Part 23

1885.

JOHNNIE OF BRAIDISLEE

A SECOND ATTEMPT, ACCEPTED

Down the burnside hurry thee, gentle mavis, Find the bothie, and flutter about the doorway. Touch the lattice tenderly, bid my mother Fetch away Johnnie.

Mother, uprouse thee! many bitter arrows Out of one bosom gather, and for ever Pray for one resting in a chilly forest Under an oak tree.

Gentle mavis! hover about the window Where the sun shines on happy things of home life, Bid the clansmen troop to the gory dingle. Clansmen, avenge me!

Mother! oh, my mother! upon a cradle Woven of willows, with a bow beside me, Near the kirk of Durrisdeer, under yew boughs, Rock thy beloved.

1885.

EUROPA

May the foemen's wives, the foemen's children, Feel the kid leaping when he lifts the surge, Tumult of swart sea, and the reefs that shudder Under the scourge.

On such a day to the false bull Europa Trusted her snowy limbs; and courage failed her, Where the whales swarmed, the terror of sea-change and Treason assailed her.

For the meadow-fays had she duly laboured, Eager for flowers to bind at eventide; Shimmering night revealed the stars, the billows, Nothing beside.

Brought to Crete, the realm of a hundred cities, "Oh, my sire! my duty!" she clamoured sadly. "Oh, the forfeit! and oh, the girl unfathered, Wilfully, madly!

What shore is this, and what have I left behind me? When a maid sins 'tis not enough to die. Am I awake? or through the ivory gateway Cometh a lie?

Cometh a hollow fantasy to the guiltless? Am I in dreamland? Was it best to wander Through the long waves, or better far to gather Rosebuds out yonder?

Now, were he driven within the reach of anger, Steel would I point against the villain steer, Grappling, rending the horns of the bull, the monster Lately so dear.

Shameless I left the homestead and the worship, Shameless, 'fore hell's mouth, wide agape, I pause. Hear me, some god, and set me among the lions Stript for their jaws.

Ere on the cheek that is so fair to look on Swoop the grim fiends of hunger and decay, Tigers shall spring and raven, ere the sweetness Wither away.

Worthless Europa! cries the severed father, Why dost thou loiter, cling to life, and doat? Hang on this rowan; hast thou not thy girdle Meet for thy throat?

Lo, the cliff, the precipice, edged for cleaving, Trust the quick wind, or take a leman's doom. Live on and spin; thou wast a prince's daughter; Toil at the loom.

Pass beneath the hand of a foreign lady; Serve a proud rival." Lo, behind her back Slyly laughed Venus, and her archer minion Held the bow slack.

Then, the game played out, "Put away," she whispered, "Wrath and upbraiding, and the quarrel's heat, When the loathed bull surrenders horns, for riving, Low at your feet.

Bride of high Jove's majesty, bride unwitting, Cease from your sobbing; rise, your luck is rare. Your name's the name which half the world divided Henceforth shall bear."

HYPERMNESTRA

Let me tell Lyde of wedding-law slighted, Penance of maidens and bootless task, Wasting of water down leaky cask, Crime in the prison-pit slowly requited.

Miscreant brides! for their grooms they slew. One out of many is not attainted, One alone blest and for ever sainted, False to her father, to wedlock true.

Praise her! she gave her young husband the warning. Praise her for ever! She cried, "Arise! Flee from the slumber that deadens the eyes; Flee from the night that hath never a morning.

Baffle your host who contrived our espousing, Baffle my sisters, the forty and nine, Raging like lions that mangle the kink, Each on the blood of a quarry carousing.