Part 13

AT fierce Sidero’s word the thralls drew near, And shore the locks of Tyro,—like ripe corn They fell in golden harvest,—but forlorn The maiden shuddered in her pain and fear, Like some wild mare that cruel grooms in scorn Hunt in the meadows, and her mane they sheer, And drive her where, within the waters clear, She spies her shadow, and her shame doth mourn.

Ah! hard were he and pitiless of heart Who marking that wild thing made weak and tame, Broken, and grieving for her glory gone, Could mock her grief; but scornfully apart Sidero stood, and watched a wind that came And tossed the curls like fire that flew and shone!

TO ARTEMIS.

(Hippol., Eurip., 73–87.)

FOR thee soft crowns in thine untrampled mead I wove, my lady, and to thee I bear; Thither no shepherd drives his flocks to feed, Nor scythe of steel has ever laboured there; Nay, through the spring among the blossoms fair The brown bee comes and goes, and with good heed Thy maiden, Reverence, sweet streams doth lead About the grassy close that is her care!

Souls only that are gracious and serene By gift of God, in human lore unread, May pluck these holy blooms and grasses green That now I wreathe for thine immortal head, I that may walk with thee, thyself unseen, And by thy whispered voice am comforted.

CRITICISM OF LIFE.

(Hippol., Eurip., 252–266.)

LONG life hath taught me many things, and shown That lukewarm loves for men who die are best, Weak wine of liking let them mix alone, Not Love, that stings the soul within the breast; Happy, who wears his love-bonds lightliest, Now cherished, now away at random thrown! Grievous it is for other’s grief to moan, Hard that my soul for thine should lose her rest!

Wise ruling this of life: but yet again Perchance too rigid diet is not well; He lives not best who dreads the coming pain And shunneth each delight desirable: Flee thou extremes, this word alone is plain, Of all that God hath given to Man to spell!

AMARYLLIS.

(Theocritus, Idyll, iii.)

FAIR Amaryllis, wilt thou never peep From forth the cave, and call me, and be mine? Lo, apples ten I bear thee from the steep, These didst thou long for, and all these are thine. Ah, would I were a honey-bee to sweep Through ivy, and the bracken, and woodbine; To watch thee waken, Love, and watch thee sleep, Within thy grot below the shadowy pine. Now know I Love, a cruel god is he, The wild beast bare him in the wild wood drear; And truly to the bone he burneth me. But, black-browed Amaryllis, ne’er a tear, Nor sigh, nor blush, nor aught have I from thee; Nay, nor a kiss, a little gift and dear.

THE CANNIBAL ZEUS.

A.D. 160

Καὶ ἔθυσε τὸ βρέφος, καὶ ἔσπεισεν ἐπὶ τοῦ βωμοῦ τὸ ‘αῖμχ—έπὶ τούτου βωμοῦ τῷ Δὺ θύουσιν ἐν ἀποῤῥήτῳ.—Paus. viii. 38

NONE elder city doth the Sun behold Than ancient Lycosura; ’twas begun Ere Zeus the meat of mortals learned to shun, And here hath he a grove whose haunted fold The driven deer seek and huntsmen dread: ’tis told That whoso fares within that forest dun Thenceforth shall cast no shadow in the Sun, Ay, and within the year his life is cold!

Hard by dwelt he {130} who, while the Gods deigned eat At good men’s tables, gave them dreadful meat, A child he slew:—his mountain altar green Here still hath Zeus, with rites untold of me, Piteous, but as they are let these things be, And as from the beginning they have been!

INVOCATION OF ISIS.

(Apuleius, Metamorph. XI.)

THOU that art sandalled on immortal feet With leaves of palm, the prize of Victory; Thou that art crowned with snakes and blossoms sweet, Queen of the silver dews and shadowy sky, I pray thee by all names men name thee by! Demeter, come, and leave the yellow wheat! Or Aphrodite, let thy lovers sigh! Or Dian, from thine Asian temple fleet!

Or, yet more dread, divine Persephone From worlds of wailing spectres, ah, draw near; Approach, Selene, from thy subject sea; Come, Artemis, and this night spare the deer: By all thy names and rites I summon thee; By all thy rites and names, Our Lady, hear!

THE COMING OF ISIS.

SO Lucius prayed, and sudden, from afar, Floated the locks of Isis, shone the bright Crown that is tressed with berry, snake, and star; She came in deep blue raiment of the night, Above her robes that now were snowy white, Now golden as the moons of harvest are, Now red, now flecked with many a cloudy bay, Now stained with all the lustre of the light.

Then he who saw her knew her, and he knew The awful symbols borne in either hand; The golden urn that laves Demeter’s dew, The handles wreathed with asps, the mystic wand; The shaken seistron’s music, tinkling through The temples of that old Osirian land.

THE SPINET.

MY heart an old Spinet with strings To laughter chiefly turned, but some That Fate has practised hard on, dumb, They answer not whoever sings. The ghosts of half-forgotten things Will touch the keys with fingers numb, The little mocking spirits come And thrill it with their fairy wings.

A jingling harmony it makes My heart, my lyre, my old Spinet, And now a memory it wakes, And now the music means “forget,” And little heed the player takes Howe’er the thoughtful critic fret.