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Page 1 of 21904 · PDF PAGE 85
…ove— Young virgins in Iolchus dance, Hearing the news thereof. The heroes—see their glad advance! Hath Greece not maids enough? I lie in love’s ecstatic trance. My very name is Love! LIGIA. Come over the water, love, to me! Come over the little space! Come over, my lover, and thou shalt see The beauty of my face! Come over the water! I will be A bride and a queen and a lover to thee! Come over the water, love, and lie! All day and all night to kiss! Come over, my lover, an hour to die In the language-baffling bliss! Come over the water! Must I …
1904 · PDF PAGE 86
14 ARGONAUTAE Come over the water, love, and bide An hour in my swift caress! So short is the space, and so smooth the tide— More smooth is my loveliness! Come over the water, love, to my side! I am thy lover and queen and bride! MEDEA. Sing, poet, ere the rash fool leap! JASON. Ah, Zeus! ORPHEUS. The hearts of Greeks with sharper flames Burn than with one fire of all fire, We have the Races and the Games, The song, the chisel, and the lyre; We have the altar, we the shrine, And ours the joy of love and wine. Why take one pleasure, put aside Th…
1904 · PDF PAGE 90
18 ARGONAUTAE O let me fall from death to dream, Eternal monotone; Faint eventide of sleep supreme With thee and love alone! A jewelled night of star and moon Shall watch our bridal chamber, Bending the blue rays to the tune Of softly-sliding amber. Dim winds shall whisper echoes of Our slow ecstatic breath, Telling all worlds how sweet is love, How beautiful is death. MEDEA. Sing, Orpheus, this doth madden them the most. Should one man leap—This tune is terrible ! ORPHEUS. I am not moved, although I am a man. So strong a safeguard is cool chas…
1904 · PDF PAGE 117
…boy. Let none suppose me fearful! MEDEA. Give not back! MADNESS, It will be finer far to go away As those disdaining aught but their own love. 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 c…
1904 · PDF PAGE 89
…RTUS 17 The night-winds kiss the deep: the stars Shed laughter from above; But night must pass dawn’s prison bars: Night hath not tasted love. With me the night is fallen in day; The day swoons back to night; The white and black are woven in gray, Faint sleep of silken light. A strange soft light about me shed Devours the sense of time: Hovers about my sleepy head Some sweet persistent rhyme. Beneath my breast my love may hear Deep murmur of the billows— O gather me to thee, my dear, On soft forgetful pillows! O gather me in arms of love As mai…
1904 · PDF PAGE 84
12 ARGONAUTAE All storm and sunlight, star and season, cease Here is thy peace. O mortal, sad is love! But my dominion Extends beyond love’s ultimate abode. Eternity itself is but a minion, Lighting my way on the untravelled road. Gods shelter ’neath one shadow of my pinion. Thou only tread the path none else hath trode! Come, lover, in my breast all blooms above, Here is thy love! MEDEA. My poet, now! The one song in the world! ORPHEUS. Above us on the mast is spread The splendour of the fleece! Before us, Argive maidens tread The glowing isle…
1904 · PDF PAGE 68
…row’s king. MEDEA. “With us” I said. ‘To Greece ”—I said not. CHORUS. What is this? Thou hintest at some dangerous destiny. MEDEA. Come, love, to the long years of love with me! JASON. Form, heroes, and in solemn order stride; The body-guardians of the Golden Fleece!
1904 · PDF PAGE 44
…(Alone of all ye wise) the great voice came, “The Gates of Hell shall not in all prevail.” 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. …
1904 · PDF PAGE 60
…rs ye may gather afterward From hands and lips ye scorn—not courteously. CHORUS. What? Canst thou save me from this newer doom? MEDEA. I love your leader with no mortal love, But with the whole strength of a sorceress. CHORUS. It seems indeed thy hot will can bewitch Our chaste one with one action impudent.
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 79
…like some ancient crone Muttering curses. JASON. Now I hear a song. ’Tis like some shape of sleep that moans for joy, Some bridal sob of love! MEDEA. O Son of God! My poet, swiftly leap the live lyre forth! Else we are all enchanted—yet to me This song is nowise lovely. But in him I note the live look of the eyes leap up, And all his love for me forgotten straight At the mere echo of that tune. ORPHEUS. Hark, friends! Aea’s tune—my Colchian harbour-song! I hear the waters faint and far, And look to where the Polar Star, Half hidden in the haze,…
1904 · PDF PAGE 91
ACTUS QUARTUS 19 MEDEA. Thine therefore should be sweeter. ORPHEUS. The Gods grant it! Lift up this love 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…
1904 · PDF PAGE 95
…tween the islands sheer and steep Our craft treads noiseless o’er the deep. Turned to the gold heart of the west, The sun’s last sigh of love expressed Ere the lake glimmer, borrow sleep From clouds and tinge their edges; weep That night brings love not to his breast, But only rest. We move toward the golden track Shed in the water: we look back Eastward, where rose is set to warn Promise and prophecy of dawn Reflected, lest the ocean lack In any space serene or slack Some colour, blushing o’er the fawn Dim-lighted lawn. And under all the shado…
1904 · PDF PAGE 69
ACTUS TERTIUS MEDEA. Guarding your king and queen on every side— CHORUS, We sail triumphant to the land of Greece. MEDEA. A woman’s love, a woman’s power be told Through ages, gainers of the Fleece of Gold. EXPLICIT ACTUS TERTIUS. 19
1904 · PDF PAGE 77
ACTUS QUARTUS That song of swimming when thy love lost sense Before the passion of the Infinite. JASON. The more so as my master warns me oft Of late how near that island is, where dwell The alluring daughters of Melpomene. ORPHEUS. Light shed from seaward over breakers bending Kiss-wise to the emerald hollows: light divine Whereof the sun is God, the sea his shrine; Light in vibrations rhythmic; light unending, Light sideways from the girdling crags extending Unto this lone and languid head of mine; Light, that fulfils creation as with wine, F…
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 75
…: Zhe Argo. MEDEA. Ay! I would murder not my brother only, But tear my own limbs, strew them on the sea, To keep one fury from the man I love! CHORUS. This act and speech are much akin to madness. MEDEA. Remember that your own skins pay the price. CHORUS. I now remember somewhat of the voice Of the oracle, that Madness should hunt hard On the thief’s furtive track, upon the prow Brooding, and at the table president, And spouse-like in the bed.
1904 · PDF PAGE 116
…she well knows how. CHORUS. Thus, thus it is! We know the witch’s cunning. JASON. Dogs and fools! For this ye die. MADNESS. Nobility and love Urge my own sanction to support the wife! JASON. I bade my queen prepare this spell. Disputes Your arrogance my kingship? ACASTUS. Ay, indeed! Now justice turns against thee, fickle jade As fortune. Mine is a boy’s arm, but I Advance against thee an impervious blade, And give thee in thy throat and teeth the lie! JASON. Boy’s bluster! MADNESS. Justice will be satisfied. It will be best to flee!
1904 · PDF PAGE 119
ACTUS QUINTUS And vengeance shall smite one, and one lay bare Her breasts in vain for love: until the house Perish in uttermost red ruin. CHORUS. Bah! Speared wild-cats bravely spit! JASON. To Creon, come! MADNESS. Black Ares hath chosen Me wisely, to send A doom deep-frozen From now to the end. Never the curse Shall pass from the house, But gather a worse Hate for a spouse. The lovers are better Escaped from my toils Than these in the fetter Of the golden spoils. Yet still lies a doom For the royal lovers. Time bears in her womb That darkness …
1904 · PDF PAGE 88
… the awful ecstasy! ORPHEUS. A higher spell controls a lower song. Listen, they sing! JASON. Joy! Joy! they sing, they sing! LEUCOSIA. O lover, I am lonely here! O lover, I am weeping! Each pearl of ocean is a tear Let fall while love was sleeping. A tear is made of fire and dew And saddened with a smile; The sun’s laugh in the curving blue Lasts but a little while.