Collected Works (Vol. I)

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