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?
