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With the dying Gods we have held carouse;
And our lips are wan from their wild caresses;
Our hands are filled with their holy boughs。
As we crossed the lawn in the dying day
No fairy led us to meet the May;
But the very Goddess loved by lovers;
In mourning raiment of green and grey。
She was not decked as for glee and game;
She was not veiled with the veil of flame;
The saffron veil of the Bride that covers
The face that is flushed with her joy and shame。
On the laden branches the scent and dew
Mingled and met; and as snow to strew
The woodland rides and the fragrant grasses;
White flowers fell as the night wind blew。
Tears and kisses on lips and eyes
Mingled and met amid laughter and sighs
For grief that abides; and joy that passes;
For pain that tarries and mirth that flies。
It chanced as the dawning grew to grey
Pale and sad on our homeward way;
With weary lips; and palled with pleasure
The Goddess met us; farewell to say。
〃Ye have made your choice; and the better part;
Ye chose〃 she said; 〃and the wiser art;
In the wild May night drank all the measure;
The perfect pleasure of heart and heart。
〃Ye shall walk no more with the May;〃 she said;
〃Shall your love endure though the Gods be dead?
Shall the flitting flocks; mine own; my chosen;
Sing as of old; and be happy and wed?
〃Yea; they are glad as of old; but you;
Fair and fleet as the dawn or the dew;
Abide no more; for the springs are frozen;
And fled the Gods that ye loved and knew。
Ye shall never know Summer again like this;
Ye shall play no more with the Fauns; I wis;
No more in the nymphs' and dryads' playtime
Shall echo and answer kiss and kiss。
〃Though the flowers in your golden hair be bright;
Your golden hair shall be waste and white
On faded brows ere another May time
Bring the spring; but no more delight。〃
HOMERIC UNITY
The sacred keep of Ilion is rent
By shaft and pit; foiled waters wander slow
Through plains where Simois and Scamander went
To war with Gods and heroes long ago。
Not yet to tired Cassandra; lying low
In rich Mycenae; do the Fates relent:
The bones of Agamemnon are a show;
And ruined is his royal monument。
The dust and awful treasures of the Dead;
Hath Learning scattered wide; but vainly thee;
Homer; she meteth with her tool of lead;
And strives to rend thy songs; too blind to see
The crown that burns on thine immortal head
Of indivisible supremacy!
IN TINTAGEL
LUI。
Ah lady; lady; leave the creeping mist;
And leave the iron castle by the sea!
ELLE。
Nay; from the sea there came a ghost that kissed
My lips; and so I cannot come to thee!
LUI。
Ah lady; leave the cruel landward wind
That crusts the blighted flowers with bitter foam!
ELLE。
Nay; for his arms are cold and strong to bind;
And I must dwell with him and make my home!
LUI。
Come; for the Spring is fair in Joyous Guard
And down deep alleys sweet birds sing again。
ELLE。
But I must tarry with the winter hard;
And with the bitter memory of pain;
Although the Spring be fair in Joyous Guard;
And in the gardens glad birds sing again!
PISIDICE
The incident is from the Love Stories of Parthenius; who preserved
fragments of a lost epic on the expedition of Achilles against
Lesbos; an island allied with Troy。
The daughter of the Lesbian king
Within her bower she watched the war;
Far off she heard the arrows ring;
The smitten harness ring afar;
And; fighting from the foremost car;
Saw one that smote where all must flee;
More fair than the Immortals are
He seemed to fair Pisidice!
She saw; she loved him; and her heart
Before Achilles; Peleus' son;
Threw all its guarded gates apart;
A maiden fortress lightly won!
And; ere that day of fight was done;
No more of land or faith recked she;
But joyed in her new life begun; …
Her life of love; Pisidice!
She took a gift into her hand;
As one that had a boon to crave;
She stole across the ruined land
Where lay the dead without a grave;
And to Achilles' hand she gave
Her gift; the secret postern's key。
〃To…morrow let me be thy slave!〃
Moaned to her love Pisidice。
Ere dawn the Argives' clarion call
Rang down Methymna's burning street;
They slew the sleeping warriors all;
They drove the women to the fleet;
Save one; that to Achilles' feet
Clung; but; in sudden wrath; cried he:
〃For her no doom but death is meet;〃
And there men stoned Pisidice。
In havens of that haunted coast;
Amid the myrtles of the shore;
The moon sees many a maiden ghost
Love's outcast now and evermore。
The silence hears the shades deplore
Their hour of dear…bought love; but THEE
The waves lull; 'neath thine olives hoar;
To dreamless rest; Pisidice!
FROM THE EAST TO THE WEST
Returning from what other seas
Dost thou renew thy murmuring;
Weak Tide; and hast thou aught of these
To tell; the shores where float and cling
My love; my hope; my memories?
Say does my lady wake to note
The gold light into silver die?
Or do thy waves make lullaby;
While dreams of hers; like angels; float
Through star…sown spaces of the sky?
Ah; would such angels came to me
That dreams of mine might speak with hers;
Nor wake the slumber of the sea
With words as low as winds that be
Awake among the gossamers!
LOVE THE VAMPIRE 'Greek text'
The level sands and grey;
Stretch leagues and leagues away;
Down to the border line of sky and foam;
A spark of sunset burns;
The grey tide…water turns;
Back; like a ghost from her forbidden home!
Here; without pyre or bier;
Light Love was buried here;
Alas; his grave was wide and deep enough;
Thrice; with averted head;
We cast dust on the dead;
And left him to his rest。 An end of Love。
〃No stone to roll away;
No seal of snow or clay;
Only soft dust above his wearied eyes;
But though the sudden sound
Of Doom should shake the ground;
And graves give up their ghosts; he will not rise!〃
So each to each we said!
Ah; but to either bed
Set far apart in lands of North and South;
Love as a Vampire came
With haggard eyes aflame;
And kissed us with the kisses of his mouth!
Thenceforth in dreams must we
Each other's shadow see
Wand'ring unsatisfied in empty lands;
Still the desired face
Fleets from the vain embrace;
And still the shape evades the longing hands。
BALLADE OF THE BOOK…MAN'S PARADISE
There IS a Heaven; or here; or there; …
A Heaven there is; for me and you;
Where bargains meet for purses spare;
Like ours; are not so far and few。
Thuanus' bees go humming through
The learned groves; 'neath rainless skies;
O'er volumes old and volumes new;
Within that Book…man's Paradise!
There treasures bound for Longepierre
Keep brilliant their morocco blue;
There Hookes' AMANDA is not rare;
Nor early tracts upon Peru!
Racine is common as Rotrou;
No Shakespeare Quarto search defies;
And Caxtons grow as blossoms grew;
Within that Book…man's Paradise!
There's Eve;not our first mother fair; …
But Clovis Eve; a binder true;
Thither does Bauzonnet repair;
Derome; Le Gascon; Padeloup!
But never come the cropping crew
That dock a volume's honest size;
Nor they that 〃letter〃 backs askew;
Within that Book…man's Paradise!
ENVOY
Friend; do not Heber and De Thou;
And Scott; and Southey; kind and wise;
La chasse au bouquin still pursue
Within that Book…man's Paradise?
BALLADE OF A FRIAR
(Clement Marot's Frere Lubin; though translated by Longfellow and
others; has not hitherto been rendered into the original measure;
of ballade e double refrain。)
Some ten or twenty times a day;
To bustle to the town with speed;
To dabble in what dirt he may; …
Le Frere Lubin's the man you need!
But any sober life to lead
Upon an exemplary plan;
Requires a Christian indeed; …
Le Frere Lubin is NOT the man!
Another's wealth on his to lay;
With all the craft of guile and greed;
To leave you bare of pence or pay; …
Le Frere Lubin's the man you need!
But watch him with the closest heed;
And dun him with what force you can; …
He'll not refund; howe'er you plead; …
Le Frere Lubin is NOT the man!
An honest girl to lead astray;
With subtle saw and promised meed;
Requires no cunning crone and grey; …
Le Frere Lubin's the man you need!
He preaches an ascetic creed;
But;try him with the water can …
A dog will drink; whate'er his breed; …
Le Frere Lubin is NOT the man!
ENVOY
In good to fail; in ill succeed;
Le Frere Lubin's the man you need!
In honest works to lead the van;
Le Frere Lubin is NOT the man!
BALLADE OF NEGLECTED MERIT {1}
I have scribbled in verse and in prose;
I have painted 〃arrangements in greens;〃
And my name is familiar to those
Who take in the high class magazines;
I compose; I've invented machines;
I have written an 〃Essay on Rhyme〃;
For my county I played; in my teens;
ButI am not in 〃Men of the Time!〃
I have lived; as a chief; with the Crows;
I have 〃interviewed〃 Princes and Queens;
I have climbed the Caucasian snows;
I abstain; like the ancients; from beans; …
I've a guess what Pythagoras means;
When he says that to eat them's a crime; …
I have lectured upon the Essenes;
ButI am not in 〃Men of the Time!〃
I've a fancy