The Star in the West

54 THE STAR IN THE WEST for Angela in a day or so will have just about had her fill: Angela . Die, then , and kiss me dead ! Sir Percy . I die ! I die ! Angela . Thy flower -life is shed Into eternity , A waveless lake .1 He sleeps , and she awake becomes somewhat weary of these “jejune platitudes,” these “ ululations of pre posterous puberty ,"these very " eructations of ginger bread ” and “flatulence of calf-sickness ." 2 Soon he is kicked flying out of her ladyship's bed , and here we must leave him for a time to meet him again and his first love Molly further on , though not under the sun shine of youthful amorosis . A different phase and a much more pleasing one of the impulsiveness of youthful love is given us in that glowing story “ The Tale ofArchais .” There are many mysteries in this poem . Charicles the desire striving after Archais the ideal , failing , and the ideal seeking the lost desire ; but outwardly we have , and visible to all , a true poem of the self - sacrifice of Love , and as such I think we should principally read it, the poetry of life and hope , and not the mystic throbs of some deep aspiration . Charicles and Archais are the golden children of the Tree of Life ; she is under the curse of Jove — as all pure love has been under the anathema of some god- and he , blinded by his love , sets the mystic key in the secret lock , opening to his desire the hidden corridor of knowledge ; the spell falls hissing as a snake . The picture of their meeting is beautiful indeed . Thus we find Archais : 1 Why Jesus Wept , vol . iii, p . 41 . Ibid . vol . iii, p. 41 .