THE TALE OF ARCTIAIS II
The sin that slumbers; these divide the
day
And all the darkness, and deceive, and slay.
And these regather in the womb of hell
To marry and increase, and by the spell
Of their own wickedness discover sin
Unguessed at, by slow treason creeping in,
To spread corruption, and destroy the earth.
sut in the holy hour and happy birth
That swam through stars propitious, meadows
white,
And fresh with newer flowers of the night
In the pale fields supernal, when his sire
Took from the nurse the child of his desire,
Aman, the prayers of many maidens sent
So sweet a savour through the firmament
That no false spirit might draw nigh. And
still
THis angel ministers defend from ill
The head they nurtured. Evil dreams and
spells,
Cast at the dimmest hour, the sword repels
And drives them down the steep of [Tell.
But dim
Sweet faces of dead maidens drew to him ;
(Quiet woods and streams and all the moun-
tains tall,
Cool valleys, silver-streaked with waterfall,
Came in his slumbers, chaste and musical,
While through their maze his mind beheld
afar
Dim and divine, Archais, like a star.
It was no dream, or else the growing dawn
Deepened the glory of the misted lawn,
For to his eyes, half open now, there seems
A figure, fairer than his dearest dreams.
He sprang, he caught her to his breast, the
maid
Sniiled and lay back to look at him.
laid
Her tender body on the sloping field,
And felt her sighs in his embraces yield
A sweeter music than all birds. But she,
Lost in the love she might not know, may
see
No further than his face, and yet, aware
Of her own fate, resisted like a snare
He
Iler own soft wishes. As she Jooked and
Saw
[lis eager face, the iron rod of law
Grew like a misty pillar in the sky,
In all her veins the blood’s desires die,
And then---O sudden ardour !—all her mind
And memory faded, and looked outward,
blind,
Beyond their bitterness. Herarms she flung
Around him, and with amorous lips and
tongue
Tortured his palate with extreme desire,
And like a Maenad maddened; equal fire
leapt in his veins; locked close for love
they lie, .
The heart’s dumb word exprest without a
sigh
In the strong magic of a lover’s kiss,
And the twin light of love5 but Archais
Felt through her blood a sudden chill; her
face
Blanched and besought a moment’s breath-
Ing space ;
Her heart’s desire welled up, and then again
Whitened her cheeks with the exceeding pain
Of uttermost despair. At last her strength
Failed, and she flung her weary body at
length
Amid the bruiséd flowers; while from her
eyes
Surged the salt tears; low moans she
multiplies
Because her love is blasphemous ; the wind
Sighs for all answer, sobs and wails behind
Among the trees; the stream grows deadly
pale
Hearing her weep, and like a silver sail
The fading moon drifts sorrowful above.
Then Charicles must ask his weeping love
To lead him to the fountain of her tears.
But she, possessed by vague and violent fears,
Spake not a little while, and then began :
‘*O thou, a child of Heaven, and a man,
Even so my lover, shall my woeful song
So move thy spirit for my bitter wrong
(God-nurtured though thou be) against the
rods
Laid on me by my mother, whom the gods