,
+Her sandals flowers of May,
+Laced small and close.
+
+Her belt was of fresh spring buds,
+Set with gold clasps and studs,
+Fine linen her shift;
+Her purse it was of love,
+Her chain was the flower thereof,
+And Love's gift.
+
+Upon a mule she rode,
+The selle was of brent gold,
+The bits of silver made;
+Three red rose trees there were
+That overshadowed her,
+For a sun shade.
+
+She riding on a day,
+Knights met her by the way,
+They did her grace;
+'Fair lady, whence be ye?'
+'France it is my countrie,
+I come of a high race.
+
+'My sire is the nightingale,
+That sings, making his wail,
+In the wild wood, clear;
+The mermaid is mother to me,
+That sings in the salt sea,
+In the ocean mere.'
+
+'Ye come of a right good race,
+And are born of a high place,
+And of high degree;
+Would to God that ye were
+Given unto me, being fair,
+My lady and love to be.'
+
+
+
+LOST FOR A ROSE'S SAKE.
+
+
+
+I laved my hands,
+BY the water side;
+With the willow leaves
+My hands I dried.
+
+The nightingale sung
+On the bough of the tree;
+Sing, sweet nightingale,
+It is well with thee.
+
+Thou hast heart's delight,
+I have sad heart's sorrow
+For a false false maid
+That will wed to-morrow.
+
+'Tis all for a rose,
+That I gave her not,
+And I would that it grew
+In the garden plot.
+
+And I would the rose-tree
+Were still to set,
+That my love Marie
+Might love me yet.
+
+
+
+
+BALLADS OF MODERN GREECE.
+
+
+
+
+THE BRIGAND'S GRAVE.
+
+
+
+The moon came up above the hill,
+The sun went down the sea;
+Go, maids, and fetch the well-water,
+But, lad, come here to me.
+
+Gird on my jack and my old sword,
+For I have never a son;
+And you must be the chief of all
+When I am dead and gone.
+
+But you must take my old broad sword,
+And cut the green bough of the tree,
+And strew the green boughs on the ground
+To make a soft death bed for me.
+
+And you must bring the holy priest
+That I may sained be;
+For I have lived a roving life
+Fifty years under the greenwood tree.
+
+And you shall make a grave for me,
+And make it deep and wide;
+That I may turn about and dream
+With my old gun by my side.
+
+And leave a window to the east,
+And the swallows will bring the spring;
+And all the merry month of May
+The nightingales will sing.
+
+
+
+THE SUDDEN BRIDAL.
+
+
+
+It was a maid lay sick of love,
+All for a leman fair;
+And it was three of her bower-maidens
+That came to comfort her.
+
+The first she bore a blossomed branch,
+The second an apple brown,
+The third she had a silk kerchief,
+And still her tears ran down.
+
+The first she mocked, the second she laughed -
+'We have loved lemans fair,
+We made our hearts like the iron stone
+Had little teen or care.'
+
+'If ye have loved 'twas a false false love,
+And an ill leman was he;
+But her true love had angel's eyes,
+And as fair was his sweet body.
+
+And I will gird my green kirtle,
+And braid my yellow hair,
+And I will over the high hills
+And bring her love to her.'
+
+'Nay, if you braid your yellow hair,
+You'll twine my love from me.'
+'Now nay, now nay, my lady good,
+That ever this should be!'
+
+'When you have crossed the western hills
+My true love you shall meet,
+With a green flag blowing over him,
+And green grass at his feet.'
+
+She has crossed over the high hills,
+And the low hills between,
+And she has found the may's leman
+Beneath a flag of green.
+
+'Twas four and twenty ladies fair
+Were sitting on the grass;
+But he has turned and looked on her,
+And will not let her pass.
+
+'You've maidens here, and maidens there,
+And loves through all the land;
+But what have you made of the lady fair
+You gave the rose-garland?'
+
+She was so harsh and cold of love,
+To me gave little grace;
+She wept if I but touched her hand,
+Or kissed her bonny face.
+
+'Yea, crows shall build in the eagle's nest,
+The hawk the dove shall wed,
+Before my old true love and I
+Meet in one wedding bed.'
+
+When she had heard his bitter rede
+That was his old true love,
+She sat and wept within her bower,
+And moaned even as a dove.
+
+She rose up from her window seat,
+And she looked out to see;
+Her love came riding up the street
+With a goodly company.
+
+He was clad on with Venice gold,
+Wrought upon cramoisie,
+His yellow hair shone like the sun
+About his fair body.
+
+'Now shall I call him blossomed branch
+That has ill knots therein?
+Or shall I call him basil plant,
+That comes of an evil kin?
+
+'Oh, I shall give him goodly names,
+My sword of damask fine;
+My silver flower, my bright-winged bird,
+Where go you, lover mine?'
+
+'I go to marry my new bride,
+That I bring o'er the down;
+And you shall be her bridal maid,
+And hold her bridal crown.'
+
+'When you come to the bride chamber
+Where your fair maiden is,
+You'll tell her I was fair of face,
+But never tell her this,
+
+'That still my lips were lips of love,
+My kiss love's spring-water,
+That my love was a running spring,
+My breast a garden fair.
+
+'And you have kissed the lips of love
+And drained the well-water,
+And you have spoiled the running spring,
+And robbed the fruits so fair.'
+
+* * * * * *
+
+'Now he that will may scatter nuts,
+And he may wed that will;
+But she that was my old true love
+Shall be my true love still.'
+
+
+
+
+GREEK FOLK SONGS.
+
+
+
+
+IANNOULA.
+
+
+
+All the maidens were merry and wed
+All to lovers so fair to see;
+The lover I took to my bridal bed
+He is not long for love and me.
+
+I spoke to him and he noting said,
+I gave him bread of the wheat so fine,
+He did not eat of the bridal bread,
+He did not drink of the bridal wine.
+
+I made him a bed was soft and deep,
+I made him a bed to sleep with me;
+'Look on me once before you sleep,
+And look on the flower of my fair body.
+
+'Flowers of April, and fresh May-dew,
+Dew of April and buds of May;
+Two white blossoms that bud for you,
+Buds that blossom before the day.'
+
+
+
+THE TELL-TALES.
+
+
+
+All in the mirk midnight when I was beside you,
+Who has seen, who has heard, what was said, what was done?
+'Twas the night and the light of the stars that espied you,
+The fall of the moon, and the dawning begun.
+
+'Tis a swift star has fallen, a star that discovers
+To the sea what the green sea has told to the oars,
+And the oars to the sailors, and they of us lovers
+Go singing this song at their mistress's doors.
+
+
+
+
+AVE.
+
+
+
+
+TWILIGHT ON TWEED.
+
+
+
+Three crests against the saffron sky,
+Beyond the purple plain,
+The dear remembered melody
+Of Tweed once more again.
+
+Wan water from the border hills,
+Dear voice from the old years,
+Thy distant music lulls and stills,
+And moves to quiet tears.
+
+Like a loved ghost thy fabled flood
+Fleets through the dusky land;
+Where Scott, come home to die, has stood,
+My feet returning stand.
+
+A mist of memory broods and floats,
+The border waters flow;
+The air is full of ballad notes,
+Borne out of long ago.
+
+Old songs that sung themselves to me,
+Sweet through a boy's day dream,
+While trout below the blossom'd tree
+Plashed in the golden stream.
+
+* * * * * *
+
+Twilight, and Tweed, and Eildon Hill,
+Fair and thrice fair you be;
+You tell me that the voice is still
+That should have welcomed me.
+
+
+
+ONE FLOWER.
+
+
+
+["Up there shot a lily red,
+With a patch of earth from the land of the dead,
+For she was strong in the land of the dead."]
+
+When autumn suns are soft, and sea winds moan,
+And golden fruits make sweet the golden air,
+In gardens where the apple blossoms were,
+In these old springs before I walked alone;
+I pass among the pathways overgrown,
+Of all the former flowers that kissed your feet
+Remains a poppy, pallid from the heat,
+A wild poppy that the wild winds have sown.
+Alas! the rose forgets your hands of rose;
+The lilies slumber in the lily bed;
+'Tis only poppies in the dreamy close,
+The changeless, windless garden of the dead,
+You tend, with buds soft as your kiss that lies
+In over happy dreams, upon mine eyes.
+
+
+
+METEMPSYCHOSIS.
+
+
+
+I shall not see thee, nay, but I shall know
+Perchance, thy grey eyes in another's eyes,
+Shall guess thy curls in gracious locks that flow
+On purest brows, yea, and the swift surmise
+Shall follow, and track, and find thee in disguise
+Of all sad things, and fair, where sunsets glow,
+When through the scent of heather, faint and low,
+The weak wind whispers to the day that dies.
+
+From all sweet art, and out of all 'old rhyme,'
+Thine eyes and lips are light and song to me;
+The shadows of the beauty of all time,
+Carven and sung, are only shapes of thee;
+Alas, the shadowy shapes! ah, sweet my dear
+Shall life or death bring all thy being near?
+
+
+
+LOST IN HADES.
+
+
+
+I dreamed that somewhere in the shadowy place,
+Grief of farewell unspoken was forgot
+In welcome, and regret remembered not;
+And hopeless prayer accomplished turned to praise
+On lips that had been songless many days;
+Hope had no more to hope for, and desire
+And dread were overpast, in white attire
+New born we walked among the new world's ways.
+
+Then from the press of shades a spirit threw
+Towards me such apples as these gardens bear;
+And turning, I was 'ware of her, and knew
+And followed her fleet voice and flying hair, -
+Followed, and found her not, and seeking you
+I found you never, dearest, anywhere.
+
+
+
+A STAR IN THE NIGHT.
+
+
+
+The perfect piteous beauty of thy face,
+Is like a star the dawning drives away;
+Mine eyes may never see in the bright day
+Thy pallid halo, thy supernal grace:
+But in the night from forth the silent place
+Thou comest, dim in dreams, as doth a stray
+Star of the starry flock that in the grey
+Is seen, and lost, and seen a moment's space.
+
+And as the earth at night turns to a star,
+Loved long ago, and dearer than the sun,
+So in the spiritual place afar,
+At night our souls are mingled and made one,
+And wait till one night fall, and one dawn rise,
+That brings no noon too splendid for your eyes.
+
+
+
+A SUNSET ON YARROW.
+
+
+
+The wind and the day had lived together,
+They died together, and far away
+Spoke farewell in the sultry weather,
+Out of the sunset, over the heather,
+The dying wind and the dying day.
+
+Far in the south, the summer levin
+Flushed, a flame in the grey soft air:
+We seemed to look on the hills of heaven;
+You saw within, but to me 'twas given
+To see your face, as an angel's, there.
+
+Never again, ah surely never
+Shall we wait and watch, where of old we stood,
+The low good-night of the hill and the river,
+The faint light fade, and the wan stars quiver,
+Twain grown one in the solitude.
+
+
+
+
+HESPEROTHEN.
+
+
+
+
+By the example of certain Grecian mariners, who, being safely
+returned from the war about Troy, leave yet again their old lands
+and gods, seeking they know not what, and choosing neither to abide
+in the fair Phaeacian island, nor to dwell and die with the Sirens,
+at length end miserably in a desert country by the sea, is set
+forth the Vanity of Melancholy. And by the land of Phaeacia is to
+be understood the place of Art and of fair Pleasures; and by
+Circe's Isle, the places of bodily delights, whereof men, falling
+aweary, attain to Eld, and to the darkness of that age. Which
+thing Master Francoys Rabelais feigned, under the similitude of the
+Isle of the Macraeones.
+
+
+
+THE SEEKERS FOR PHAEACIA.
+
+
+
+There is a land in the remotest day,
+Where the soft night is born, and sunset dies;
+The eastern shores see faint tides fade away,
+That wash the lands where laughter, tears, and sighs,
+Make life,--the lands beneath the blue of common skies.
+
+But in the west is a mysterious sea,
+(What sails have seen it, or what shipmen known?)
+With coasts enchanted where the Sirens be,
+With islands where a Goddess walks alone,
+And in the cedar trees the magic winds make moan
+
+Eastward the human cares of house and home,
+Cities, and ships, and unknown Gods, and loves;
+Westward, strange maidens fairer than the foam,
+And lawless lives of men, and haunted groves,
+Wherein a God may dwell, and where the Dryad roves.
+
+The Gods are careless of the days and death
+Of toilsome men, beyond the western seas;
+The Gods are heedless of their painful breath,
+And love them not, for they are not as these;
+But in the golden west they live and lie at ease.
+
+Yet the Phaeacians well they love, who live
+At the light's limit, passing careless hours,
+Most like the Gods; and they have gifts to give,
+Even wine, and fountains musical, and flowers,
+And song, and if they will, swift ships, and magic powers.
+
+It is a quiet midland; in the cool
+Of twilight comes the God, though no man prayed,
+To watch the maids and young men beautiful
+Dance, and they see him, and are not afraid,
+For they are near of kin to Gods, and undismayed.
+
+Ah, would the bright red prows might bring us nigh
+The dreamy isles that the Immortals keep!
+But with a mist they hide them wondrously,
+And far the path and dim to where they sleep, -
+The loved, the shadowy lands along the shadowy deep.
+
+
+
+A SONG OF PHAEACIA.
+
+
+
+The languid sunset, mother of roses,
+Lingers, a light on the magic seas,
+The wide fire flames, as a flower uncloses,
+Heavy with odour, and loose to the breeze.
+
+The red rose clouds, without law or leader,
+Gather and float in the airy plain;
+The nightingale sings to the dewy cedar,
+The cedar scatters his scent to the main.
+
+The strange flowers' perfume turns to singing,
+Heard afar over moonlit seas;
+The Siren's song, grown faint in winging,
+Falls in scent on the cedar trees.
+
+As waifs blown out of the sunset, flying,
+Purple, and rosy, and grey, the birds
+Brighten the air with their wings; their crying
+Wakens a moment the weary herds.
+
+Butterflies flit from the fairy garden,
+Living blossoms of flying flowers;
+Never the nights with winter harden,
+Nor moons wax keen in this land of ours.
+
+Great fruits, fragrant, green and golden,
+Gleam in the green, and droop and fall;
+Blossom, and bud, and flower unfolden,
+Swing, and cling to the garden wall.
+
+Deep in the woods as twilight darkens,
+Glades are red with the scented fire;
+Far in the dells the white maid hearkens,
+Song and sigh of the heart's desire.
+
+Ah, and as moonlight fades in morning,
+Maiden's song in the matin grey,
+Faints as the first bird's note, a warning,
+Wakes and wails to the new-born day.
+
+The waking song and the dying measure
+Meet, and the waxing and waning light
+Meet, and faint with the hours of pleasure,
+The rose of the sea and the sky is white.
+
+
+
+THE DEPARTURE FROM PHAEACIA.
+
+
+
+
+THE PHAEACIANS.
+
+Why from the dreamy meadows,
+More fair than any dream,
+Why will you seek the shadows
+Beyond the ocean stream?
+
+Through straits of storm and peril,
+Through firths unsailed before,
+Why make you for the sterile,
+The dark Kimmerian shore?
+
+There no bright streams are flowing,
+There day and night are one,
+No harvest time, no sowing,
+No sight of any sun;
+
+No sound of song or tabor,
+No dance shall greet you there;
+No noise of mortal labour,
+Breaks on the blind chill air.
+
+Are ours not happy places,
+Where Gods with mortals trod?
+Saw not our sires the faces
+Of many a present God?
+
+THE SEEKERS.
+
+Nay, now no God comes hither,
+In shape that men may see;
+They fare we know not whither,
+We know not what they be.
+
+Yea, though the sunset lingers
+Far in your fairy glades,
+Though yours the sweetest singers,
+Though yours the kindest maids,
+
+Yet here be the true shadows,
+Here in the doubtful light;
+Amid the dreamy meadows
+No shadow haunts the night.
+
+We seek a city splendid,
+With light beyond the sun;
+Or lands where dreams are ended,
+And works and days are done.
+
+
+
+A BALLAD OF DEPARTURE. {2}
+
+
+
+Fair white bird, what song art thou singing
+In wintry weather of lands o'er sea?
+Dear white bird, what way art thou winging,
+Where no grass grows, and no green tree?
+
+I looked at the far off fields and grey,
+There grew no tree but the cypress tree,
+That bears sad fruits with the flowers of May,
+And whoso looks on it, woe is he.
+
+And whoso eats of the fruit thereof
+Has no more sorrow, and no more love;
+And who sets the same in his garden stead,
+In a little space he is waste and dead.
+
+
+
+THEY HEAR THE SIRENS FOR THE SECOND TIME.
+
+
+
+The weary sails a moment slept,
+The oars were silent for a space,
+As past Hesperian shores we swept,
+That were as a remembered face
+Seen after lapse of hopeless years,
+In Hades, when the shadows meet,
+Dim through the mist of many tears,
+And strange, and though a shadow, sweet.
+
+So seemed the half-remembered shore,
+That slumbered, mirrored in the blue,
+With havens where we touched of yore,
+And ports that over well we knew.
+Then broke the calm before a breeze
+That sought the secret of the west;
+And listless all we swept the seas
+Towards the Islands of the Blest.
+
+Beside a golden sanded bay
+We saw the Sirens, very fair
+The flowery hill whereon they lay,
+The flowers set upon their hair.
+Their old sweet song came down the wind,
+Remembered music waxing strong,
+Ah now no need of cords to bind,
+No need had we of Orphic song.
+
+It once had seemed a little thing,
+To lay our lives down at their feet,
+That dying we might hear them sing,
+And dying see their faces sweet;
+But now, we glanced, and passing by,
+No care had we to tarry long;
+Faint hope, and rest, and memory
+Were more than any Siren's song.
+
+
+
+CIRCE'S ISLE REVISITED.
+
+
+
+Ah, Circe, Circe! in the wood we cried;
+Ah, Circe, Circe! but no voice replied;
+No voice from bowers o'ergrown and ruinous
+As fallen rocks upon the mountain side.
+
+There was no sound of singing in the air;
+Failed or fled the maidens that were fair,
+No more for sorrow or joy were seen of us,
+No light of laughing eyes, or floating hair.
+
+The perfume, and the music, and the flame
+Had passed away; the memory of shame
+Alone abode, and stings of faint desire,
+And pulses of vague quiet went and came.
+
+Ah, Circe! in thy sad changed fairy place,
+Our dead Youth came and looked on us a space,
+With drooping wings, and eyes of faded fire,
+And wasted hair about a weary face.
+
+Why had we ever sought the magic isle
+That seemed so happy in the days erewhile?
+Why did we ever leave it, where we met
+A world of happy wonders in one smile?
+
+Back to the westward and the waning light
+We turned, we fled; the solitude of night
+Was better than the infinite regret,
+In fallen places of our dead delight.
+
+
+
+THE LIMIT OF LANDS.
+
+
+
+Between the circling ocean sea
+And the poplars of Persephone
+There lies a strip of barren sand,
+Flecked with the sea's last spray, and strown
+With waste leaves of the poplars, blown
+From gardens of the shadow land.
+
+With altars of old sacrifice
+The shore is set, in mournful wise
+The mists upon the ocean brood;
+Between the water and the air
+The clouds are born that float and fare
+Between the water and the wood.
+
+Upon the grey sea never sail
+Of mortals passed within our hail,
+Where the last weak waves faint and flow;
+We heard within the poplar pale
+The murmur of a doubtful wail
+Of voices loved so long ago.
+
+We scarce had care to die or live,
+We had no honey cake to give,
+No wine of sacrifice to shed;
+There lies no new path over sea,
+And now we know how faint they be,
+The feasts and voices of the Dead.
+
+Ah, flowers and dance! ah, sun and snow!
+Glad life, sad life we did forego
+To dream of quietness and rest;
+Ah, would the fleet sweet roses here
+Poured light and perfume through the drear
+Pale year, and wan land of the west.
+
+Sad youth, that let the spring go by
+Because the spring is swift to fly,
+Sad youth, that feared to mourn or love,
+Behold how sadder far is this,
+To know that rest is nowise bliss,
+And darkness is the end thereof.
+
+
+
+
+VERSES ON PICTURES.
+
+
+
+
+
+COLINETTE.
+
+
+
+
+[FOR A SKETCH BY MR. G. LESLIE, A.R.A.]
+
+France your country, as we know;
+Room enough for guessing yet,
+What lips now or long ago,
+Kissed and named you--Colinette.
+In what fields from sea to sea,
+By what stream your home was set,
+Loire or Seine was glad of thee,
+Marne or Rhone, O Colinette?
+
+Did you stand with 'maidens ten,
+Fairer maids were never seen,'
+When the young king and his men
+Passed among the orchards green?
+Nay, old ballads have a note
+Mournful, we would fain forget;
+No such sad old air should float
+Round your young brows, Colinette.
+
+Say, did Ronsard sing to you,
+Shepherdess, to lull his pain,
+When the court went wandering through
+Rose pleasances of Touraine?
+Ronsard and his famous Rose
+Long are dust the breezes fret;
+You, within the garden close,
+You are blooming, Colinette.
+
+Have I seen you proud and gay,
+With a patched and perfumed beau,
+Dancing through the summer day,
+Misty summer of Watteau?
+Nay, so sweet a maid as you
+Never walked a minuet
+With the splendid courtly crew;
+Nay, forgive me, Colinette.
+
+Not from Greuze's canvasses
+Do you cast a glance, a smile;
+You are not as one of these,
+Yours is beauty without guile.
+Round your maiden brows and hair
+Maidenhood and Childhood met
+Crown and kiss you, sweet and fair,
+New art's blossom, Colinette.
+
+
+
+A SUNSET OF WATTEAU.
+
+
+
+LUI.
+
+The silk sail fills, the soft winds wake,
+Arise and tempt the seas;
+Our ocean is the Palace lake,
+Our waves the ripples that we make
+Among the mirrored trees.
+
+ELLE.
+
+Nay, sweet the shore, and sweet the song,
+And dear the languid dream;
+The music mingled all day long
+With paces of the dancing throng,
+And murmur of the stream.
+
+An hour ago, an hour ago,
+We rested in the shade;
+And now, why should we seek to know
+What way the wilful waters flow?
+There is no fairer glade.
+
+LUI.
+
+Nay, pleasure flits, and we must sail,
+And seek him everywhere;
+Perchance in sunset's golden pale
+He listens to the nightingale,
+Amid the perfumed air.
+
+Come, he has fled; you are not you,
+And I no more am I;
+Delight is changeful as the hue
+Of heaven, that is no longer blue
+In yonder sunset sky.
+
+ELLE.
+
+Nay, if we seek we shall not find,
+If we knock none openeth;
+Nay, see, the sunset fades behind
+The mountains, and the cold night wind
+Blows from the house of Death.
+
+
+
+A NATIVITY OF SANDRO BOTTICELLI.
+
+
+
+'Wrought in the troublous times of Italy
+By Sandro Botticelli,' when for fear
+Of that last judgment, and last day drawn near
+To end all labour and all revelry,
+He worked and prayed in silence; this is she
+That by the holy cradle sees the bier,
+And in spice gifts the hyssop on the spear,
+And out of Bethlehem, Gethsemane.
+
+Between the gold sky and the green o'er head,
+The twelve great shining angels, garlanded,
+Marvel upon this face, wherein combine
+The mother's love that shone on all of us,
+And maiden rapture that makes luminous
+The brows of Margaret and Catherine.
+
+
+
+
+SONGS AND SONNETS
+
+
+
+
+
+TWO HOMES.
+
+
+
+
+[To a young English lady in the Hospital of the Wounded at
+Carlsruhe. Sept. 1870.]
+
+What does the dim gaze of the dying find
+To waken dream or memory, seeing you?
+In your sweet eyes what other eyes are blue,
+And in your hair what gold hair on the wind
+Floats of the days gone almost out of mind?
+In deep green valleys of the Fatherland
+He may remember girls with locks like thine;
+May dream how, where the waiting angels stand,
+Some lost love's eyes are dim before they shine
+With welcome: --so past homes, or homes to be,
+He sees a moment, ere, a moment blind,
+He crosses Death's inhospitable sea,
+And with brief passage of those barren lands
+Comes to the home that is not made with hands.
+
+
+
+SUMMER'S ENDING.
+
+
+
+The flags below the shadowy fern
+Shine like spears between sun and sea,
+The tide and the summer begin to turn,
+And ah, for hearts, for hearts that yearn,
+For fires of autumn that catch and burn,
+For love gone out between thee and me.
+
+The wind is up, and the weather broken,
+Blue seas, blue eyes, are grieved and grey,
+Listen, the word that the wind has spoken,
+Listen, the sound of the sea,--a token
+That summer's over, and troths are broken, -
+That loves depart as the hours decay.
+
+A love has passed to the loves passed over,
+A month has fled to the months gone by;
+And none may follow, and none recover
+July and June, and never a lover
+May stay the wings of the Loves that hover,
+As fleet as the light in a sunset sky.
+
+
+
+NIGHTINGALE WEATHER.
+
+
+
+['Serai-je nonnette, oui ou non?
+Serai-je nonnette? je crois que non.
+Derriere chez mon pere
+Il est un bois taillis,
+Le rossignol y chante
+Et le jour et le nuit.
+Il chaste pour les filles
+Qui n'ont pas d'ami;
+Il ne chante pas pour moi,
+J'en ai un, Dieu merci.'--OLD FRENCH.]
+
+I'LL never be a nun, I trow,
+While apple bloom is white as snow,
+But far more fair to see;
+I'll never wear nun's black and white
+While nightingales make sweet the night
+Within the apple tree.
+
+Ah, listen! 'tis the nightingale,
+And in the wood he makes his wail,
+Within the apple tree;
+He singeth of the sore distress
+Of many ladies loverless;
+Thank God, no song for me.
+
+For when the broad May moon is low,
+A gold fruit seen where blossoms blow
+In the boughs of the apple tree,
+A step I know is at the gate;
+Ah love, but it is long to wait
+Until night's noon bring thee!
+
+Between lark's song and nightingale's
+A silent space, while dawning pales,
+The birds leave still and free
+For words and kisses musical,
+For silence and for sighs that fall
+In the dawn, 'twixt him and me.
+
+
+
+LOVE AND WISDOM.
+
+
+
+['When last we gathered roses in the garden
+I found my wits, but truly you lost yours.'
+THE BROKEN HEART.]
+
+July, and June brought flowers and love
+To you, but I would none thereof,
+Whose heart kept all through summer time
+A flower of frost and winter rime.
+Yours was true wisdom--was it not? -
+Even love; but I had clean forgot,
+Till seasons of the falling leaf,
+All loves, but one that turned to grief.
+At length at touch of autumn tide,
+When roses fell, and summer died,
+All in a dawning deep with dew,
+Love flew to me, love fled from you.
+
+The roses drooped their weary heads,
+I spoke among the garden beds;
+You would not hear, you could not know,
+Summer and love seemed long ago,
+As far, as faint, as dim a dream,
+As to the dead this world may seem.
+Ah sweet, in winter's miseries,
+Perchance you may remember this,
+How wisdom was not justified
+In summer time or autumn-tide,
+Though for this once below the sun,
+Wisdom and love were made at one;
+But love was bitter-bought enough,
+And wisdom light of wing as love.
+
+
+
+GOOD-BYE.
+
+
+
+Kiss me, and say good-bye;
+Good-bye, there is no word to say but this,
+Nor any lips left for my lips to kiss,
+Nor any tears to shed, when these tears dry;
+Kiss me, and say, good-bye.
+
+Farewell, be glad, forget;
+There is no need to say 'forget,' I know,
+For youth is youth, and time will have it so,
+And though your lips are pale, and your eyes wet,
+Farewell, you must forget.
+
+You shall bring home your sheaves,
+Many, and heavy, and with blossoms twined
+Of memories that go not out of mind;
+Let this one sheaf be twined with poppy leaves
+When you bring home your sheaves.
+
+In garnered loves of thine,
+The ripe good fruit of many hearts and years,
+Somewhere let this lie, grey and salt with tears;
+It grew too near the sea wind, and the brine
+Of life, this love of mine.
+
+This sheaf was spoiled in spring,
+And over-long was green, and early sere,
+And never gathered gold in the late year
+From autumn suns, and moons of harvesting,
+But failed in frosts of spring.
+
+Yet was it thine my sweet,
+This love, though weak as young corn withered,
+Whereof no man may gather and make bread;
+Thine, though it never knew the summer heat;
+Forget not quite, my sweet.
+
+
+
+AN OLD PRAYER.
+
+
+
+[Greek text which cannot be reproduced
+ODYSSEY, xiii. 59.]
+
+My prayer an old prayer borroweth,
+Of ancient love and memory -
+'Do thou farewell, till Eld and Death,
+That come to all men, come to thee.'
+Gently as winter's early breath,
+Scarce felt, what time the swallows flee,
+To lands whereof NO MAN KNOWETH
+Of summer, over land and sea;
+So with thy soul may summer be,
+Even as the ancient singer saith,
+'Do thou farewell, till Eld and Death,
+That come to all men, come to thee.'
+
+
+
+LOVE'S MIRACLE.
+
+
+
+With other helpless folk about the gate,
+The gate called Beautiful, with weary eyes
+That take no pleasure in the summer skies,
+Nor all things that are fairest, does she wait;
+So bleak a time, so sad a changeless fate
+Makes her with dull experience early wise,
+And in the dawning and the sunset, sighs
+That all hath been, and shall be, desolate.
+
+Ah, if Love come not soon, and bid her live,
+And know herself the fairest of fair things,
+Ah, if he have no healing gift to give,
+Warm from his breast, and holy from his wings,
+Or if at least Love's shadow in passing by
+Touch not and heal her, surely she must die.
+
+
+
+DREAMS.
+
+
+
+He spake not truth, however wise, who said
+That happy, and that hapless men in sleep
+Have equal fortune, fallen from care as deep
+As countless, careless, races of the dead.
+Not so, for alien paths of dreams we tread,
+And one beholds the faces that he sighs
+In vain to bring before his daylit eyes,
+And waking, he remembers on his bed;
+
+And one with fainting heart and feeble hand
+Fights a dim battle in a doubtful land,
+Where strength and courage were of no avail;
+And one is borne on fairy breezes far
+To the bright harbours of a golden star
+Down fragrant fleeting waters rosy pale.
+
+
+
+FAIRY LAND.
+
+
+
+In light of sunrise and sunsetting,
+The long days lingered, in forgetting
+That ever passion, keen to hold
+What may not tarry, was of old,
+In lands beyond the weary wold;
+Beyond the bitter stream whose flood
+Runs red waist-high with slain men's blood.
+Was beauty once a thing that died?
+Was pleasure never satisfied?
+Was rest still broken by the vain
+Desire of action, bringing pain,
+To die in languid rest again?
+All this was quite forgotten there,
+Where never winter chilled the year,
+Nor spring brought promise unfulfilled,
+Nor, with the eager summer killed,
+The languid days drooped autumnwards.
+So magical a season guards
+The constant prime of a cool June;
+So slumbrous is the river's tune,
+That knows no thunder of heavy rains,
+Nor ever in the summer wanes,
+Like waters of the summer time
+In lands far from the Fairy clime.
+
+Yea, there the Fairy maids are kind,
+With nothing of the changeful mind
+Of maidens in the days that were;
+And if no laughter fills the air
+With sound of silver murmurings,
+And if no prayer of passion brings
+A love nigh dead to life again,
+Yet sighs more subtly sweet remain,
+And smiles that never satiate,
+And loves that fear scarce any fate.
+Alas, no words can bring the bloom
+Of Fairy Land; the faint perfume,
+The sweet low light, the magic air,
+To eyes of who has not been there:
+Alas, no words, nor any spell
+Can lull the eyes that know too well,
+The lost fair world of Fairy Land.
+
+Ah, would that I had never been
+The lover of the Fairy Queen!
+Or would that through the sleepy town,
+The grey old place of Ercildoune,
+And all along the little street,
+The soft fall of the white deer's feet
+Came, with the mystical command
+That I must back to Fairy Land!
+
+
+
+TWO SONNETS OF THE SIRENS.
+
+
+
+['Les Sirenes estoient tant intimes amies et fidelles compagnes de
+Proserpine, qu'elles estoient toujours ensemble. Esmues du juste
+deuil de la perte de leur chere compagne, et enuyees jusques au
+desespoir, elles s'arresterent a la mer Sicilienne, ou par leurs
+chants elles attiroient les navigans, mais l'unique fin de la
+volupe de leur musique est la Mort.'--PONTUS DE TYARD. 1570.]
+
+I.
+
+The Sirens once were maidens innocent
+That through the water-meads with Proserpine
+Plucked no fire-hearted flowers, but were content
+Cool fritillaries and flag-flowers to twine,
+With lilies woven and with wet woodbine;
+Till once they sought the bright AEtnaean flowers,
+And their bright mistress fled from summer hours
+With Hades, down the irremeable decline.
+And they have sought her all the wide world through
+Till many years, and wisdom, and much wrong
+Have filled and changed their song, and o'er the blue
+Rings deadly sweet the magic of the song,
+And whoso hears must listen till he die
+Far on the flowery shores of Sicily.
+
+II.
+
+So is it with this singing art of ours,
+That once with maids went maidenlike, and played
+With woven dances in the poplar-shade,
+And all her song was but of lady's bowers
+And the returning swallows, and spring-flowers,
+Till forth to seek a shadow-queen she strayed,
+A shadowy land; and now hath overweighed
+Her singing chaplet with the snow and showers.
+Yea, fair well-water for the bitter brine
+She left, and by the margin of life's sea
+Sings, and her song is full of the sea's moan,
+And wild with dread, and love of Proserpine;
+And whoso once has listened to her, he
+His whole life long is slave to her alone.
+
+
+
+A LA BELLE HELENE.
+AFTER RONSARD.
+
+
+
+More closely than the clinging vine
+About the wedded tree,
+Clasp thou thine arms, ah, mistress mine!
+About the heart of me.
+Or seem to sleep, and stoop your face
+Soft on my sleeping eyes,
+Breathe in your life, your heart, your grace,
+Through me, in kissing wise.
+Bow down, bow down your face, I pray,
+To me, that swoon to death,
+Breathe back the life you kissed away,
+Breathe back your kissing breath.
+So by your eyes I swear and say,
+My mighty oath and sure,
+From your kind arms no maiden may
+My loving heart allure.
+I'll bear your yoke, that's light enough,
+And to the Elysian plain,
+When we are dead of love, my love,
+One boat shall bear us twain.
+They'll flock around you, fleet and fair,
+All true loves that have been,
+And you of all the shadows there,
+Shall be the shadow queen.
+Ah shadow-loves, and shadow-lips!
+Ah, while 'tis called to-day,
+Love me, my love, for summer slips,
+And August ebbs away.
+
+
+
+SYLVIE ET AURELIE.
+
+
+
+[IN MEMORY OF GERARD DE NERVAL.]
+
+Two loves there were, and one was born
+Between the sunset and the rain;
+Her singing voice went through the corn,
+Her dance was woven 'neath the thorn,
+On grass the fallen blossoms stain;
+And suns may set, and moons may wane,
+But this love comes no more again.
+
+There were two loves and one made white
+Thy singing lips, and golden hair;
+Born of the city's mire and light,
+The shame and splendour of the night,
+She trapped and fled thee unaware;
+Not through the lamplight and the rain
+Shalt thou behold this love again.
+
+Go forth and seek, by wood and hill,
+Thine ancient love of dawn and dew;
+There comes no voice from mere or rill,
+Her dance is over, fallen still
+The ballad burdens that she knew;
+And thou must wait for her in vain,
+Till years bring back thy youth again.
+
+That other love, afield, afar
+Fled the light love, with lighter feet.
+Nay, though thou seek where gravesteads are,
+And flit in dreams from star to star,
+That dead love shalt thou never meet,
+Till through bleak dawn and blowing rain
+Thy fled soul find her soul again.
+
+
+
+A LOST PATH.
+
+
+
+[Plotinus, the Greek philosopher, had a certain proper mode of
+ecstasy, whereby, as Porphyry saith, his soul, becoming free from
+his deathly flesh, was made one with the Spirit that is in the
+World.]
+
+Alas, the path is lost, we cannot leave
+Our bright, our clouded life, and pass away
+As through strewn clouds, that stain the quiet eve,
+To heights remoter of the purer day.
+The soul may not, returning whence she came,
+Bathe herself deep in Being, and forget
+The joys that fever, and the cares that fret,
+Made once more one with the eternal flame
+That breathes in all things ever more the same.
+She would be young again, thus drinking deep
+Of her old life; and this has been, men say,
+But this we know not, who have only sleep
+To soothe us, sleep more terrible than day,
+Where dead delights, and fair lost faces stray,
+To make us weary at our wakening;
+And of that long-lost path to the Divine
+We dream, as some Greek shepherd erst might sing,
+Half credulous, of easy Proserpine
+And of the lands that lie 'beneath the day's decline.'
+
+
+
+THE SHADE OF HELEN.
+
+
+
+[Some say that Helen went never to Troy, but abode in Egypt; for
+the Gods, having made in her semblance a woman out of clouds and
+shadows, sent the same to be wife to Paris. For this shadow then
+the Greeks and Trojans slew each other.]
+
+Why from the quiet hollows of the hills,
+And extreme meeting place of light and shade,
+Wherein soft rains fell slowly, and became
+Clouds among sister clouds, where fair spent beams
+And dying glories of the sun would dwell,
+Why have they whom I know not, nor may know,
+Strange hands, unseen and ruthless, fashioned me,
+And borne me from the silent shadowy hills,
+Hither, to noise and glow of alien life,
+To harsh and clamorous swords, and sound of war?
+
+One speaks unto me words that would be sweet,
+Made harsh, made keen with love that knows me not,
+And some strange force, within me or around,
+Makes answer, kiss for kiss, and sigh for sigh,
+And somewhere there is fever in the halls,
+That troubles me, for no such trouble came
+To vex the cool far hollows of the hills.
+
+The foolish folk crowd round me, and they cry,
+That house, and wife, and lands, and all Troy town,
+Are little to lose, if they may keep me here,
+And see me flit, a pale and silent shade,
+Among the streets bereft, and helpless shrines.
+
+At other hours another life seems mine,
+Where one great river runs unswollen of rain,
+By pyramids of unremembered kings,
+And homes of men obedient to the Dead.
+There dark and quiet faces come and go
+Around me, then again the shriek of arms,
+And all the turmoil of the Ilian men.
+What are they? Even shadows such as I.
+What make they? Even this--the sport of Gods -
+The sport of Gods, however free they seem.
+Ah would the game were ended, and the light,
+The blinding light, and all too mighty suns,
+Withdrawn, and I once more with sister shades,
+Unloved, forgotten, mingled with the mist,
+Dwelt in the hollows of the shadowy hills.
+Ah, would 't were the cloud's playtime, when the sun
+Clothes us in raiment of a rosy flame,
+And through the sky we flit, and gather grey,
+Like men that leave their golden youth behind,
+And through their wind-driven ways they gather grey,
+And we like them grow wan, and the chill East
+Receives us, as the Earth accepts all men, -
+But WE await the dawn of a new day.
+
+
+
+
+SONNETS TO POETS.
+
+
+
+
+JACQUES TAHUREAU. 1530.
+
+
+
+Ah thou! that, undeceived and unregretting,
+Saw'st Death so near thee on the flowery way,
+And with no sigh that life was near the setting,
+Took'st the delight and dalliance of the day,
+Happy thou wert, to live and pass away
+Ere life or love had done thee any wrong;
+Ere thy wreath faded, or thy locks grew grey,
+Or summer came to lull thine April song,
+Sweet as all shapes of sweet things unfulfilled,
+Buds bloomless, and the broken violet,
+The first spring days, the sounds and scents thereof;
+So clear thy fire of song, so early chilled,
+So brief, so bright thy life that gaily met
+Death, for thy Death came hand in hand with Love.
+
+
+
+FRANCOIS VILLON. 1450.
+
+
+
+List, all that love light mirth, light tears, and all
+That know the heart of shameful loves, or pure;
+That know delights depart, desires endure,
+A fevered tribe of ghosts funereal,
+Widowed of dead delights gone out of call;
+List, all that deem the glory of the rose
+Is brief as last year's suns, or last year's snows
+The new suns melt from off the sundial.
+
+All this your master Villon knew and sung;
+Despised delights, and faint foredone desire;
+And shame, a deathless worm, a quenchless fire;
+And laughter from the heart's last sorrow wrung,
+When half-repentance but makes evil whole,
+And prayer that cannot help wears out the soul.
+
+
+
+PIERRE RONSARD. 1560.
+
+
+
+Master, I see thee with the locks of grey,
+Crowned by the Muses with the laurel-wreath;
+I see the roses hiding underneath,
+Cassandra's gift; she was less dear than they.
+Thou, Master, first hast roused the lyric lay,
+The sleeping song that the dead years bequeath,
+Hast sung sweet answer to the songs that breathe
+Through ages, and through ages far away.
+
+Yea, and in thee the pulse of ancient passion
+Leaped, and the nymphs amid the spring-water
+Made bare their lovely limbs in the old fashion,
+And birds' song in the branches was astir.
+Ah, but thy songs are sad, thy roses wan,
+Thy bees have fed on yews Sardinian.
+
+
+
+GERARD DE NERVAL.
+
+
+
+Of all that were thy prisons--ah, untamed,
+Ah, light and sacred soul!--none holds thee now;
+No wall, no bar, no body of flesh, but thou
+Art free and happy in the lands unnamed,
+About whose gates, with weary wings and maimed,
+Thou most wert wont to linger, entering there
+A moment, and returning rapt, with fair
+Tidings that men or heeded not or blamed;
+And they would smile and wonder, seeing where
+Thou stood'st, to watch light leaves, or clouds, or wind,
+Dreamily murmuring a ballad air,
+Caught from the Valois peasants; dost thou find
+Old prophecies fulfilled now, old tales true
+In the new world, where all things are made new?
+
+
+
+THE DEATH OF MIRANDOLA. 1494.
+
+
+
+['The Queen of Heaven appeared, comforting him and promising that
+he should not utterly die.'--THOMAS MORE, Life of Piens, Earl of
+Mirandola.]
+
+Strange lilies came with autumn; new and old
+Were mingling, and the old world passed away,
+And the night gathered, and the shadows grey
+Dimmed the kind eyes and dimmed the locks of gold,
+And face beloved of Mirandola.
+The Virgin then, to comfort him and stay,
+Kissed the thin cheek, and kissed the lips acold,
+The lips unkissed of women many a day.
+Nor she alone, for queens of the old creed,
+Like rival queens that tended Arthur, there
+Were gathered, Venus in her mourning weed,
+Pallas and Dian; wise, and pure, and fair
+Was he they mourned, who living did not wrong
+One altar of its dues of wine and song.
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+{1} Aphrodite--Avril.
+
+{2} From the Romaic.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, BALLADS AND LYRICS OF OLD FRANCE ***
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+<a href="#startoftext">Ballads and Lyrics of Old France: with other Poems, by Andrew Lang</a>
+</h2>
+<pre>
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+Title: Ballads and Lyrics of Old France: with other Poems
+
+Author: Andrew Lang
+
+Release Date: January, 1997 [EBook #795]
+[This file was first posted on January 31, 1997]
+[Most recently updated: September 25, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+</pre>
+<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p>
+<p>Transcribed from the 1872 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David
+Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h1>BALLADS AND LYRICS OF OLD FRANCE: WITH OTHER POEMS</h1>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>Translations</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>LIST OF POETS TRANSLATED</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>I.&nbsp; CHARLES D&rsquo;ORLEANS, who has sometimes, for no very
+obvious reason, been styled the father of French lyric poetry, was born
+in May, 1391.&nbsp; He was the son of Louis D&rsquo;Orleans, the grandson
+of Charles V., and the father of Louis XII.&nbsp; Captured at Agincourt,
+he was kept in England as a prisoner from 1415 to 1440, when he returned
+to France, where he died in 1465.&nbsp; His verses, for the most part
+roundels on two rhymes, are songs of love and spring, and retain the
+allegorical forms of the Roman de la Rose.</p>
+<p>II.&nbsp; FRAN&Ccedil;OIS VILLON, 1431-14-?&nbsp; Nothing is known
+of Villon&rsquo;s birth or death, and only too much of his life.&nbsp;
+In his poems the ancient forms of French verse are animated with the
+keenest sense of personal emotion, of love, of melancholy, of mocking
+despair, and of repentance for a life passed in taverns and prisons.</p>
+<p>III.&nbsp; JOACHIM DU BELLAY, 1525-1560.&nbsp; The exact date of
+Du Bellay&rsquo;s birth is unknown.&nbsp; He was certainly a little
+younger than Ronsard, who was born in September, 1524, although an attempt
+has been made to prove that his birth took place in 1525, as a compensation
+from Nature to France for the battle of Pavia.&nbsp; As a poet Du Bellay
+had the start, by a few mouths, of Ronsard; his <i>Recueil</i> was published
+in 1549.&nbsp; The question of priority in the new style of poetry caused
+a quarrel, which did not long separate the two singers.&nbsp; Du Bellay
+is perhaps the most interesting of the Pleiad, that company of Seven,
+who attempted to reform French verse, by inspiring it with the enthusiasm
+of the Renaissance.&nbsp; His book <i>L&rsquo;Illustration de la langue
+Fran&ccedil;aise</i> is a plea for the study of ancient models and for
+the improvement of the vernacular.&nbsp; In this effort Du Bellay and
+Ronsard are the predecessors of Malherbe, and of Andr&eacute; Ch&eacute;nier,
+more successful through their frank eagerness than the former, less
+fortunate in the possession of critical learning and appreciative taste
+than the latter.&nbsp; There is something in Du Bellay&rsquo;s life,
+in the artistic nature checked by occupation in affairs - he was the
+secretary of Cardinal Du Bellay - in the regret and affection with which
+Rome depressed and allured him, which reminds the English reader of
+the thwarted career of Clough.</p>
+<p>IV.&nbsp; REMY BELLEAU, 1528-1577.&nbsp; Du Belleau&rsquo;s life
+was spent in the household of Charles de Lorraine, Marquis d&rsquo;Elboeuf,
+and was marked by nothing more eventful than the usual pilgrimage to
+Italy, the sacred land and sepulchre of art.</p>
+<p>V.&nbsp; PIERRE RONSARD, 1524-1585.&nbsp; Ronsard&rsquo;s early years
+gave little sign of his vocation.&nbsp; He was for some time a page
+of the court, was in the service of James V. of Scotland, and had his
+share of shipwrecks, battles, and amorous adventures.&nbsp; An illness
+which produced total deafness made him a scholar and poet, as in another
+age and country it might have made him a saint and an ascetic.&nbsp;
+With all his industry, and almost religious zeal for art, he is one
+of the poets who make themselves, rather than are born singers.&nbsp;
+His epic, the Franciade, is as tedious as other artificial epics, and
+his odes are almost unreadable.&nbsp; We are never allowed to forget
+that he is the poet who read the Iliad through in three days.&nbsp;
+He is, as has been said of Le Brun, more mythological than Pindar.&nbsp;
+His constant allusion to his grey hair, an affectation which may be
+noticed in Shelley, is borrowed from Anacreon.&nbsp; Many of the sonnets
+in which he &lsquo;petrarquizes,&rsquo; retain the faded odour of the
+roses he loved; and his songs have fire and melancholy and a sense as
+of perfume from &lsquo;a closet long to quiet vowed, with mothed and
+dropping arras hung.&rsquo;&nbsp; Ronsard&rsquo;s great fame declined
+when is Malherbe came to &lsquo;bind the sweet influences of the Pleiad,&rsquo;
+but he has been duly honoured by the newest school of French poetry.</p>
+<p>VI.&nbsp; JACQUES TAHUREAU, 1527-1555.&nbsp; The amorous poetry of
+Jacques Tahureau has the merit, rare in his, or in any age, of being
+the real expression of passion.&nbsp; His brief life burned itself away
+before he had exhausted the lyric effusion of his youth.&nbsp; &lsquo;Le
+plus beau gentilhomme de son si&egrave;cle, et le plus dextre &agrave;
+toutes sortes de gentillesses,&rsquo; died at the age of twenty-eight,
+fulfilling the presentiment which tinges, but scarcely saddens his poetry.</p>
+<p>VII.&nbsp; JEAN PASSERAT, 1534-1602.&nbsp; Better known as a political
+satirist than as a poet.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>VICTOR HUGO.<br />ALFRED DE MUSSET, 1810-1857.<br />G&Eacute;RARD
+DE NERVAL, 1801-1855.<br />HENRI MURGER, 1822-1861.</p>
+<p>BALLADS.</p>
+<p>The originals of the French folk-songs here translated are to be
+found in the collections of MM. De Puymaigre and Gerard de Nerval, and
+in the report of M. Amp&egrave;re.</p>
+<p>The verses called a &lsquo;Lady of High Degree&rsquo; are imitated
+from a very early <i>chanson</i> in Bartsch&rsquo;s collection.</p>
+<p>The Greek ballads have been translated with the aid of the French
+versions by M. Fauriel.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>SPRING.<br />CHARLES D&rsquo;ORLEANS, 1391-1465.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[The new-liveried year. - <i>Sir Henry Wotton</i>.]</p>
+<p>The year has changed his mantle cold<br />Of wind, of rain, of bitter
+air;<br />And he goes clad in cloth of gold,<br />Of laughing suns and
+season fair;<br />No bird or beast of wood or wold<br />But doth with
+cry or song declare<br />The year lays down his mantle cold.<br />All
+founts, all rivers, seaward rolled,<br />The pleasant summer livery
+wear,<br />With silver studs on broidered vair;<br />The world puts
+off its raiment old,<br />The year lays down his mantle cold.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>RONDEL.<br />CHARLES D&rsquo;ORLEANS, 1391-1465.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[To his Mistress, to succour his heart that is beleaguered by jealousy.]</p>
+<p>Strengthen, my Love, this castle of my heart,<br />And with some
+store of pleasure give me aid,<br />For Jealousy, with all them of his
+part,<br />Strong siege about the weary tower has laid.<br />Nay, if
+to break his bands thou art afraid,<br />Too weak to make his cruel
+force depart,<br />Strengthen at least this castle of my heart,<br />And
+with some store of pleasure give me aid.<br />Nay, let not Jealousy,
+for all his art<br />Be master, and the tower in ruin laid,<br />That
+still, ah Love! thy gracious rule obeyed.<br />Advance, and give me
+succour of thy part;<br />Strengthen, my Love, this castle of my heart.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>RONDEL.<br />FRANCOIS VILLON, 1460</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Goodbye! the tears are in my eyes;<br />Farewell, farewell, my prettiest;<br />Farewell,
+of women born the best;<br />Good-bye! the saddest of good-byes.<br />Farewell!
+with many vows and sighs<br />My sad heart leaves you to your rest;<br />Farewell!
+the tears are in my eyes;<br />Farewell! from you my miseries<br />Are
+more than now may be confessed,<br />And most by thee have I been blessed,<br />Yea,
+and for thee have wasted sighs;<br />Goodbye! the last of my goodbyes.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>ARBOR AMORIS.<br />FRANCOIS VILLON, 1460</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>I have a tree, a graft of Love,<br />That in my heart has taken root;<br />Sad
+are the buds and blooms thereof,<br />And bitter sorrow is its fruit;<br />Yet,
+since it was a tender shoot,<br />So greatly hath its shadow spread,<br />That
+underneath all joy is dead,<br />And all my pleasant days are flown,<br />Nor
+can I slay it, nor instead<br />Plant any tree, save this alone.</p>
+<p>Ah, yet, for long and long enough<br />My tears were rain about its
+root,<br />And though the fruit be harsh thereof,<br />I scarcely looked
+for better fruit<br />Than this, that carefully I put<br />In garner,
+for the bitter bread<br />Whereon my weary life is fed:<br />Ah, better
+were the soil unsown<br />That bears such growths; but Love instead<br />Will
+plant no tree, but this alone.</p>
+<p>Ah, would that this new spring, whereof<br />The leaves and flowers
+flush into shoot,<br />I might have succour and aid of Love,<br />To
+prune these branches at the root,<br />That long have borne such bitter
+fruit,<br />And graft a new bough, comforted<br />With happy blossoms
+white and red;<br />So pleasure should for pain atone,<br />Nor Love
+slay this tree, nor instead<br />Plant any tree, but this alone.</p>
+<p>L&rsquo;ENVOY.</p>
+<p>Princess, by whom my hope is fed,<br />My heart thee prays in lowlihead<br />To
+prune the ill boughs overgrown,<br />Nor slay Love&rsquo;s tree, nor
+plant instead<br />Another tree, save this alone.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>BALLAD OF THE GIBBET.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[An epitaph in the form of a ballad that Fran&ccedil;ois Villon wrote
+of himself and his company, they expecting shortly to be hanged.]</p>
+<p>Brothers and men that shall after us be,<br />Let not your hearts
+be hard to us:<br />For pitying this our misery<br />Ye shall find God
+the more piteous.<br />Look on us six that are hanging thus,<br />And
+for the flesh that so much we cherished<br />How it is eaten of birds
+and perished,<br />And ashes and dust fill our bones&rsquo; place,<br />Mock
+not at us that so feeble be,<br />But pray God pardon us out of His
+grace.</p>
+<p>Listen, we pray you, and look not in scorn,<br />Though justly, in
+sooth, we are cast to die;<br />Ye wot no man so wise is born<br />That
+keeps his wisdom constantly.<br />Be ye then merciful, and cry<br />To
+Mary&rsquo;s Son that is piteous,<br />That His mercy take no stain
+from us,<br />Saving us out of the fiery place.<br />We are but dead,
+let no soul deny<br />To pray God succour us of His grace.</p>
+<p>The rain out of heaven has washed us clean,<br />The sun has scorched
+us black and bare,<br />Ravens and rooks have pecked at our eyne,<br />And
+feathered their nests with our beards and hair.<br />Round are we tossed,
+and here and there,<br />This way and that, at the wild wind&rsquo;s
+will,<br />Never a moment my body is still;<br />Birds they are busy
+about my face.<br />Live not as we, nor fare as we fare;<br />Pray God
+pardon us out of His grace.</p>
+<p>L&rsquo;ENVOY.</p>
+<p>Prince Jesus, Master of all, to thee<br />We pray Hell gain no mastery,<br />That
+we come never anear that place;<br />And ye men, make no mockery,<br />Pray
+God pardon us out of His grace.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>HYMN TO THE WINDS.<br />DU BELLAY, 1550.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[The winds are invoked by the winnowers of corn.]</p>
+<p>To you, troop so fleet,<br />That with winged wandering feet,<br />Through
+the wide world pass,<br />And with soft murmuring<br />Toss the green
+shades of spring<br />In woods and grass,<br />Lily and violet<br />I
+give, and blossoms wet,<br />Roses and dew;<br />This branch of blushing
+roses,<br />Whose fresh bud uncloses,<br />Wind-flowers too.<br />Ah,
+winnow with sweet breath,<br />Winnow the holt and heath,<br />Round
+this retreat;<br />Where all the golden morn<br />We fan the gold o&rsquo;
+the corn,<br />In the sun&rsquo;s heat.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>A VOW TO HEAVENLY VENUS.<br />DU BELLAY, 1500</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>We that with like hearts love, we lovers twain,<br />New wedded in
+the village by thy fane,<br />Lady of all chaste love, to thee it is<br />We
+bring these amaranths, these white lilies,<br />A sign, and sacrifice;
+may Love, we pray,<br />Like amaranthine flowers, feel no decay;<br />Like
+these cool lilies may our loves remain,<br />Perfect and pure, and know
+not any stain;<br />And be our hearts, from this thy holy hour,<br />Bound
+each to each, like flower to wedded flower.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>TO HIS FRIEND IN ELYSIUM.<br />DU BELLAY, 1550.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>So long you wandered on the dusky plain,<br />Where flit the shadows
+with their endless cry,<br />You reach the shore where all the world
+goes by,<br />You leave the strife, the slavery, the pain;<br />But
+we, but we, the mortals that remain<br />In vain stretch hands; for
+Charon sullenly<br />Drives us afar, we may not come anigh<br />Till
+that last mystic obolus we gain.</p>
+<p>But you are happy in the quiet place,<br />And with the learned lovers
+of old days,<br />And with your love, you wander ever-more<br />In the
+dim woods, and drink forgetfulness<br />Of us your friends, a weary
+crowd that press<br />About the gate, or labour at the oar.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>A SONNET TO HEAVENLY BEAUTY.<br />DU BELLAY, 1550.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>If this our little life is but a day<br />In the Eternal, - if the
+years in vain<br />Toil after hours that never come again, -<br />If
+everything that hath been must decay,<br />Why dreamest thou of joys
+that pass away,<br />My soul, that my sad body doth restrain?<br />Why
+of the moment&rsquo;s pleasure art thou fain?<br />Nay, thou hast wings,
+- nay, seek another stay.</p>
+<p>There is the joy whereto each soul aspires,<br />And there the rest
+that all the world desires,<br />And there is love, and peace, and gracious
+mirth;<br />And there in the most highest heavens shalt thou<br />Behold
+the Very Beauty, whereof now<br />Thou worshippest the shadow upon earth.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>APRIL.<br />REMY BELLEAU, 1560.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>April, pride of woodland ways,<br />Of glad days,<br />April, bringing
+hope of prime,<br />To the young flowers that beneath<br />Their bud
+sheath<br />Are guarded in their tender time;</p>
+<p>April, pride of fields that be<br />Green and free,<br />That in
+fashion glad and gay,<br />Stud with flowers red and blue,<br />Every
+hue,<br />Their jewelled spring array;</p>
+<p>April, pride of murmuring<br />Winds of spring,<br />That beneath
+the winnowed air,<br />Trap with subtle nets and sweet<br />Flora&rsquo;s
+feet,<br />Flora&rsquo;s feet, the fleet and fair;</p>
+<p>April, by thy hand caressed,<br />From her breast<br />Nature scatters
+everywhere<br />Handfuls of all sweet perfumes,<br />Buds and blooms,<br />Making
+faint the earth and air.</p>
+<p>April, joy of the green hours,<br />Clothes with flowers<br />Over
+all her locks of gold<br />My sweet Lady; and her breast<br />With the
+blest<br />Birds of summer manifold.</p>
+<p>April, with thy gracious wiles,<br />Like the smiles,<br />Smiles
+of Venus; and thy breath<br />Like her breath, the Gods&rsquo; delight,<br />(From
+their height<br />They take the happy air beneath;)</p>
+<p>It is thou that, of thy grace,<br />From their place<br />In the
+far-oft isles dost bring<br />Swallows over earth and sea,<br />Glad
+to be<br />Messengers of thee, and Spring.</p>
+<p>Daffodil and eglantine,<br />And woodbine,<br />Lily, violet, and
+rose<br />Plentiful in April fair,<br />To the air,<br />Their pretty
+petals do unclose.</p>
+<p>Nightingales ye now may hear,<br />Piercing clear,<br />Singing in
+the deepest shade;<br />Many and many a babbled note<br />Chime and
+float,<br />Woodland music through the glade.</p>
+<p>April, all to welcome thee,<br />Spring sets free<br />Ancient flames,
+and with low breath<br />Wakes the ashes grey and old<br />That the
+cold<br />Chilled within our hearts to death.</p>
+<p>Thou beholdest in the warm<br />Hours, the swarm<br />Of the thievish
+bees, that flies<br />Evermore from bloom to bloom<br />For perfume,<br />Hid
+away in tiny thighs.</p>
+<p>Her cool shadows May can boast,<br />Fruits almost<br />Ripe, and
+gifts of fertile dew,<br />Manna-sweet and honey-sweet,<br />That complete<br />Her
+flower garland fresh and new.</p>
+<p>Nay, but I will give my praise,<br />To these days,<br />Named with
+the glad name of Her <a name="citation1"></a><a href="#footnote1">{1}</a><br />That
+from out the foam o&rsquo; the sea<br />Came to be<br />Sudden light
+on earth and air.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>ROSES.<br />RONSARD, 1550.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>I send you here a wreath of blossoms blown,<br />And woven flowers
+at sunset gathered,<br />Another dawn had seen them ruined, and shed<br />Loose
+leaves upon the grass at random strown.<br />By this, their sure example,
+be it known,<br />That all your beauties, now in perfect flower,<br />Shall
+fade as these, and wither in an hour,<br />Flowerlike, and brief of
+days, as the flower sown.</p>
+<p>Ah, time is flying, lady - time is flying;<br />Nay, &rsquo;tis not
+time that flies but we that go,<br />Who in short space shall be in
+churchyard lying,<br />And of our loving parley none shall know,<br />Nor
+any man consider what we were;<br />Be therefore kind, my love, whiles
+thou art fair.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE ROSE.<br />RONSARD, 1550.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>See, Mignonne, hath not the Rose,<br />That this morning did unclose<br />Her
+purple mantle to the light,<br />Lost, before the day be dead,<br />The
+glory of her raiment red,<br />Her colour, bright as yours is bright?</p>
+<p>Ah, Mignonne, in how few hours,<br />The petals of her purple flowers<br />All
+have faded, fallen, died;<br />Sad Nature, mother ruinous,<br />That
+seest thy fair child perish thus<br />&lsquo;Twixt matin song and even
+tide.</p>
+<p>Hear me, my darling, speaking sooth,<br />Gather the fleet flower
+of your youth,<br />Take ye your pleasure at the best;<br />Be merry
+ere your beauty flit,<br />For length of days will tarnish it<br />Like
+roses that were loveliest.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>TO THE MOON.<br />RONSARD, 1550.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Hide this one night thy crescent, kindly Moon;<br />So shall Endymion
+faithful prove, and rest<br />Loving and unawakened on thy breast;<br />So
+shall no foul enchanter importune<br />Thy quiet course; for now the
+night is boon,<br />And through the friendly night unseen I fare,<br />Who
+dread the face of foemen unaware,<br />And watch of hostile spies in
+the bright noon.<br />Thou knowest, Moon, the bitter power of Love;<br />&rsquo;Tis
+told how shepherd Pan found ways to move,<br />For little price, thy
+heart; and of your grace,<br />Sweet stars, be kind to this not alien
+fire,<br />Because on earth ye did not scorn desire,<br />Bethink ye,
+now ye hold your heavenly place.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>TO HIS YOUNG MISTRESS.<br />RONSARD, 1550.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Fair flower of fifteen springs, that still<br />Art scarcely blossomed
+from the bud,<br />Yet hast such store of evil will,<br />A heart so
+full of hardihood,<br />Seeking to hide in friendly wise<br />The mischief
+of your mocking eyes.</p>
+<p>If you have pity, child, give o&rsquo;er;<br />Give back the heart
+you stole from me,<br />Pirate, setting so little store<br />On this
+your captive from Love&rsquo;s sea,<br />Holding his misery for gain,<br />And
+making pleasure of his pain.</p>
+<p>Another, not so fair of face,<br />But far more pitiful than you,<br />Would
+take my heart, if of his grace,<br />My heart would give her of Love&rsquo;s
+due;<br />And she shall have it, since I find<br />That you are cruel
+and unkind.</p>
+<p>Nay, I would rather that it died,<br />Within your white hands prisoning,<br />Would
+rather that it still abide<br />In your ungentle comforting.<br />Than
+change its faith, and seek to her<br />That is more kind, but not so
+fair.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>DEADLY KISSES.<br />RONSARD, 1550.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>All take these lips away; no more,<br />No more such kisses give
+to me.<br />My spirit faints for joy; I see<br />Through mists of death
+the dreamy shore,<br />And meadows by the water-side,<br />Where all
+about the Hollow Land<br />Fare the sweet singers that have died,<br />With
+their lost ladies, hand in hand;<br />Ah, Love, how fireless are their
+eyes,<br />How pale their lips that kiss and smile!<br />So mine must
+be in little while<br />If thou wilt kiss me in such wise.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>OF HIS LADY&rsquo;S OLD AGE.<br />RONSARD, 1550</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>When you are very old, at evening<br />You&rsquo;ll sit and spin
+beside the fire, and say,<br />Humming my songs, &lsquo;Ah well, ah
+well-a-day!<br />When I was young, of me did Ronsard sing.&rsquo;<br />None
+of your maidens that doth hear the thing,<br />Albeit with her weary
+task foredone,<br />But wakens at my name, and calls you one<br />Blest,
+to be held in long remembering.</p>
+<p>I shall be low beneath the earth, and laid<br />On sleep, a phantom
+in the myrtle shade,<br />While you beside the fire, a grandame grey,<br />My
+love, your pride, remember and regret;<br />Ah, love me, love! we may
+be happy yet,<br />And gather roses, while &rsquo;tis called to-day.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>ON HIS LADY&rsquo;S WAKING.<br />RONSARD, 1550</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>My lady woke upon a morning fair,<br />What time Apollo&rsquo;s chariot
+takes the skies,<br />And, fain to fill with arrows from her eyes<br />His
+empty quiver, Love was standing there:<br />I saw two apples that her
+breast doth bear<br />None such the close of the Hesperides<br />Yields;
+nor hath Venus any such as these,<br />Nor she that had of nursling
+Mars the care.</p>
+<p>Even such a bosom, and so fair it was,<br />Pure as the perfect work
+of Phidias,<br />That sad Andromeda&rsquo;s discomfiture<br />Left bare,
+when Perseus passed her on a day,<br />And pale as Death for fear of
+Death she lay,<br />With breast as marble cold, as marble pure.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>HIS LADY&rsquo;S DEATH.<br />RONSARD, 1550.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Twain that were foes, while Mary lived, are fled;<br />One laurel-crowned
+abides in heaven, and one<br />Beneath the earth has fared, a fallen
+sun,<br />A light of love among the loveless dead.<br />The first is
+Chastity, that vanquished<br />The archer Love, that held joint empery<br />With
+the sweet beauty that made war on me,<br />When laughter of lips with
+laughing eyes was wed.</p>
+<p>Their strife the Fates have closed, with stern control,<br />The
+earth holds her fair body, and her soul<br />An angel with glad angels
+triumpheth;<br />Love has no more that he can do; desire<br />Is buried,
+and my heart a faded fire,<br />And for Death&rsquo;s sake, I am in
+love with Death.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>LADY&rsquo;S TOMB.<br />RONSARD, 1550.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>As in the gardens, all through May, the rose,<br />Lovely, and young,
+and fair apparelled,<br />Makes sunrise jealous of her rosy red,<br />When
+dawn upon the dew of dawning glows;<br />Graces and Loves within her
+breast repose,<br />The woods are faint with the sweet odour shed,<br />Till
+rains and heavy suns have smitten dead<br />The languid flower, and
+the loose leaves unclose, -</p>
+<p>So this, the perfect beauty of our days,<br />When earth and heaven
+were vocal of her praise,<br />The fates have slain, and her sweet soul
+reposes;<br />And tears I bring, and sighs, and on her tomb<br />Pour
+milk, and scatter buds of many a bloom,<br />That dead, as living, she
+may be with roses.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>SHADOWS OF HIS LADY.<br />JACQUES TAHUREAU, 1527-1555.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Within the sand of what far river lies<br />The gold that gleams
+in tresses of my Love?<br />What highest circle of the Heavens above<br />Is
+jewelled with such stars as are her eyes?<br />And where is the rich
+sea whose coral vies<br />With her red lips, that cannot kiss enough?<br />What
+dawn-lit garden knew the rose, whereof<br />The fled soul lives in her
+cheeks&rsquo; rosy guise?</p>
+<p>What Parian marble that is loveliest,<br />Can match the whiteness
+of her brow and breast?<br />When drew she breath from the Sabaean glade?<br />Oh
+happy rock and river, sky and sea,<br />Gardens, and glades Sabaean,
+all that be<br />The far-off splendid semblance of my maid!</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>MOONLIGHT.<br />JACQUES TAHUREAU, 1527-1555.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>The high Midnight was garlanding her head<br />With many a shining
+star in shining skies,<br />And, of her grace, a slumber on mine eyes,<br />And,
+after sorrow, quietness was shed.<br />Far in dim fields cicalas jargon&eacute;d<br />A
+thin shrill clamour of complaints and cries;<br />And all the woods
+were pallid, in strange wise,<br />With pallor of the sad moon overspread.</p>
+<p>Then came my lady to that lonely place,<br />And, from her palfrey
+stooping, did embrace<br />And hang upon my neck, and kissed me over;<br />Wherefore
+the day is far less dear than night,<br />And sweeter is the shadow
+than the light,<br />Since night has made me such a happy lover.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>LOVE IN MAY.<br />PASSERAT, 1580.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Off with sleep, love, up from bed,<br />This fair morn;<br />See,
+for our eyes the rosy red<br />New dawn is born;<br />Now that skies
+are glad and gay<br />In this gracious month of May,<br />Love me, sweet,<br />Fill
+my joy in brimming measure,<br />In this world he hath no pleasure,<br />That
+will none of it.</p>
+<p>Come, love, through the woods of spring,<br />Come walk with me;<br />Listen,
+the sweet birds jargoning<br />From tree to tree.<br />List and listen,
+over all<br />Nightingale most musical<br />That ceases never;<br />Grief
+begone, and let us be<br />For a space as glad as he;<br />Time&rsquo;s
+flitting ever.</p>
+<p>Old Time, that loves not lovers, wears<br />Wings swift in flight;<br />All
+our happy life he bears<br />Far in the night.<br />Old and wrinkled
+on a day,<br />Sad and weary shall you say,<br />&lsquo;Ah, fool was
+I,<br />That took no pleasure in the grace<br />Of the flower that from
+my face<br />Time has seen die.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>Leave then sorrow, teen, and tears<br />Till we be old;<br />Young
+we are, and of our years<br />Till youth be cold<br />Pluck the flower;
+while spring is gay<br />In this happy month of May,<br />Love me, love;<br />Fill
+our joy in brimming measure;<br />In this world he hath no pleasure<br />That
+will none thereof.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE GRAVE AND THE ROSE.<br />VICTOR HUGO.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>The Grave said to the Rose,<br />&lsquo;What of the dews of dawn,<br />Love&rsquo;s
+flower, what end is theirs?&rsquo;<br />&lsquo;And what of spirits flown,<br />The
+souls whereon doth close<br />The tomb&rsquo;s mouth unawares?&rsquo;<br />The
+Rose said to the Grave.</p>
+<p>The Rose said, &lsquo;In the shade<br />From the dawn&rsquo;s tears
+is made<br />A perfume faint and strange,<br />Amber and honey sweet.&rsquo;<br />&lsquo;And
+all the spirits fleet<br />Do suffer a sky-change,<br />More strangely
+than the dew,<br />To God&rsquo;s own angels new,&rsquo;<br />The Grave
+said to the Rose.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE GENESIS OF BUTTERFLIES.<br />VICTOR HUGO.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>The dawn is smiling on the dew that covers<br />The tearful roses;
+lo, the little lovers<br />That kiss the buds, and all the flutterings<br />In
+jasmine bloom, and privet, of white wings,<br />That go and come, and
+fly, and peep and hide,<br />With muffled music, murmured far and wide!<br />Ah,
+Spring time, when we think of all the lays<br />That dreamy lovers send
+to dreamy mays,<br />Of the fond hearts within a billet bound,<br />Of
+all the soft silk paper that pens wound,<br />The messages of love that
+mortals write<br />Filled with intoxication of delight,<br />Written
+in April, and before the May time<br />Shredded and flown, play things
+for the wind&rsquo;s play-time,<br />We dream that all white butterflies
+above,<br />Who seek through clouds or waters souls to love,<br />And
+leave their lady mistress in despair,<br />To flit to flowers, as kinder
+and more fair,<br />Are but torn love-letters, that through the skies<br />Flutter,
+and float, and change to Butterflies.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>MORE STRONG THAN TIME.<br />VICTOR HUGO.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Since I have set my lips to your full cup, my sweet,<br />Since I
+my pallid face between your hands have laid,<br />Since I have known
+your soul, and all the bloom of it,<br />And all the perfume rare, now
+buried in the shade;</p>
+<p>Since it was given to me to hear one happy while,<br />The words
+wherein your heart spoke all its mysteries,<br />Since I have seen you
+weep, and since I have seen you smile,<br />Your lips upon my lips,
+and your eyes upon my eyes;</p>
+<p>Since I have known above my forehead glance and gleam,<br />A ray,
+a single ray, of your star, veiled always,<br />Since I have felt the
+fall, upon my lifetime&rsquo;s stream,<br />Of one rose petal plucked
+from the roses of your days;</p>
+<p>I now am bold to say to the swift changing hours,<br />Pass, pass
+upon your way, for I grow never old,<br />Fleet to the dark abysm with
+all your fading flowers,<br />One rose that none may pluck, within my
+heart I hold.</p>
+<p>Your flying wings may smite, but they can never spill<br />The cup
+fulfilled of love, from which my lips are wet;<br />My heart has far
+more fire than you have frost to chill,<br />My soul more love than
+you can make my soul forget.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>AN OLD TUNE.<br />GERARD DE NERVAL.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>There is an air for which I would disown<br />Mozart&rsquo;s, Rossini&rsquo;s,
+Weber&rsquo;s melodies, -<br />A sweet sad air that languishes and sighs,<br />And
+keeps its secret charm for me alone.</p>
+<p>Whene&rsquo;er I hear that music vague and old,<br />Two hundred
+years are mist that rolls away;<br />The thirteenth Louis reigns, and
+I behold<br />A green land golden in the dying day.</p>
+<p>An old red castle, strong with stony towers,<br />The windows gay
+with many coloured glass;<br />Wide plains, and rivers flowing among
+flowers,<br />That bathe the castle basement as they pass.</p>
+<p>In antique weed, with dark eyes and gold hair,<br />A lady looks
+forth from her window high;<br />It may be that I knew and found her
+fair,<br />In some forgotten life, long time gone by.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>JUANA.<br />ALFRED DE MUSSET.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Again I see you, ah my queen,<br />Of all my old loves that have
+been,<br />The first love, and the tenderest;<br />Do you remember or
+forget -<br />Ah me, for I remember yet -<br />How the last summer days
+were blest?</p>
+<p>Ah lady, when we think of this,<br />The foolish hours of youth and
+bliss,<br />How fleet, how sweet, how hard to hold!<br />How old we
+are, ere spring be green!<br />You touch the limit of eighteen<br />And
+I am twenty winters old.</p>
+<p>My rose, that mid the red roses,<br />Was brightest, ah, how pale
+she is!<br />Yet keeps the beauty of her prime;<br />Child, never Spanish
+lady&rsquo;s face<br />Was lovely with so wild a grace;<br />Remember
+the dead summer time.</p>
+<p>Think of our loves, our feuds of old,<br />And how you gave your
+chain of gold<br />To me for a peace offering;<br />And how all night
+I lay awake<br />To touch and kiss it for your sake, -<br />To touch
+and kiss the lifeless thing.</p>
+<p>Lady, beware, for all we say,<br />This Love shall live another day,<br />Awakened
+from his deathly sleep;<br />The heart that once has been your shrine<br />For
+other loves is too divine;<br />A home, my dear, too wide and deep.</p>
+<p>What did I say - why do I dream?<br />Why should I struggle with
+the stream<br />Whose waves return not any day?<br />Close heart, and
+eyes, and arms from me;<br />Farewell, farewell! so must it be,<br />So
+runs, so runs, the world away,</p>
+<p>The season bears upon its wing<br />The swallows and the songs of
+spring,<br />And days that were, and days that flit;<br />The loved
+lost hours are far away;<br />And hope and fame are scattered spray<br />For
+me, that gave you love a day<br />For you that not remember it.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>SPRING IN THE STUDENT&rsquo;S QUARTER.<br />HENRI MURGER.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Winter is passing, and the bells<br />For ever with their silver
+lay<br />Murmur a melody that tells<br />Of April and of Easter day.<br />High
+in sweet air the light vane sets,<br />The weathercocks all southward
+twirl;<br />A sou will buy her violets<br />And make Nini a happy girl.</p>
+<p>The winter to the poor was sore,<br />Counting the weary winter days,<br />Watching
+his little fire-wood store,<br />The bitter snow-flakes fell always;<br />And
+now his last log dimly gleamed,<br />Lighting the room with feeble glare,<br />Half
+cinder and half smoke it seemed<br />That the wind wafted into air.</p>
+<p>Pilgrims from ocean and far isles<br />See where the east is reddening,<br />The
+flocks that fly a thousand miles<br />From sunsetting to sunsetting;<br />Look
+up, look out, behold the swallows,<br />The throats that twitter, the
+wings that beat;<br />And on their song the summer follows,<br />And
+in the summer life is sweet.</p>
+<p>* * * * * *</p>
+<p>With the green tender buds that know<br />The shoot and sap of lusty
+spring<br />My neighbour of a year ago<br />Her casement, see, is opening;<br />Through
+all the bitter months that were,<br />Forth from her nest she dared
+not flee,<br />She was a study for Boucher,<br />She now might sit to
+Gavarni.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>OLD LOVES.<br />HENRI MURGER.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Louise, have you forgotten yet<br />The corner of the flowery land,<br />The
+ancient garden where we met,<br />My hand that trembled in your hand?<br />Our
+lips found words scarce sweet enough,<br />As low beneath the willow-trees<br />We
+sat; have you forgotten, love?<br />Do you remember, love Louise?</p>
+<p>Marie, have you forgotten yet<br />The loving barter that we made?<br />The
+rings we changed, the suns that set,<br />The woods fulfilled with sun
+and shade?<br />The fountains that were musical<br />By many an ancient
+trysting tree -<br />Marie, have you forgotten all?<br />Do you remember,
+love Marie?</p>
+<p>Christine, do you remember yet<br />Your room with scents and roses
+gay?<br />My garret - near the sky &rsquo;twas set -<br />The April
+hours, the nights of May?<br />The clear calm nights - the stars above<br />That
+whispered they were fairest seen<br />Through no cloud-veil?&nbsp; Remember,
+love!<br />Do you remember, love Christine?</p>
+<p>Louise is dead, and, well-a-day!<br />Marie a sadder path has ta&rsquo;en;<br />And
+pale Christine has passed away<br />In southern suns to bloom again.<br />Alas!
+for one and all of us -<br />Marie, Louise, Christine forget;<br />Our
+bower of love is ruinous,<br />And I alone remember yet.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>MUSETTE.<br />HENRI MURGER.&nbsp; 1850</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Yesterday, watching the swallows&rsquo; flight<br />That bring the
+spring and the season fair,<br />A moment I thought of the beauty bright<br />Who
+loved me, when she had time to spare;<br />And dreamily, dreamily all
+the day,<br />I mused on the calendar of the year,<br />The year so
+near and so far away,<br />When you were lief, and when I was dear.</p>
+<p>Your memory has not had time to pass;<br />My youth has days of its
+lifetime yet;<br />If you only knocked at the door, alas,<br />My heart
+would open the door, Musette!<br />Still at your name must my sad heart
+beat;<br />Ah Muse, ah maiden of faithlessness!<br />Return for a moment,
+and deign to eat<br />The bread that pleasure was wont to bless.</p>
+<p>The tables and curtains, the chairs and all,<br />Friends of our
+pleasure that looked on our pain,<br />Are glad with the gladness of
+festival,<br />Hoping to see you at home again;<br />Come, let the days
+of their mourning pass,<br />The silent friends that are sad for you
+yet;<br />The little sofa, the great wine glass -<br />For know you
+had often my share, Musette.</p>
+<p>Come, you shall wear the raiment white<br />You wore of old, when
+the world was gay,<br />We will wander in woods of the heart&rsquo;s
+delight<br />The whole of the Sunday holiday.<br />Come, we will sit
+by the wayside inn,<br />Come, and your song will gain force to fly,<br />Dipping
+its wing in the clear and thin<br />Wine, as of old, ere it scale the
+sky.</p>
+<p>Musette, who had scarcely forgotten withal<br />One beautiful dawn
+of the new year&rsquo;s best,<br />Returned at the end of the carnival,<br />A
+flown bird, to a forsaken nest.<br />Ah faithless and fair!&nbsp; I
+embrace her yet,<br />With no heart-beat, and with never a sigh;<br />And
+Musette, no longer the old Musette,<br />Declares that I am no longer
+I.</p>
+<p>Farewell, my dear that was once so dear,<br />Dead with the death
+of our latest love;<br />Our youth is laid in its sepulchre,<br />The
+calendar stands for a stone above.<br />&rsquo;Tis only in searching
+the dust of the days,<br />The ashes of all old memories,<br />That
+we find the key of the woodland ways<br />That lead to the place of
+our paradise.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE THREE CAPTAINS.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>All beneath the white-rose tree<br />Walks a lady fair to see,<br />She
+is as white as the snows,<br />She is as fair as the day:<br />From
+her father&rsquo;s garden close<br />Three knights have ta&rsquo;en
+her away.</p>
+<p>He has ta&rsquo;en her by the hand,<br />The youngest of the three
+-<br />&lsquo;Mount and ride, my bonnie bride,<br />On my white horse
+with me.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>And ever they rode, and better rode,<br />Till they came to Senlis
+town,<br />The hostess she looked hard at them<br />As they were lighting
+down.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;And are ye here by force,&rsquo; she said,<br />&lsquo;Or
+are ye here for play?<br />From out my father&rsquo;s garden close<br />Three
+knights me stole away.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;And fain would I win back,&rsquo; she said,<br />&lsquo;The
+weary way I come;<br />And fain would see my father dear,<br />And fain
+go maiden home.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Oh, weep not, lady fair,&rsquo; said she,<br />&lsquo;You
+shall win back,&rsquo; she said,<br />&lsquo;For you shall take this
+draught from me<br />Will make you lie for dead.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Come in and sup, fair lady,&rsquo; they said,<br />&lsquo;Come
+busk ye and be bright;<br />It is with three bold captains<br />That
+ye must be this night.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>When they had eaten well and drunk,<br />She fell down like one slain:<br />&lsquo;Now,
+out and alas! for my bonny may<br />Shall live no more again.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Within her father&rsquo;s garden stead<br />There are three
+white lilies;<br />With her body to the lily bed,<br />With her soul
+to Paradise.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>They bore her to her father&rsquo;s house,<br />They bore her all
+the three,<br />They laid her in her father&rsquo;s close,<br />Beneath
+the white-rose tree.</p>
+<p>She had not lain a day, a day,<br />A day but barely three,<br />When
+the may awakes, &lsquo;Oh, open, father,<br />Oh, open the door for
+me.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;&rsquo;Tis I have lain for dead, father,<br />Have lain the
+long days three,<br />That I might maiden come again<br />To my mother
+and to thee.&rsquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE BRIDGE OF DEATH.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&lsquo;The dance is on the Bridge of Death<br />And who will dance
+with me?&rsquo;<br />&lsquo;There&rsquo;s never a man of living men<br />Will
+dare to dance with thee.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>Now Margaret&rsquo;s gone within her bower<br />Put ashes in her
+hair,<br />And sackcloth on her bonny breast,<br />And on her shoulders
+bare.</p>
+<p>There came a knock to her bower door,<br />And blithe she let him
+in;<br />It was her brother from the wars,<br />The dearest of her kin.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Set gold within your hair, Margaret,<br />Set gold within
+your hair,<br />And gold upon your girdle band,<br />And on your breast
+so fair.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;For we are bidden to dance to-night,<br />We may not bide
+away;<br />This one good night, this one fair night,<br />Before the
+red new day.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Nay, no gold for my head brother,<br />Nay, no gold for my
+hair;<br />It is the ashes and dust of earth<br />That you and I must
+wear.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;No gold work for my girdle band,<br />No gold work on my feet;<br />But
+ashes of the fire, my love,<br />But dust that the serpents eat.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>* * * * * *</p>
+<p>They danced across the bridge of Death,<br />Above the black water,<br />And
+the marriage-bell was tolled in hell<br />For the souls of him and her.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>LE P&Egrave;RE S&Eacute;V&Egrave;RE.<br />KING LOUIS&rsquo; DAUGHTER.<br />BALLAD
+OF THE ISLE OF FRANCE.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>King Louis on his bridge is he,<br />He holds his daughter on his
+knee.</p>
+<p>She asks a husband at his hand<br />That is not worth a rood of land.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Give up your lover speedily,<br />Or you within the tower
+must lie.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Although I must the prison dree,<br />I will not change my
+love for thee.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;I will not change my lover fair<br />Not for the mother that
+me bare.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;I will not change my true lover<br />For friends, or for my
+father dear.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Now where are all my pages keen,<br />And where are all my
+serving men?</p>
+<p>&lsquo;My daughter must lie in the tower alway,<br />Where she shall
+never see the day.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>* * * * * *</p>
+<p>Seven long years are past and gone<br />And there has seen her never
+one.</p>
+<p>At ending of the seventh year<br />Her father goes to visit her.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;My child, my child, how may you be?&rsquo;<br />&lsquo;O father,
+it fares ill with me.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;My feet are wasted in the mould,<br />The worms they gnaw
+my side so cold.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;My child, change your love speedily<br />Or you must still
+in prison lie.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;&rsquo;Tis better far the cold to dree<br />Than give my true
+love up for thee.&rsquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE MILK WHITE DOE.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>It was a mother and a maid<br />That walked the woods among,<br />And
+still the maid went slow and sad,<br />And still the mother sung.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;What ails you, daughter Margaret?<br />Why go you pale and
+wan?<br />Is it for a cast of bitter love,<br />Or for a false leman?&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;It is not for a false lover<br />That I go sad to see;<br />But
+it is for a weary life<br />Beneath the greenwood tree.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;For ever in the good daylight<br />A maiden may I go,<br />But
+always on the ninth midnight<br />I change to a milk white doe.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;They hunt me through the green forest<br />With hounds and
+hunting men;<br />And ever it is my fair brother<br />That is so fierce
+and keen.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>* * * * *</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Good-morrow, mother.&rsquo;&nbsp; &lsquo;Good-morrow, son;<br />Where
+are your hounds so good?&rsquo;<br />Oh, they are hunting a white doe<br />Within
+the glad greenwood.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;And three times have they hunted her,<br />And thrice she&rsquo;s
+won away;<br />The fourth time that they follow her<br />That white
+doe they shall slay.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>* * * * * *</p>
+<p>Then out and spoke the forester,<br />As he came from the wood,<br />&lsquo;Now
+never saw I maid&rsquo;s gold hair<br />Among the wild deer&rsquo;s
+blood.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;And I have hunted the wild deer<br />In east lands and in
+west;<br />And never saw I white doe yet<br />That had a maiden&rsquo;s
+breast.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>Then up and spake her fair brother,<br />Between the wine and bread,<br />&lsquo;Behold,
+I had but one sister,<br />And I have been her dead.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;But ye must bury my sweet sister<br />With a stone at her
+foot and her head,<br />And ye must cover her fair body<br />With the
+white roses and red.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>And I must out to the greenwood,<br />The roof shall never shelter
+me;<br />And I shall lie for seven long years<br />On the grass below
+the hawthorn tree.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>A LADY OF HIGH DEGREE.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[I be pareld most of prise,<br />I ride after the wild fee.]</p>
+<p>Will ye that I should sing<br />Of the love of a goodly thing,<br />Was
+no vilein&rsquo;s may?<br />&rsquo;Tis sung of a knight so free,<br />Under
+the olive tree,<br />Singing this lay.</p>
+<p>Her weed was of samite fine,<br />Her mantle of white ermine,<br />Green
+silk her hose;<br />Her shoon with silver gay,<br />Her sandals flowers
+of May,<br />Laced small and close.</p>
+<p>Her belt was of fresh spring buds,<br />Set with gold clasps and
+studs,<br />Fine linen her shift;<br />Her purse it was of love,<br />Her
+chain was the flower thereof,<br />And Love&rsquo;s gift.</p>
+<p>Upon a mule she rode,<br />The selle was of brent gold,<br />The
+bits of silver made;<br />Three red rose trees there were<br />That
+overshadowed her,<br />For a sun shade.</p>
+<p>She riding on a day,<br />Knights met her by the way,<br />They did
+her grace;<br />&lsquo;Fair lady, whence be ye?&rsquo;<br />&lsquo;France
+it is my countrie,<br />I come of a high race.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;My sire is the nightingale,<br />That sings, making his wail,<br />In
+the wild wood, clear;<br />The mermaid is mother to me,<br />That sings
+in the salt sea,<br />In the ocean mere.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Ye come of a right good race,<br />And are born of a high
+place,<br />And of high degree;<br />Would to God that ye were<br />Given
+unto me, being fair,<br />My lady and love to be.&rsquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>LOST FOR A ROSE&rsquo;S SAKE.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>I laved my hands,<br />BY the water side;<br />With the willow leaves<br />My
+hands I dried.</p>
+<p>The nightingale sung<br />On the bough of the tree;<br />Sing, sweet
+nightingale,<br />It is well with thee.</p>
+<p>Thou hast heart&rsquo;s delight,<br />I have sad heart&rsquo;s sorrow<br />For
+a false false maid<br />That will wed to-morrow.</p>
+<p>&rsquo;Tis all for a rose,<br />That I gave her not,<br />And I would
+that it grew<br />In the garden plot.</p>
+<p>And I would the rose-tree<br />Were still to set,<br />That my love
+Marie<br />Might love me yet.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>BALLADS OF MODERN GREECE.</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE BRIGAND&rsquo;S GRAVE.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>The moon came up above the hill,<br />The sun went down the sea;<br />Go,
+maids, and fetch the well-water,<br />But, lad, come here to me.</p>
+<p>Gird on my jack and my old sword,<br />For I have never a son;<br />And
+you must be the chief of all<br />When I am dead and gone.</p>
+<p>But you must take my old broad sword,<br />And cut the green bough
+of the tree,<br />And strew the green boughs on the ground<br />To make
+a soft death bed for me.</p>
+<p>And you must bring the holy priest<br />That I may sained be;<br />For
+I have lived a roving life<br />Fifty years under the greenwood tree.</p>
+<p>And you shall make a grave for me,<br />And make it deep and wide;<br />That
+I may turn about and dream<br />With my old gun by my side.</p>
+<p>And leave a window to the east,<br />And the swallows will bring
+the spring;<br />And all the merry month of May<br />The nightingales
+will sing.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE SUDDEN BRIDAL.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>It was a maid lay sick of love,<br />All for a leman fair;<br />And
+it was three of her bower-maidens<br />That came to comfort her.</p>
+<p>The first she bore a blossomed branch,<br />The second an apple brown,<br />The
+third she had a silk kerchief,<br />And still her tears ran down.</p>
+<p>The first she mocked, the second she laughed -<br />&lsquo;We have
+loved lemans fair,<br />We made our hearts like the iron stone<br />Had
+little teen or care.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;If ye have loved &rsquo;twas a false false love,<br />And
+an ill leman was he;<br />But her true love had angel&rsquo;s eyes,<br />And
+as fair was his sweet body.</p>
+<p>And I will gird my green kirtle,<br />And braid my yellow hair,<br />And
+I will over the high hills<br />And bring her love to her.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Nay, if you braid your yellow hair,<br />You&rsquo;ll twine
+my love from me.&rsquo;<br />&lsquo;Now nay, now nay, my lady good,<br />That
+ever this should be!&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;When you have crossed the western hills<br />My true love
+you shall meet,<br />With a green flag blowing over him,<br />And green
+grass at his feet.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>She has crossed over the high hills,<br />And the low hills between,<br />And
+she has found the may&rsquo;s leman<br />Beneath a flag of green.</p>
+<p>&rsquo;Twas four and twenty ladies fair<br />Were sitting on the
+grass;<br />But he has turned and looked on her,<br />And will not let
+her pass.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;You&rsquo;ve maidens here, and maidens there,<br />And loves
+through all the land;<br />But what have you made of the lady fair<br />You
+gave the rose-garland?&rsquo;</p>
+<p>She was so harsh and cold of love,<br />To me gave little grace;<br />She
+wept if I but touched her hand,<br />Or kissed her bonny face.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Yea, crows shall build in the eagle&rsquo;s nest,<br />The
+hawk the dove shall wed,<br />Before my old true love and I<br />Meet
+in one wedding bed.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>When she had heard his bitter rede<br />That was his old true love,<br />She
+sat and wept within her bower,<br />And moaned even as a dove.</p>
+<p>She rose up from her window seat,<br />And she looked out to see;<br />Her
+love came riding up the street<br />With a goodly company.</p>
+<p>He was clad on with Venice gold,<br />Wrought upon cramoisie,<br />His
+yellow hair shone like the sun<br />About his fair body.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Now shall I call him blossomed branch<br />That has ill knots
+therein?<br />Or shall I call him basil plant,<br />That comes of an
+evil kin?</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Oh, I shall give him goodly names,<br />My sword of damask
+fine;<br />My silver flower, my bright-winged bird,<br />Where go you,
+lover mine?&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;I go to marry my new bride,<br />That I bring o&rsquo;er the
+down;<br />And you shall be her bridal maid,<br />And hold her bridal
+crown.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&lsquo;When you come to the bride chamber<br />Where your fair maiden
+is,<br />You&rsquo;ll tell her I was fair of face,<br />But never tell
+her this,</p>
+<p>&lsquo;That still my lips were lips of love,<br />My kiss love&rsquo;s
+spring-water,<br />That my love was a running spring,<br />My breast
+a garden fair.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;And you have kissed the lips of love<br />And drained the
+well-water,<br />And you have spoiled the running spring,<br />And robbed
+the fruits so fair.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>* * * * * *</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Now he that will may scatter nuts,<br />And he may wed that
+will;<br />But she that was my old true love<br />Shall be my true love
+still.&rsquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>GREEK FOLK SONGS.</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>IANNOULA.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>All the maidens were merry and wed<br />All to lovers so fair to
+see;<br />The lover I took to my bridal bed<br />He is not long for
+love and me.</p>
+<p>I spoke to him and he noting said,<br />I gave him bread of the wheat
+so fine,<br />He did not eat of the bridal bread,<br />He did not drink
+of the bridal wine.</p>
+<p>I made him a bed was soft and deep,<br />I made him a bed to sleep
+with me;<br />&lsquo;Look on me once before you sleep,<br />And look
+on the flower of my fair body.</p>
+<p>&lsquo;Flowers of April, and fresh May-dew,<br />Dew of April and
+buds of May;<br />Two white blossoms that bud for you,<br />Buds that
+blossom before the day.&rsquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE TELL-TALES.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>All in the mirk midnight when I was beside you,<br />Who has seen,
+who has heard, what was said, what was done?<br />&rsquo;Twas the night
+and the light of the stars that espied you,<br />The fall of the moon,
+and the dawning begun.</p>
+<p>&rsquo;Tis a swift star has fallen, a star that discovers<br />To
+the sea what the green sea has told to the oars,<br />And the oars to
+the sailors, and they of us lovers<br />Go singing this song at their
+mistress&rsquo;s doors.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>AVE.</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>TWILIGHT ON TWEED.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Three crests against the saffron sky,<br />Beyond the purple plain,<br />The
+dear remembered melody<br />Of Tweed once more again.</p>
+<p>Wan water from the border hills,<br />Dear voice from the old years,<br />Thy
+distant music lulls and stills,<br />And moves to quiet tears.</p>
+<p>Like a loved ghost thy fabled flood<br />Fleets through the dusky
+land;<br />Where Scott, come home to die, has stood,<br />My feet returning
+stand.</p>
+<p>A mist of memory broods and floats,<br />The border waters flow;<br />The
+air is full of ballad notes,<br />Borne out of long ago.</p>
+<p>Old songs that sung themselves to me,<br />Sweet through a boy&rsquo;s
+day dream,<br />While trout below the blossom&rsquo;d tree<br />Plashed
+in the golden stream.</p>
+<p>* * * * * *</p>
+<p>Twilight, and Tweed, and Eildon Hill,<br />Fair and thrice fair you
+be;<br />You tell me that the voice is still<br />That should have welcomed
+me.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>ONE FLOWER.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[&ldquo;Up there shot a lily red,<br />With a patch of earth from
+the land of the dead,<br />For she was strong in the land of the dead.&rdquo;]</p>
+<p>When autumn suns are soft, and sea winds moan,<br />And golden fruits
+make sweet the golden air,<br />In gardens where the apple blossoms
+were,<br />In these old springs before I walked alone;<br />I pass among
+the pathways overgrown,<br />Of all the former flowers that kissed your
+feet<br />Remains a poppy, pallid from the heat,<br />A wild poppy that
+the wild winds have sown.<br />Alas! the rose forgets your hands of
+rose;<br />The lilies slumber in the lily bed;<br />&rsquo;Tis only
+poppies in the dreamy close,<br />The changeless, windless garden of
+the dead,<br />You tend, with buds soft as your kiss that lies<br />In
+over happy dreams, upon mine eyes.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>METEMPSYCHOSIS.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>I shall not see thee, nay, but I shall know<br />Perchance, thy grey
+eyes in another&rsquo;s eyes,<br />Shall guess thy curls in gracious
+locks that flow<br />On purest brows, yea, and the swift surmise<br />Shall
+follow, and track, and find thee in disguise<br />Of all sad things,
+and fair, where sunsets glow,<br />When through the scent of heather,
+faint and low,<br />The weak wind whispers to the day that dies.</p>
+<p>From all sweet art, and out of all &lsquo;old rhyme,&rsquo;<br />Thine
+eyes and lips are light and song to me;<br />The shadows of the beauty
+of all time,<br />Carven and sung, are only shapes of thee;<br />Alas,
+the shadowy shapes! ah, sweet my dear<br />Shall life or death bring
+all thy being near?</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>LOST IN HADES.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>I dreamed that somewhere in the shadowy place,<br />Grief of farewell
+unspoken was forgot<br />In welcome, and regret remembered not;<br />And
+hopeless prayer accomplished turned to praise<br />On lips that had
+been songless many days;<br />Hope had no more to hope for, and desire<br />And
+dread were overpast, in white attire<br />New born we walked among the
+new world&rsquo;s ways.</p>
+<p>Then from the press of shades a spirit threw<br />Towards me such
+apples as these gardens bear;<br />And turning, I was &lsquo;ware of
+her, and knew<br />And followed her fleet voice and flying hair, -<br />Followed,
+and found her not, and seeking you<br />I found you never, dearest,
+anywhere.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>A STAR IN THE NIGHT.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>The perfect piteous beauty of thy face,<br />Is like a star the dawning
+drives away;<br />Mine eyes may never see in the bright day<br />Thy
+pallid halo, thy supernal grace:<br />But in the night from forth the
+silent place<br />Thou comest, dim in dreams, as doth a stray<br />Star
+of the starry flock that in the grey<br />Is seen, and lost, and seen
+a moment&rsquo;s space.</p>
+<p>And as the earth at night turns to a star,<br />Loved long ago, and
+dearer than the sun,<br />So in the spiritual place afar,<br />At night
+our souls are mingled and made one,<br />And wait till one night fall,
+and one dawn rise,<br />That brings no noon too splendid for your eyes.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>A SUNSET ON YARROW.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>The wind and the day had lived together,<br />They died together,
+and far away<br />Spoke farewell in the sultry weather,<br />Out of
+the sunset, over the heather,<br />The dying wind and the dying day.</p>
+<p>Far in the south, the summer levin<br />Flushed, a flame in the grey
+soft air:<br />We seemed to look on the hills of heaven;<br />You saw
+within, but to me &rsquo;twas given<br />To see your face, as an angel&rsquo;s,
+there.</p>
+<p>Never again, ah surely never<br />Shall we wait and watch, where
+of old we stood,<br />The low good-night of the hill and the river,<br />The
+faint light fade, and the wan stars quiver,<br />Twain grown one in
+the solitude.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>HESPEROTHEN.</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<p>By the example of certain Grecian mariners, who, being safely returned
+from the war about Troy, leave yet again their old lands and gods, seeking
+they know not what, and choosing neither to abide in the fair Phaeacian
+island, nor to dwell and die with the Sirens, at length end miserably
+in a desert country by the sea, is set forth the <i>Vanity of Melancholy</i>.&nbsp;
+And by the land of Phaeacia is to be understood the place of Art and
+of fair Pleasures; and by Circe&rsquo;s Isle, the places of bodily delights,
+whereof men, falling aweary, attain to Eld, and to the darkness of that
+age.&nbsp; Which thing Master Fran&ccedil;oys Rabelais feigned, under
+the similitude of the Isle of the Macraeones.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE SEEKERS FOR PHAEACIA.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>There is a land in the remotest day,<br />Where the soft night is
+born, and sunset dies;<br />The eastern shores see faint tides fade
+away,<br />That wash the lands where laughter, tears, and sighs,<br />Make
+life, - the lands beneath the blue of common skies.</p>
+<p>But in the west is a mysterious sea,<br />(What sails have seen it,
+or what shipmen known?)<br />With coasts enchanted where the Sirens
+be,<br />With islands where a Goddess walks alone,<br />And in the cedar
+trees the magic winds make moan</p>
+<p>Eastward the human cares of house and home,<br />Cities, and ships,
+and unknown Gods, and loves;<br />Westward, strange maidens fairer than
+the foam,<br />And lawless lives of men, and haunted groves,<br />Wherein
+a God may dwell, and where the Dryad roves.</p>
+<p>The Gods are careless of the days and death<br />Of toilsome men,
+beyond the western seas;<br />The Gods are heedless of their painful
+breath,<br />And love them not, for they are not as these;<br />But
+in the golden west they live and lie at ease.</p>
+<p>Yet the Phaeacians well they love, who live<br />At the light&rsquo;s
+limit, passing careless hours,<br />Most like the Gods; and they have
+gifts to give,<br />Even wine, and fountains musical, and flowers,<br />And
+song, and if they will, swift ships, and magic powers.</p>
+<p>It is a quiet midland; in the cool<br />Of twilight comes the God,
+though no man prayed,<br />To watch the maids and young men beautiful<br />Dance,
+and they see him, and are not afraid,<br />For they are near of kin
+to Gods, and undismayed.</p>
+<p>Ah, would the bright red prows might bring us nigh<br />The dreamy
+isles that the Immortals keep!<br />But with a mist they hide them wondrously,<br />And
+far the path and dim to where they sleep, -<br />The loved, the shadowy
+lands along the shadowy deep.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>A SONG OF PHAEACIA.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>The languid sunset, mother of roses,<br />Lingers, a light on the
+magic seas,<br />The wide fire flames, as a flower uncloses,<br />Heavy
+with odour, and loose to the breeze.</p>
+<p>The red rose clouds, without law or leader,<br />Gather and float
+in the airy plain;<br />The nightingale sings to the dewy cedar,<br />The
+cedar scatters his scent to the main.</p>
+<p>The strange flowers&rsquo; perfume turns to singing,<br />Heard afar
+over moonlit seas;<br />The Siren&rsquo;s song, grown faint in winging,<br />Falls
+in scent on the cedar trees.</p>
+<p>As waifs blown out of the sunset, flying,<br />Purple, and rosy,
+and grey, the birds<br />Brighten the air with their wings; their crying<br />Wakens
+a moment the weary herds.</p>
+<p>Butterflies flit from the fairy garden,<br />Living blossoms of flying
+flowers;<br />Never the nights with winter harden,<br />Nor moons wax
+keen in this land of ours.</p>
+<p>Great fruits, fragrant, green and golden,<br />Gleam in the green,
+and droop and fall;<br />Blossom, and bud, and flower unfolden,<br />Swing,
+and cling to the garden wall.</p>
+<p>Deep in the woods as twilight darkens,<br />Glades are red with the
+scented fire;<br />Far in the dells the white maid hearkens,<br />Song
+and sigh of the heart&rsquo;s desire.</p>
+<p>Ah, and as moonlight fades in morning,<br />Maiden&rsquo;s song in
+the matin grey,<br />Faints as the first bird&rsquo;s note, a warning,<br />Wakes
+and wails to the new-born day.</p>
+<p>The waking song and the dying measure<br />Meet, and the waxing and
+waning light<br />Meet, and faint with the hours of pleasure,<br />The
+rose of the sea and the sky is white.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE DEPARTURE FROM PHAEACIA.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<p>THE PHAEACIANS.</p>
+<p>Why from the dreamy meadows,<br />More fair than any dream,<br />Why
+will you seek the shadows<br />Beyond the ocean stream?</p>
+<p>Through straits of storm and peril,<br />Through firths unsailed
+before,<br />Why make you for the sterile,<br />The dark Kimmerian shore?</p>
+<p>There no bright streams are flowing,<br />There day and night are
+one,<br />No harvest time, no sowing,<br />No sight of any sun;</p>
+<p>No sound of song or tabor,<br />No dance shall greet you there;<br />No
+noise of mortal labour,<br />Breaks on the blind chill air.</p>
+<p>Are ours not happy places,<br />Where Gods with mortals trod?<br />Saw
+not our sires the faces<br />Of many a present God?</p>
+<p>THE SEEKERS.</p>
+<p>Nay, now no God comes hither,<br />In shape that men may see;<br />They
+fare we know not whither,<br />We know not what they be.</p>
+<p>Yea, though the sunset lingers<br />Far in your fairy glades,<br />Though
+yours the sweetest singers,<br />Though yours the kindest maids,</p>
+<p>Yet here be the true shadows,<br />Here in the doubtful light;<br />Amid
+the dreamy meadows<br />No shadow haunts the night.</p>
+<p>We seek a city splendid,<br />With light beyond the sun;<br />Or
+lands where dreams are ended,<br />And works and days are done.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>A BALLAD OF DEPARTURE. <a name="citation2"></a><a href="#footnote2">{2}</a></h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Fair white bird, what song art thou singing<br />In wintry weather
+of lands o&rsquo;er sea?<br />Dear white bird, what way art thou winging,<br />Where
+no grass grows, and no green tree?</p>
+<p>I looked at the far off fields and grey,<br />There grew no tree
+but the cypress tree,<br />That bears sad fruits with the flowers of
+May,<br />And whoso looks on it, woe is he.</p>
+<p>And whoso eats of the fruit thereof<br />Has no more sorrow, and
+no more love;<br />And who sets the same in his garden stead,<br />In
+a little space he is waste and dead.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THEY HEAR THE SIRENS FOR THE SECOND TIME.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>The weary sails a moment slept,<br />The oars were silent for a space,<br />As
+past Hesperian shores we swept,<br />That were as a remembered face<br />Seen
+after lapse of hopeless years,<br />In Hades, when the shadows meet,<br />Dim
+through the mist of many tears,<br />And strange, and though a shadow,
+sweet.</p>
+<p>So seemed the half-remembered shore,<br />That slumbered, mirrored
+in the blue,<br />With havens where we touched of yore,<br />And ports
+that over well we knew.<br />Then broke the calm before a breeze<br />That
+sought the secret of the west;<br />And listless all we swept the seas<br />Towards
+the Islands of the Blest.</p>
+<p>Beside a golden sanded bay<br />We saw the Sirens, very fair<br />The
+flowery hill whereon they lay,<br />The flowers set upon their hair.<br />Their
+old sweet song came down the wind,<br />Remembered music waxing strong,<br />Ah
+now no need of cords to bind,<br />No need had we of Orphic song.</p>
+<p>It once had seemed a little thing,<br />To lay our lives down at
+their feet,<br />That dying we might hear them sing,<br />And dying
+see their faces sweet;<br />But now, we glanced, and passing by,<br />No
+care had we to tarry long;<br />Faint hope, and rest, and memory<br />Were
+more than any Siren&rsquo;s song.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>CIRCE&rsquo;S ISLE REVISITED.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Ah, Circe, Circe! in the wood we cried;<br />Ah, Circe, Circe! but
+no voice replied;<br />No voice from bowers o&rsquo;ergrown and ruinous<br />As
+fallen rocks upon the mountain side.</p>
+<p>There was no sound of singing in the air;<br />Failed or fled the
+maidens that were fair,<br />No more for sorrow or joy were seen of
+us,<br />No light of laughing eyes, or floating hair.</p>
+<p>The perfume, and the music, and the flame<br />Had passed away; the
+memory of shame<br />Alone abode, and stings of faint desire,<br />And
+pulses of vague quiet went and came.</p>
+<p>Ah, Circe! in thy sad changed fairy place,<br />Our dead Youth came
+and looked on us a space,<br />With drooping wings, and eyes of faded
+fire,<br />And wasted hair about a weary face.</p>
+<p>Why had we ever sought the magic isle<br />That seemed so happy in
+the days erewhile?<br />Why did we ever leave it, where we met<br />A
+world of happy wonders in one smile?</p>
+<p>Back to the westward and the waning light<br />We turned, we fled;
+the solitude of night<br />Was better than the infinite regret,<br />In
+fallen places of our dead delight.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE LIMIT OF LANDS.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Between the circling ocean sea<br />And the poplars of Persephone<br />There
+lies a strip of barren sand,<br />Flecked with the sea&rsquo;s last
+spray, and strown<br />With waste leaves of the poplars, blown<br />From
+gardens of the shadow land.</p>
+<p>With altars of old sacrifice<br />The shore is set, in mournful wise<br />The
+mists upon the ocean brood;<br />Between the water and the air<br />The
+clouds are born that float and fare<br />Between the water and the wood.</p>
+<p>Upon the grey sea never sail<br />Of mortals passed within our hail,<br />Where
+the last weak waves faint and flow;<br />We heard within the poplar
+pale<br />The murmur of a doubtful wail<br />Of voices loved so long
+ago.</p>
+<p>We scarce had care to die or live,<br />We had no honey cake to give,<br />No
+wine of sacrifice to shed;<br />There lies no new path over sea,<br />And
+now we know how faint they be,<br />The feasts and voices of the Dead.</p>
+<p>Ah, flowers and dance! ah, sun and snow!<br />Glad life, sad life
+we did forego<br />To dream of quietness and rest;<br />Ah, would the
+fleet sweet roses here<br />Poured light and perfume through the drear<br />Pale
+year, and wan land of the west.</p>
+<p>Sad youth, that let the spring go by<br />Because the spring is swift
+to fly,<br />Sad youth, that feared to mourn or love,<br />Behold how
+sadder far is this,<br />To know that rest is nowise bliss,<br />And
+darkness is the end thereof.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>VERSES ON PICTURES.</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines4"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>COLINETTE.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[FOR A SKETCH BY MR. G. LESLIE, A.R.A.]</p>
+<p>France your country, as we know;<br />Room enough for guessing yet,<br />What
+lips now or long ago,<br />Kissed and named you - Colinette.<br />In
+what fields from sea to sea,<br />By what stream your home was set,<br />Loire
+or Seine was glad of thee,<br />Marne or Rhone, O Colinette?</p>
+<p>Did you stand with &lsquo;maidens ten,<br />Fairer maids were never
+seen,&rsquo;<br />When the young king and his men<br />Passed among
+the orchards green?<br />Nay, old ballads have a note<br />Mournful,
+we would fain forget;<br />No such sad old air should float<br />Round
+your young brows, Colinette.</p>
+<p>Say, did Ronsard sing to you,<br />Shepherdess, to lull his pain,<br />When
+the court went wandering through<br />Rose pleasances of Touraine?<br />Ronsard
+and his famous Rose<br />Long are dust the breezes fret;<br />You, within
+the garden close,<br />You are blooming, Colinette.</p>
+<p>Have I seen you proud and gay,<br />With a patched and perfumed beau,<br />Dancing
+through the summer day,<br />Misty summer of Watteau?<br />Nay, so sweet
+a maid as you<br />Never walked a minuet<br />With the splendid courtly
+crew;<br />Nay, forgive me, Colinette.</p>
+<p>Not from Greuze&rsquo;s canvasses<br />Do you cast a glance, a smile;<br />You
+are not as one of these,<br />Yours is beauty without guile.<br />Round
+your maiden brows and hair<br />Maidenhood and Childhood met<br />Crown
+and kiss you, sweet and fair,<br />New art&rsquo;s blossom, Colinette.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>A SUNSET OF WATTEAU.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>LUI.</p>
+<p>The silk sail fills, the soft winds wake,<br />Arise and tempt the
+seas;<br />Our ocean is the Palace lake,<br />Our waves the ripples
+that we make<br />Among the mirrored trees.</p>
+<p>ELLE.</p>
+<p>Nay, sweet the shore, and sweet the song,<br />And dear the languid
+dream;<br />The music mingled all day long<br />With paces of the dancing
+throng,<br />And murmur of the stream.</p>
+<p>An hour ago, an hour ago,<br />We rested in the shade;<br />And now,
+why should we seek to know<br />What way the wilful waters flow?<br />There
+is no fairer glade.</p>
+<p>LUI.</p>
+<p>Nay, pleasure flits, and we must sail,<br />And seek him everywhere;<br />Perchance
+in sunset&rsquo;s golden pale<br />He listens to the nightingale,<br />Amid
+the perfumed air.</p>
+<p>Come, he has fled; you are not you,<br />And I no more am I;<br />Delight
+is changeful as the hue<br />Of heaven, that is no longer blue<br />In
+yonder sunset sky.</p>
+<p>ELLE.</p>
+<p>Nay, if we seek we shall not find,<br />If we knock none openeth;<br />Nay,
+see, the sunset fades behind<br />The mountains, and the cold night
+wind<br />Blows from the house of Death.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>A NATIVITY OF SANDRO BOTTICELLI.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>&lsquo;Wrought in the troublous times of Italy<br />By Sandro Botticelli,&rsquo;
+when for fear<br />Of that last judgment, and last day drawn near<br />To
+end all labour and all revelry,<br />He worked and prayed in silence;
+this is she<br />That by the holy cradle sees the bier,<br />And in
+spice gifts the hyssop on the spear,<br />And out of Bethlehem, Gethsemane.</p>
+<p>Between the gold sky and the green o&rsquo;er head,<br />The twelve
+great shining angels, garlanded,<br />Marvel upon this face, wherein
+combine<br />The mother&rsquo;s love that shone on all of us,<br />And
+maiden rapture that makes luminous<br />The brows of Margaret and Catherine.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>SONGS AND SONNETS</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines4"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>TWO HOMES.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[To a young English lady in the Hospital of the Wounded at Carlsruhe.&nbsp;
+Sept. 1870.]</p>
+<p>What does the dim gaze of the dying find<br />To waken dream or memory,
+seeing you?<br />In your sweet eyes what other eyes are blue,<br />And
+in your hair what gold hair on the wind<br />Floats of the days gone
+almost out of mind?<br />In deep green valleys of the Fatherland<br />He
+may remember girls with locks like thine;<br />May dream how, where
+the waiting angels stand,<br />Some lost love&rsquo;s eyes are dim before
+they shine<br />With welcome: - so past homes, or homes to be,<br />He
+sees a moment, ere, a moment blind,<br />He crosses Death&rsquo;s inhospitable
+sea,<br />And with brief passage of those barren lands<br />Comes to
+the home that is not made with hands.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>SUMMER&rsquo;S ENDING.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>The flags below the shadowy fern<br />Shine like spears between sun
+and sea,<br />The tide and the summer begin to turn,<br />And ah, for
+hearts, for hearts that yearn,<br />For fires of autumn that catch and
+burn,<br />For love gone out between thee and me.</p>
+<p>The wind is up, and the weather broken,<br />Blue seas, blue eyes,
+are grieved and grey,<br />Listen, the word that the wind has spoken,<br />Listen,
+the sound of the sea, - a token<br />That summer&rsquo;s over, and troths
+are broken, -<br />That loves depart as the hours decay.</p>
+<p>A love has passed to the loves passed over,<br />A month has fled
+to the months gone by;<br />And none may follow, and none recover<br />July
+and June, and never a lover<br />May stay the wings of the Loves that
+hover,<br />As fleet as the light in a sunset sky.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>NIGHTINGALE WEATHER.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[&lsquo;Serai-je nonnette, oui ou non?<br />Serai-je nonnette? je
+crois que non.<br />Derri&egrave;re chez mon p&egrave;re<br />Il est
+un bois taillis,<br />Le rossignol y chante<br />Et le jour et le nuit.<br />Il
+chaste pour les filles<br />Qui n&rsquo;ont pas d&rsquo;ami;<br />Il
+ne chante pas pour moi,<br />J&rsquo;en ai un, Dieu merci.&rsquo; -
+OLD FRENCH.]</p>
+<p>I&rsquo;LL never be a nun, I trow,<br />While apple bloom is white
+as snow,<br />But far more fair to see;<br />I&rsquo;ll never wear nun&rsquo;s
+black and white<br />While nightingales make sweet the night<br />Within
+the apple tree.</p>
+<p>Ah, listen! &rsquo;tis the nightingale,<br />And in the wood he makes
+his wail,<br />Within the apple tree;<br />He singeth of the sore distress<br />Of
+many ladies loverless;<br />Thank God, no song for me.</p>
+<p>For when the broad May moon is low,<br />A gold fruit seen where
+blossoms blow<br />In the boughs of the apple tree,<br />A step I know
+is at the gate;<br />Ah love, but it is long to wait<br />Until night&rsquo;s
+noon bring thee!</p>
+<p>Between lark&rsquo;s song and nightingale&rsquo;s<br />A silent space,
+while dawning pales,<br />The birds leave still and free<br />For words
+and kisses musical,<br />For silence and for sighs that fall<br />In
+the dawn, &lsquo;twixt him and me.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>LOVE AND WISDOM.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[&lsquo;When last we gathered roses in the garden<br />I found my
+wits, but truly you lost yours.&rsquo;<br />THE BROKEN HEART.]</p>
+<p>July, and June brought flowers and love<br />To you, but I would
+none thereof,<br />Whose heart kept all through summer time<br />A flower
+of frost and winter rime.<br />Yours was true wisdom - was it not? -<br />Even
+love; but I had clean forgot,<br />Till seasons of the falling leaf,<br />All
+loves, but one that turned to grief.<br />At length at touch of autumn
+tide,<br />When roses fell, and summer died,<br />All in a dawning deep
+with dew,<br />Love flew to me, love fled from you.</p>
+<p>The roses drooped their weary heads,<br />I spoke among the garden
+beds;<br />You would not hear, you could not know,<br />Summer and love
+seemed long ago,<br />As far, as faint, as dim a dream,<br />As to the
+dead this world may seem.<br />Ah sweet, in winter&rsquo;s miseries,<br />Perchance
+you may remember this,<br />How wisdom was not justified<br />In summer
+time or autumn-tide,<br />Though for this once below the sun,<br />Wisdom
+and love were made at one;<br />But love was bitter-bought enough,<br />And
+wisdom light of wing as love.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>GOOD-BYE.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Kiss me, and say good-bye;<br />Good-bye, there is no word to say
+but this,<br />Nor any lips left for my lips to kiss,<br />Nor any tears
+to shed, when these tears dry;<br />Kiss me, and say, good-bye.</p>
+<p>Farewell, be glad, forget;<br />There is no need to say &lsquo;forget,&rsquo;
+I know,<br />For youth is youth, and time will have it so,<br />And
+though your lips are pale, and your eyes wet,<br />Farewell, you must
+forget.</p>
+<p>You shall bring home your sheaves,<br />Many, and heavy, and with
+blossoms twined<br />Of memories that go not out of mind;<br />Let this
+one sheaf be twined with poppy leaves<br />When you bring home your
+sheaves.</p>
+<p>In garnered loves of thine,<br />The ripe good fruit of many hearts
+and years,<br />Somewhere let this lie, grey and salt with tears;<br />It
+grew too near the sea wind, and the brine<br />Of life, this love of
+mine.</p>
+<p>This sheaf was spoiled in spring,<br />And over-long was green, and
+early sere,<br />And never gathered gold in the late year<br />From
+autumn suns, and moons of harvesting,<br />But failed in frosts of spring.</p>
+<p>Yet was it thine my sweet,<br />This love, though weak as young corn
+wither&eacute;d,<br />Whereof no man may gather and make bread;<br />Thine,
+though it never knew the summer heat;<br />Forget not quite, my sweet.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>AN OLD PRAYER.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[Greek text which cannot be reproduced<br />ODYSSEY, xiii. 59.]</p>
+<p>My prayer an old prayer borroweth,<br />Of ancient love and memory
+-<br />&lsquo;Do thou farewell, till Eld and Death,<br />That come to
+all men, come to thee.&rsquo;<br />Gently as winter&rsquo;s early breath,<br />Scarce
+felt, what time the swallows flee,<br />To lands whereof <i>no man knoweth<br /></i>Of
+summer, over land and sea;<br />So with thy soul may summer be,<br />Even
+as the ancient singer saith,<br />&lsquo;Do thou farewell, till Eld
+and Death,<br />That come to all men, come to thee.&rsquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>LOVE&rsquo;S MIRACLE.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>With other helpless folk about the gate,<br />The gate called Beautiful,
+with weary eyes<br />That take no pleasure in the summer skies,<br />Nor
+all things that are fairest, does she wait;<br />So bleak a time, so
+sad a changeless fate<br />Makes her with dull experience early wise,<br />And
+in the dawning and the sunset, sighs<br />That all hath been, and shall
+be, desolate.</p>
+<p>Ah, if Love come not soon, and bid her live,<br />And know herself
+the fairest of fair things,<br />Ah, if he have no healing gift to give,<br />Warm
+from his breast, and holy from his wings,<br />Or if at least Love&rsquo;s
+shadow in passing by<br />Touch not and heal her, surely she must die.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>DREAMS.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>He spake not truth, however wise, who said<br />That happy, and that
+hapless men in sleep<br />Have equal fortune, fallen from care as deep<br />As
+countless, careless, races of the dead.<br />Not so, for alien paths
+of dreams we tread,<br />And one beholds the faces that he sighs<br />In
+vain to bring before his daylit eyes,<br />And waking, he remembers
+on his bed;</p>
+<p>And one with fainting heart and feeble hand<br />Fights a dim battle
+in a doubtful land,<br />Where strength and courage were of no avail;<br />And
+one is borne on fairy breezes far<br />To the bright harbours of a golden
+star<br />Down fragrant fleeting waters rosy pale.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>FAIRY LAND.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>In light of sunrise and sunsetting,<br />The long days lingered,
+in forgetting<br />That ever passion, keen to hold<br />What may not
+tarry, was of old,<br />In lands beyond the weary wold;<br />Beyond
+the bitter stream whose flood<br />Runs red waist-high with slain men&rsquo;s
+blood.<br />Was beauty once a thing that died?<br />Was pleasure never
+satisfied?<br />Was rest still broken by the vain<br />Desire of action,
+bringing pain,<br />To die in languid rest again?<br />All this was
+quite forgotten there,<br />Where never winter chilled the year,<br />Nor
+spring brought promise unfulfilled,<br />Nor, with the eager summer
+killed,<br />The languid days drooped autumnwards.<br />So magical a
+season guards<br />The constant prime of a cool June;<br />So slumbrous
+is the river&rsquo;s tune,<br />That knows no thunder of heavy rains,<br />Nor
+ever in the summer wanes,<br />Like waters of the summer time<br />In
+lands far from the Fairy clime.</p>
+<p>Yea, there the Fairy maids are kind,<br />With nothing of the changeful
+mind<br />Of maidens in the days that were;<br />And if no laughter
+fills the air<br />With sound of silver murmurings,<br />And if no prayer
+of passion brings<br />A love nigh dead to life again,<br />Yet sighs
+more subtly sweet remain,<br />And smiles that never satiate,<br />And
+loves that fear scarce any fate.<br />Alas, no words can bring the bloom<br />Of
+Fairy Land; the faint perfume,<br />The sweet low light, the magic air,<br />To
+eyes of who has not been there:<br />Alas, no words, nor any spell<br />Can
+lull the eyes that know too well,<br />The lost fair world of Fairy
+Land.</p>
+<p>Ah, would that I had never been<br />The lover of the Fairy Queen!<br />Or
+would that through the sleepy town,<br />The grey old place of Ercildoune,<br />And
+all along the little street,<br />The soft fall of the white deer&rsquo;s
+feet<br />Came, with the mystical command<br />That I must back to Fairy
+Land!</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>TWO SONNETS OF THE SIRENS.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[&lsquo;Les Sir&egrave;nes estoient tant intimes amies et fidelles
+compagnes de Proserpine, qu&rsquo;elles estoient toujours ensemble.&nbsp;
+Esmues du juste deuil de la perte de leur ch&egrave;re compagne, et
+enuy&eacute;es jusques au desespoir, elles s&rsquo;arrest&egrave;rent
+&agrave; la mer Sicilienne, o&ugrave; par leurs chants elles attiroient
+les navigans, mais l&rsquo;unique fin de la volup&eacute; de leur musique
+est la Mort.&rsquo; - PONTUS DE TYARD.&nbsp; 1570.]</p>
+<p>I.</p>
+<p>The Sirens once were maidens innocent<br />That through the water-meads
+with Proserpine<br />Plucked no fire-hearted flowers, but were content<br />Cool
+fritillaries and flag-flowers to twine,<br />With lilies woven and with
+wet woodbine;<br />Till once they sought the bright AEtnaean flowers,<br />And
+their bright mistress fled from summer hours<br />With Hades, down the
+irremeable decline.<br />And they have sought her all the wide world
+through<br />Till many years, and wisdom, and much wrong<br />Have filled
+and changed their song, and o&rsquo;er the blue<br />Rings deadly sweet
+the magic of the song,<br />And whoso hears must listen till he die<br />Far
+on the flowery shores of Sicily.</p>
+<p>II.</p>
+<p>So is it with this singing art of ours,<br />That once with maids
+went maidenlike, and played<br />With woven dances in the poplar-shade,<br />And
+all her song was but of lady&rsquo;s bowers<br />And the returning swallows,
+and spring-flowers,<br />Till forth to seek a shadow-queen she strayed,<br />A
+shadowy land; and now hath overweighed<br />Her singing chaplet with
+the snow and showers.<br />Yea, fair well-water for the bitter brine<br />She
+left, and by the margin of life&rsquo;s sea<br />Sings, and her song
+is full of the sea&rsquo;s moan,<br />And wild with dread, and love
+of Proserpine;<br />And whoso once has listened to her, he<br />His
+whole life long is slave to her alone.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>A LA BELLE H&Eacute;L&Egrave;NE.<br />AFTER RONSARD.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>More closely than the clinging vine<br />About the wedded tree,<br />Clasp
+thou thine arms, ah, mistress mine!<br />About the heart of me.<br />Or
+seem to sleep, and stoop your face<br />Soft on my sleeping eyes,<br />Breathe
+in your life, your heart, your grace,<br />Through me, in kissing wise.<br />Bow
+down, bow down your face, I pray,<br />To me, that swoon to death,<br />Breathe
+back the life you kissed away,<br />Breathe back your kissing breath.<br />So
+by your eyes I swear and say,<br />My mighty oath and sure,<br />From
+your kind arms no maiden may<br />My loving heart allure.<br />I&rsquo;ll
+bear your yoke, that&rsquo;s light enough,<br />And to the Elysian plain,<br />When
+we are dead of love, my love,<br />One boat shall bear us twain.<br />They&rsquo;ll
+flock around you, fleet and fair,<br />All true loves that have been,<br />And
+you of all the shadows there,<br />Shall be the shadow queen.<br /><i>Ah
+shadow-loves, and shadow-lips</i>!<br /><i>Ah, while &rsquo;tis called
+to-day</i>,<br /><i>Love me, my love, for summer slips</i>,<br /><i>And
+August ebbs away.</i></p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>SYLVIE ET AUR&Eacute;LIE.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[IN MEMORY OF G&Eacute;RARD DE NERVAL.]</p>
+<p>Two loves there were, and one was born<br />Between the sunset and
+the rain;<br />Her singing voice went through the corn,<br />Her dance
+was woven &lsquo;neath the thorn,<br />On grass the fallen blossoms
+stain;<br />And suns may set, and moons may wane,<br />But this love
+comes no more again.</p>
+<p>There were two loves and one made white<br />Thy singing lips, and
+golden hair;<br />Born of the city&rsquo;s mire and light,<br />The
+shame and splendour of the night,<br />She trapped and fled thee unaware;<br />Not
+through the lamplight and the rain<br />Shalt thou behold this love
+again.</p>
+<p>Go forth and seek, by wood and hill,<br />Thine ancient love of dawn
+and dew;<br />There comes no voice from mere or rill,<br />Her dance
+is over, fallen still<br />The ballad burdens that she knew;<br />And
+thou must wait for her in vain,<br />Till years bring back thy youth
+again.</p>
+<p>That other love, afield, afar<br />Fled the light love, with lighter
+feet.<br />Nay, though thou seek where gravesteads are,<br />And flit
+in dreams from star to star,<br />That dead love shalt thou never meet,<br />Till
+through bleak dawn and blowing rain<br />Thy fled soul find her soul
+again.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>A LOST PATH.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[Plotinus, the Greek philosopher, had a certain proper mode of ecstasy,
+whereby, as Porphyry saith, his soul, becoming free from his deathly
+flesh, was made one with the Spirit that is in the World.]</p>
+<p>Alas, the path is lost, we cannot leave<br />Our bright, our clouded
+life, and pass away<br />As through strewn clouds, that stain the quiet
+eve,<br />To heights remoter of the purer day.<br />The soul may not,
+returning whence she came,<br />Bathe herself deep in Being, and forget<br />The
+joys that fever, and the cares that fret,<br />Made once more one with
+the eternal flame<br />That breathes in all things ever more the same.<br />She
+would be young again, thus drinking deep<br />Of her old life; and this
+has been, men say,<br />But this we know not, who have only sleep<br />To
+soothe us, sleep more terrible than day,<br />Where dead delights, and
+fair lost faces stray,<br />To make us weary at our wakening;<br />And
+of that long-lost path to the Divine<br />We dream, as some Greek shepherd
+erst might sing,<br />Half credulous, of easy Proserpine<br />And of
+the lands that lie &lsquo;beneath the day&rsquo;s decline.&rsquo;</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE SHADE OF HELEN.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[Some say that Helen went never to Troy, but abode in Egypt; for
+the Gods, having made in her semblance a woman out of clouds and shadows,
+sent the same to be wife to Paris.&nbsp; For this shadow then the Greeks
+and Trojans slew each other.]</p>
+<p>Why from the quiet hollows of the hills,<br />And extreme meeting
+place of light and shade,<br />Wherein soft rains fell slowly, and became<br />Clouds
+among sister clouds, where fair spent beams<br />And dying glories of
+the sun would dwell,<br />Why have they whom I know not, nor may know,<br />Strange
+hands, unseen and ruthless, fashioned me,<br />And borne me from the
+silent shadowy hills,<br />Hither, to noise and glow of alien life,<br />To
+harsh and clamorous swords, and sound of war?</p>
+<p>One speaks unto me words that would be sweet,<br />Made harsh, made
+keen with love that knows me not,<br />And some strange force, within
+me or around,<br />Makes answer, kiss for kiss, and sigh for sigh,<br />And
+somewhere there is fever in the halls,<br />That troubles me, for no
+such trouble came<br />To vex the cool far hollows of the hills.</p>
+<p>The foolish folk crowd round me, and they cry,<br />That house, and
+wife, and lands, and all Troy town,<br />Are little to lose, if they
+may keep me here,<br />And see me flit, a pale and silent shade,<br />Among
+the streets bereft, and helpless shrines.</p>
+<p>At other hours another life seems mine,<br />Where one great river
+runs unswollen of rain,<br />By pyramids of unremembered kings,<br />And
+homes of men obedient to the Dead.<br />There dark and quiet faces come
+and go<br />Around me, then again the shriek of arms,<br />And all the
+turmoil of the Ilian men.<br />What are they?&nbsp; Even shadows such
+as I.<br />What make they?&nbsp; Even this - the sport of Gods -<br />The
+sport of Gods, however free they seem.<br />Ah would the game were ended,
+and the light,<br />The blinding light, and all too mighty suns,<br />Withdrawn,
+and I once more with sister shades,<br />Unloved, forgotten, mingled
+with the mist,<br />Dwelt in the hollows of the shadowy hills.<br />Ah,
+would &lsquo;t were the cloud&rsquo;s playtime, when the sun<br />Clothes
+us in raiment of a rosy flame,<br />And through the sky we flit, and
+gather grey,<br />Like men that leave their golden youth behind,<br />And
+through their wind-driven ways they gather grey,<br />And we like them
+grow wan, and the chill East<br />Receives us, as the Earth accepts
+all men, -<br />But <i>we</i> await the dawn of a new day.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h2>SONNETS TO POETS.</h2>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>JACQUES TAHUREAU.&nbsp; 1530.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Ah thou! that, undeceived and unregretting,<br />Saw&rsquo;st Death
+so near thee on the flowery way,<br />And with no sigh that life was
+near the setting,<br />Took&rsquo;st the delight and dalliance of the
+day,<br />Happy thou wert, to live and pass away<br />Ere life or love
+had done thee any wrong;<br />Ere thy wreath faded, or thy locks grew
+grey,<br />Or summer came to lull thine April song,<br />Sweet as all
+shapes of sweet things unfulfilled,<br />Buds bloomless, and the broken
+violet,<br />The first spring days, the sounds and scents thereof;<br />So
+clear thy fire of song, so early chilled,<br />So brief, so bright thy
+life that gaily met<br />Death, for thy Death came hand in hand with
+Love.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>FRAN&Ccedil;OIS VILLON.&nbsp; 1450.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>List, all that love light mirth, light tears, and all<br />That know
+the heart of shameful loves, or pure;<br />That know delights depart,
+desires endure,<br />A fevered tribe of ghosts funereal,<br />Widowed
+of dead delights gone out of call;<br />List, all that deem the glory
+of the rose<br />Is brief as last year&rsquo;s suns, or last year&rsquo;s
+snows<br />The new suns melt from off the sundial.</p>
+<p>All this your master Villon knew and sung;<br />Despised delights,
+and faint foredone desire;<br />And shame, a deathless worm, a quenchless
+fire;<br />And laughter from the heart&rsquo;s last sorrow wrung,<br />When
+half-repentance but makes evil whole,<br />And prayer that cannot help
+wears out the soul.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>PIERRE RONSARD.&nbsp; 1560.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Master, I see thee with the locks of grey,<br />Crowned by the Muses
+with the laurel-wreath;<br />I see the roses hiding underneath,<br />Cassandra&rsquo;s
+gift; she was less dear than they.<br />Thou, Master, first hast roused
+the lyric lay,<br />The sleeping song that the dead years bequeath,<br />Hast
+sung sweet answer to the songs that breathe<br />Through ages, and through
+ages far away.</p>
+<p>Yea, and in thee the pulse of ancient passion<br />Leaped, and the
+nymphs amid the spring-water<br />Made bare their lovely limbs in the
+old fashion,<br />And birds&rsquo; song in the branches was astir.<br />Ah,
+but thy songs are sad, thy roses wan,<br />Thy bees have fed on yews
+Sardinian.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>G&Eacute;RARD DE NERVAL.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>Of all that were thy prisons - ah, untamed,<br />Ah, light and sacred
+soul! - none holds thee now;<br />No wall, no bar, no body of flesh,
+but thou<br />Art free and happy in the lands unnamed,<br />About whose
+gates, with weary wings and maimed,<br />Thou most wert wont to linger,
+entering there<br />A moment, and returning rapt, with fair<br />Tidings
+that men or heeded not or blamed;<br />And they would smile and wonder,
+seeing where<br />Thou stood&rsquo;st, to watch light leaves, or clouds,
+or wind,<br />Dreamily murmuring a ballad air,<br />Caught from the
+Valois peasants; dost thou find<br />Old prophecies fulfilled now, old
+tales true<br />In the new world, where all things are made new?</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<h3>THE DEATH OF MIRANDOLA.&nbsp; 1494.</h3>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div>
+<p>[&lsquo;The Queen of Heaven appeared, comforting him and promising
+that he should not utterly die.&rsquo; - THOMAS MORE, <i>Life of Piens,
+Earl of Mirandola</i>.]</p>
+<p>Strange lilies came with autumn; new and old<br />Were mingling,
+and the old world passed away,<br />And the night gathered, and the
+shadows grey<br />Dimmed the kind eyes and dimmed the locks of gold,<br />And
+face beloved of Mirandola.<br />The Virgin then, to comfort him and
+stay,<br />Kissed the thin cheek, and kissed the lips acold,<br />The
+lips unkissed of women many a day.<br />Nor she alone, for queens of
+the old creed,<br />Like rival queens that tended Arthur, there<br />Were
+gathered, Venus in her mourning weed,<br />Pallas and Dian; wise, and
+pure, and fair<br />Was he they mourned, who living did not wrong<br />One
+altar of its dues of wine and song.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div>
+<p>Footnotes:</p>
+<p><a name="footnote1"></a><a href="#citation1">{1}</a>&nbsp; Aphrodite
+- Avril.</p>
+<p><a name="footnote2"></a><a href="#citation2">{2}</a>&nbsp; From the
+Romaic.</p>
+<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div>
+<p>End of the Project Gutenberg eBook Ballads and Lyrics of Old France:
+with Other Poems</p>
+<p>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, BALLADS AND LYRICS OF OLD FRANCE ***</p>
+<pre>
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