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…yes in slumber see— Let deaths keen sickle wander through the wheat ! I love not life oermuch ; since loving thee My dreams are sweet. Sing, little bird, it is dawn ; Chant, with the day the woods ring ; Now in the blush of the morn Sing ! Love doth enchain me and cling, Love, of the breeze that is born, Love, with the breeze that takes wing,
…dreamland dead ? Nay, the slumbers of thine head Shall be until thy lures. Love shall gird thee as a garment while thy very life endures Sing, lute, sing a sweeter measure, Drown the wild discordant notes, Life, sob out thy chant of pleasure (Love a lure, and life a treasure) As a thousand thrushes passion Throbbed it from a thousand throats, In the wild Hesperian garden, in the old Danaic fashion. Bard of Fate, thy song is ended : Splendid it began and splendid
…s ? Are they of passion, or of rocks and streams, Of purple mountains, clad about with green, Or do their lamps grow dim in the unseen ? Sing to this hero ; sing, lure slumber to your queen.
THE TALE OF ARCHAIS 55 And my young lips to blow upon a reed, And my young body to assuage your drouth, And you shall sing that sacred orison, Sing, as that midnight when we wrought as one, When in one bed our bodies met at last And all the future kissed the dying past O Kill me with the Purple of Your Mouth ! For Aphrodite sought in vain the woods, The silent mountains, and impetuous floods In all the world, nor had she knowledge of Such dens as him concealed ; (for what should Love Know of such vile morasses ?) in despair Waved angry wings, …
PROLOGUE THE FAITH OF LIFE Yea, with thine hate, O God, thou hast covered us. SWINBURNE, Atalanta YEA, one singeth, with thine hate Thou hast covered us, O God ! Nay, another answers straight (Low his lutes sweet period) : Sink those bitter staves of wrath ! Cease that angry trumpets blare ! Sunlight burns a rosy path Yonder through the sky to where Flowers bud and linnets sing ; Loves expressed in everything ; We are covered with thy love
36 THE TALE OF ARCHAIS Love that is lighter than scorn, Love, that is strong as a king, Love, through the gate that is horn, Sing ! Then Charicles rejoicing quickly ran And chose a lyre, and thus his song began Rippling through melodies unheard of man. SONG OF CHARICLES Wake, fairy maid, for the day Blushes our curtain to shake ; Summer and blossoms of May Wake ! Lilies drink light on the lake, Laughter drives dreamland away, Kisses shall woo thee, and slake Passion with amorous play, Clip thee and love, for Loves sake. Wake and caress me, I p…
…all us from silvery dreams To where the morning kindles red Snow-hills and streams. See, breezes whisper, sunlight gleams With gentle kissings ; flowers shed Pale scents, the whole sweet meadow steams. Forth, glittering shoulders, golden head, And tune our lutes to tender themes Among the lost loves of the dead, Snow-hills and streams. The queen clapped dainty hands, caressed of dew, And bade the love-lorn wanderer sing anew. His muse came trembling, soon through starry air it flew. SONG OF CHARICLES Within the forest gloom There lies a lovers…
…reeze, a foot That lightly dances, though the skies be mute Of music. Forth she flies, the distant dove, And calls the woodland birds to sing of love ; Forth leaps the stag and calls his mates ; the stream Flashes a silver sunbeam, a gold gleam Of leaping laughter, that the fish may know The goodly tidings ; all the woodlands glow With olive and pure silver and red gold, And all sweet natures marvels manifold Combine together in the twilight dim To harmonize in the thalamic hymn. HYMN O Lord our God ! O woodland king! O thou most dreadful God …
…aricles, the wan Waste water glinted free, and to the deep Cool pebbles did the kiss of sunshine creep ; The busy lark forgot for joy to sing, And all the woods with fairy voices ring ; The hills in dreamy langour seem to swoon Through the blue haze ! behold, the hour of noon ! And lo ! there came to pass the dreadful fate Her lips had shuddered out ; her pulses bate
…h one long intense unpitying kiss Pressed on her bosom, he arose and swore By heaven and earth and all the seas that roar And stars that sing, by rivers and fresh flood, By his own essence, by his body and blood, To lay his godhead down, till night drew nigh, To be a mortal till the vesper cry Of dying breezes. So the morning past And found them linked inexorably fast Each in the others arms. Their lips are wed To drink the breezes from the fountain-head Of lovers breath. Now Zeus half rises up, Sips once again from that moon-curvéd cup, And,…
…ckened. Through the quiet wood Her answer rang : My voice with thine shall break The woodland stillness, for the fountains sake. Ill sing to thee—Lamia ! mother, I obey ! In vain the desperate boy pursued the way With awful eyes ; no bruiséd flower betrayed The tender footsteps of a goddess maid ; No butterfly flew frightened ; on the pool No ripple spoke of her ; the streamlet cool Had no small wreath of amber mist to mark Her flight ; she was not there, the silver spark Had flashed and faded ; all the field was bare, No wave of wing bes…
…ge and dread Delights consume me ; I am as one dead Beating at Heavens gate with nerveless wing, Wailing because the song the immortals sing Is so fast barred behind the iron sky. Speak but thine anger quickly ; let me die ! But I forgive thee, thou art good and kind. O love ! O love ! O mistress of my mind, You love me ! Nay, I was a while afraid, Being so white and tender ; for a maid I lived alone with flower and brook, nor guessed Another dwelt within the quiet nest