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22 matching pages
Page 1 of 21904 · PDF PAGE 91
…e of peace and bliss, The starry soul of wine, Destruction’s formidable kiss, The lamp of the divine: This shadow of a nobler name Whose life is strife, whose soul is fame ! I rather will exalt the soul Of man to loftier height, And kindle at a livelier coal The subtler soul of Light. From these soft splendours of a dream T turn, and seek the Self supreme. This world is shadow-shapen of The bitterness of pain, Vain are the little lamps of love! The light of life is vain! Life, death, joy, sorrow, age and youth Are phantoms of a further truth. B…
1904 · PDF PAGE 92
20 ARGONAUTAE Life is the flaming of that flame. Death is the naming of that name. The forehead of the snake is bright With one immortal star, Lighting her coils with living light To where the nenuphar Sleeps for her couch. All darkness dreams The thing that is not, only seems. That star upon the serpent’s head Is called the soul of man: That light in shadows subtly shed The glamour of life’s plan. The sea whereon that lotus grows Is thought’s abyss of tears and woes. Leave Sirenusa! Even Greece Forget! they are not there! By worship cometh not…
1904 · PDF PAGE 83
…e young birds winging their bright flight the notes Glimmer across the sea. MEDEA. They sing, they sing! PARTHENOPE. O mortal, tossed on life’s unceasing ocean, Whose waves of joy and sorrow never cease, Eternal change—one changeless thing, commotion ! Even in death no hint of calm and peace!— Here is the charm, the life-assuaging potion, Here is a better home for thee than Greece! Come, lover, to my deep, soft, sleepy breast! Here is thy rest! O mortal, sad is life! But in my kisses Thou may’st forget its fever-parchéd thirst. Age, death, and …
1904 · PDF PAGE 82
To ARGONAUTAE No passion stirs their depth, nor moves; No life disturbs their sweet dead loves; No being holds a crown or throne ; They are, and I in them, alone, Only some lute-player grown star Is heard like whispering flowers afar; And some divided, single tune Sobs from the sea and moon. Amid thy mountains shall I rise, O moon, and float about thy skies? Beneath thy waters shall I roam, O sea, and call thy valleys home? Or on Daedalian oarage fare Forth in the interlunar air? Imageless mirror-life! to be Sole between moon and sea. CHORUS. N…
1904 · PDF PAGE 63
…athwart the course Of the bright moon, due path of pestilence And terror. Ere the last bone fell to earth The accurséd harvest sprang to life. Armed men, Fiery with anger, rose upon the earth While Jason stood, one witnessing a dream, Not one who lives his life. The sword and spear Turn not to him, but mutual madness strikes The warriors witless, and fierce wrath invades Their hearts of fury, and with arms engaged They fell upon each other silently And slew, and slew. As in the middle seas A mirage flashes out and passes, so The phantoms faded,…
1904 · PDF PAGE 111
ACTUS QUINTUS FOURTH WOMAN. Our chance gone! FIRST WOMAN. Our life Degraded to her service. SECOND WOMAN. We who are Born nobly, are become her minions. THIRD WOMAN. Slaves, not handmaidens! ALCESTIS. Ototototoi! Ai Ai! What misery! FIRST WOMAN. See! the lady weeps! ALCESTIS. Ai Ai! the black fiend, how he dogs my feet! The fatal day! Ai! Ai! CHORUS. What sorrow thus, Maiden, removes the feet of fortitude? ALCESTIS. Who shall arouse him? CHORUS. Peace, our lady sleeps N
1904 · PDF PAGE 43
ACTUS SECUNDUS Till the Three Worlds flicker and falter, And life and her love be dead! In mysterious joy Awake—and destroy! JASON. It is enough! HERACLES. Too great for a god’s strength! THESEUS. Speak! CASTOR. Change! Not to be borne! POLLUX. But this is death! ORPHEUS, Let the light fade. The oracle is past. JASON. The Voice is past. We are alive again. ORPHEUS. What spake That Silence? HERACLES. “This is not a quest Where strength availeth aught.” I shall not go. JASON. Nay, brother. The voice was: “The end is sorrow!”
1904 · PDF PAGE 110
…rceress. SECOND WOMAN. Daily I poison the she-devil’s drink, And nothing harms her! THIRD WOMAN. I have a toad whose breath Destroys all life CHORUS. Thou dealest in such arts? THIRD WOMAN. Ay! for this hate’s sake. Are we sisters all Herein? CHORUS. True sisters! THIRD WOMAN. The familiar soul Sucks at her mouth—She sickens not nor dies; More poisonous than he. FIRST WOMAN. Ah! beast of hell! What may avail us? SECOND WOMAN. Jason is quite lost In her black sorceries.
1904 · PDF PAGE 44
…l.” CASTOR. I heard, ‘‘ Regret not thy mortality! Love conquers death!” POLLUX. But I, “Regret not thou Thine immortality! Love conquers life!” ORPHEUS. A partial wisdom to a partial ear. JASON. But what speech came to thee? ORPHEUS. T heard no voice. ARGUS, What means this? Here’s my labour thrown away, My skill made jest of, all my wage destroyed At one fell stroke. JASON, What? Is the Argo burnt? ARGUS. Burnt! Should I then complain? The ship is finished. JASON. The Goddess, furious at thine absence, Argus, Hath frenzied thee with some delus…
1904 · PDF PAGE 65
ACTUS TERTIUS In fear of life, when great Aeetes hears This news, and how all came. MESSENGER. My lady’s smile Is the reward I sought, not place nor gold. MEDEA. Thou hast it, child. SECOND MESSENGER. The hero is at hand. CHORUS. O happy of mortals! O fronter of fear, The impassible portals! Ye heavens, give ear! 15 Our song shall be rolled in the praise of the gold, and its glory be told where the heavenly fold rejoices to hold the stars in its sphere. O hero Iolchian! Warrior king! From the kingdom Colchian The Fleece dost bring! Our song sha…
1904 · PDF PAGE 117
…e. MEDEA, Ay! let us leave these folk’s ingratitude; My husband! in thy love alone I rest. This splendour and this toil alike resume Our life from the long honeymoon of love We wish at heart. JASON. To Corinth! MEDEA. Creon bears The name of favourable to suppliants. ACASTUS. How virtue tames these tameless ones! To-day I am indeed a man. MEDEA. Thou brainless boy! Thus, thus, and thus I smite thee on the cheek— Thus, thus I spit upon thy face. Out, dog! 19
1904 · PDF PAGE 36
…these names, Seeking the very nature of the things Thou namest thus so pat. Perchance to thee These logs, nails, bolts, tools, have some life of sense, Some subtle language. Tell us what they say! THESEUS. ’Tis but a giber—leave the churl alone. JASON. Indeed I spake of things I knew not of. ARGUS. You speak more wisely when you float away Into pure dream, and talk of mystic things That no man born of woman understands, And therefore does not dare to contradict.
1904 · PDF PAGE 59
ACTUS TERTIUS With fire and shapen as kisses. And those arms And kisses and mad movements of quick love Burnt up his being, and his life was lost In woman’s love at last! CHORUS. Unseemly act! Who dared thus break on meditation? MEDEA. IL CHORUS. Surely thy passion mastered thee, O queen! MEDEA. I tell you—thus the night passed. CHORUS. Verily, The woman raves. MEDEA. Such victory as this Outsails all shame. Before the dawn was up I bound such talismans about his breast That fire and steel grow dew and flowery wreaths For all their power to hur…
1904 · PDF PAGE 24
…t oh, the glory of the quest, The gainless goodly prize! The fairest form man e’er caressed, The word he heard most wise ;— All lures of life avoid and cease Before the winning of the Fleece! O nameless splendour of the Gods, Begotten hardly of Heaven! Unspoken treasure of the abodes Beyond the lightning levin! No misery, no despair may pay The joy to hold thee for a day! JASON. Athena’s servant recks not much of Ares. PELIAS, Are thine eyes kindled at the golden thought? JASON. * Mine eyes see farther than the Fleece of Gold. PELIAS. What hero…
1904 · PDF PAGE 86
… and the lyre; We have the altar, we the shrine, And ours the joy of love and wine. Why take one pleasure, put aside The myriad bliss of life diverse? Unchanging joy will soon divide Into the likeness of a curse. Have we no maidens, slender, strong, Daughters of tender-throated song? I swear by Aphrodite’s eyes Our Grecian maids are fairer far! What love as sweet as theirs is lies
1904 · PDF PAGE 18
To ARGONAUTAE Bend thou a suppliant at my awful knee, And thus—perhaps—at least get grace of life. PELIAS. And if I say I will not yield the throne? JASON. I am of force to take it. PELIAS. Are my friends Not faithful? Who draws sword for Pelias? MEN. Shall we not slay thee this presumptuous fool? JASON. I am of force, I say. I wrestled once From sunrise to sunset with Heracles, Great Heracles! Not till the full moon rose Availed his might to lay me prone. Beware! Ye weakling knaves! I am of force, I say. PELIAS. Rebellious youth, the justice o…
1904 · PDF PAGE 66
…art’s desire Spotless, the Lady of my love, and friends By whose heroic ardours I am found Victor at last, well girded with the spoil Of life in gleaming beauty, and this prize Thrice precious, my Medea—all is won! Needs only now the favouring kiss of Eurus, Bright-born of Eos, to fulfil for us The last of all the labours, to inspire ‘The quick-raised sail, and fill that flushing gold With thrice desiréd breath, that once again
1904 · PDF PAGE 40
…ur mightiest in song, The dowered of Phoebus, great Oeager’s heir, Invokes that glory on the sacrifice That kindles all its slumber into life And vivid flame descending on the wheel And chariot of lightning, licking up The water of the loud-resounding sea Lustral, poured seven times upon the earth And in one flash consuming wood and stone And the sweet savour of the sacrifice. ORPHEUS. But when the flame hath darted from the eye Of my divine existence, and hath left Nothing, where was the altar and the earth, The water and the incense and the v…
1904 · PDF PAGE 42
…eep! Rise up from mine innermost being! Lift up the gemmed head to the heart! Lift up till the eyes that were seeing Be blind, and their life depart! Till the Eye that was blind Be a lamp to my mind! Coil fast all thy coils on me, dying, Absorbed in the sense of the Snake! Stir, leave the flower-throne, and up-flying Hiss once, and hiss thrice, and awake! Then crown me and cling! Flash forward—and spring! Flash forth on the fire of the altar, The stones, and the sacrifice shed ;
1904 · PDF PAGE 17
…iron’s grace To catch me yet. Athena hears me swear To right all this—nay, answer me before Anger get all the spoil of me, and drink Thy life-blood in one gulp! Descend that dais!