Collected Works (Vol. I)

THE TALE OF ARCHAIS 13 Strident the godlike hero called aloud Blaspheming, while that sombre bank of _ cloud Witnessed the wrath of Zeus; the thunder broke From purple flashes vanished into smoke That rolled unceasingly through heaven ; the youth Cried out against high Zeus, ‘‘ The cause of Truth, Freedom, and Justice !” and witha] strode on To the vast margin of the waters wan That barred him from his goal; his cloak he stripped, Then in the waves his sudden body dipped And with his strenuous hands the emerald water gripped. ? Long had he struggled (for Poseidon’s hand Heaped foam against him) toward the seemly strand, But that Love’s Mother, journeying from Rome, Passed in her car the swimmer, while her home Scarce yet was glimmering o’er the waste wide sea Against whose wrath he strove so silently ; Whom now beholding, checked her eager team, Dipped to the foam from which she sprang. whose gleam Bore the sweet mirage of her eyes, and bent Over the weary Charicles. Content With him she spake, and he, still buffeting The waves, looked never up, but with the swing Of strong fierce limbs, clove through the water gray. Hearing her voice, he answered, ‘‘ Ere the day Has fallen from his pinnacle must I Reach sea-girt Paphos, with a bitter cry To clasp the knees of Cytherea, and pray That she will aid me.” Then the billows lay 1 Aphrodite. Fondly quiescent while she answered him : “Vea, are thine eyes with weeping grown so dim Thou canst not see who hovers over thee? For I am she thou seekest. Come with me And tell me all thy grief; thy prayer is heard Before thy spirit clothes in wintry word The fire it throbs with.” So her eager doves Waited. From seas grown calm the wanton loves Lifted the hero to the pearly car, Whose floor was azure and whose front a star Set in seven jewels girt with ivory. Then the light rein the goddess left to lie Unheeded, and the birds flew on apace, Until the glint and glory of the place Grew o’er the blue dim line of ocean. It was a temple never built of man, Being of marble white, and all unhewn, Above a cliff, about whose bdse were strewn Boulders of amethyst or malachite. Save these the cliffs rose sheer, a dazzling white, Six hundred feet from ocean ; so divine Was the tall precipice, that from the shrine A child might fling a stone and splash it in. the brine. Within whose silver courts and lily bowers The Queen of Love led Charicles 3 white flowers Blushed everywhere to scarlet, as her feet, Themselves more white, did touch them. On a seat, White with strewn rose, and leaves of silver birch, Remote from courts profane, and vulgar search, They rested, till the hero’s tale was told. Then Aphrodite loosed a snake of gold From her arm’s whiteness, and upon his wrist Clasped it. Its glittering eyes of amethyst Fascinate him. ‘ Even so,” the goddess cried, ‘© T will bind on thy arm the serpent bride