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…canopy ; Beech and chestnut, poplar tall, Birch and elm shall flourish all Dewed with ever-living spring. Song and dance shall close the day, CHORUS Close this happy, happy day. CHARICLES Of your revels Ill be king, ARCHAIS I the queen of your array. Both Foot it nimbly in the ring ! CHORUS Stay, stars, and dance with us. Our songs compel The very gods to tremble, Banish the ill ghosts of hell,
…d upon him and was ware His form did change, and, writhing from her clasp, Fled hissing outward, a more hateful asp Than India breeds to-day, so terrible Was his despair, so venomous as hell The sudden hate that filled him. So away Knowing not whither, did he flee, till day Dropped her blue pinions, and the night drew on, And sable clouds banked out the weary sun.
…d to live With one aim only ; never to forgive The wrong the gods do me, and in my form Love his high self, by whom the earth is warm To-day, by whose defiance the universe Would crash in one inextricable curse To primal chaos. Hear me, I have sworn. Then, suddenly, more glorious than the morn Tipping the golden tops of autumn hills With light, more countless than the myriad rills Of bright dew running off the bracken leaves, With gold more saturated than the sheaves In the red glow that promises the day Shall glory when the night is fled away…
…ckly 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 pray, Wake !
… Sleep ! Sleep ! Sleep, ye happy lovers, sleep, Soft and dreamless, sweet and deep, Sleep ! Sleep ! We will steal away Till the break of day. ARCHAIS In the arms of love at last Love is anchored fast, Firm beyond the rage of Heaven, safe beyond the ocean blast. CHARICLES In the arms of love close prest, And thy tender breast Pillows now my happy head ; softly breezes from the west Both Stir the ring-doves nest.
…auty round. Thy ways are bound With petals that unclose When the sun seeks his way Through night and sleep and love to all the dreams of day. Love, sleep, and death ! The three that melt together, mingle so Man may not know The little change of breath (Caught sigh that love desires,) When love grows sleep, and sleep at last in death expires.
… of wonder ; Star to star must add to the glowing chorus ; Sun and moon must mingle and speed the echo Flaming through heaven. Night and day divide, and the music strengthens, Gathers roar of seas and the dirge of moor- lands ; Tempest, thunder, birds, and the breeze of summer Join to augment it. So the sound-world, filled of the fire of all things, Rolls majestic torrents of mighty music Through the stars where dwell the avenging spirits Bound in the whirlwind . . . So the cliffs their Song . . . For the mist re- gathers, Girds them bride-like…
…s wonder and bards melody ! ARCHAIS Cold is the kiss of the stars to the sea, The kiss of the earth to the orient grey That heralds the day ; Warmer the kiss of a love that is free As the wind of the sea, Quick and resurgent and splendid.
…er 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,
2 THE TALE OF ARCHAIS As the nestlings of a dove ; We are sheltered in the shadow of thy wing. Are the roses dead to-day ? Is the wine spilt ? Is the flute Broken ? Is thy lover fled ? Has the dancer danced away ? Is the voice of ocean mute ? Is the hour of 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 t…
…w When the sun is low, And the moon sails up like music on a sea of breathing snow. Chain and curse are passed away ; Love proclaims the day. Dawned his sunrise oer the sea, Changing olive waves to be Founts of emerald and sapphire ; he is risen, we are free. Light and dark are wed together Into golden weather ; Sun and moon have kissed, and built Palaces star-gilt Whence a crystal stream of joy, loves eternal wine, is spilt.
THE TALE OF ARCHAIS 87 Such rock-ruins people me tribes and nations, Kings and queens and princes as pure as dawning, Brave as day and true ; and a happy people Lulled unto freedom ; Nations past the stormier times of tyrants, Past the sudden spark of a great rebellion, Past the iron gates that are thrust asunder Not without bloodshed : Past the rule of might and the rule of lying, Free from golds bad sceptre, and free to cherish Joys of life diviner than war and passion— Falsest of phantoms. Only now true love, like a sun of molten Glory, sur…
…ar through the forest. Lastly sleep, like death, With strong compulsion of his labouring breath Came on him dreamless. When he woke, the day Stooped toward the splendour of the western bay, And he remembered. Like a wild birds cry The song within him flamed, a melody Dreadful and beautiful. The sad sea heard And echoed over earth its bitter word. SONG Ere the grape of joy is golden With the summer and the sun, Ere the maidens unbeholden Gather one by one, To the vineyard comes the shower, No sweet rain to fresh the flower. But the thunder rain…
…ng swords, With hopes and loves re-quickened, and her breath Grew calm as worships, though as dark as death Her soul had been for weary days no few ; Now, lightened by the spirit thrust anew As into a dead body breath of life, She gave sweet thanks with gentle lips that ope, Like buds of roses on the sunny slope Of lily gardens falling toward a stream That flashes back the intolerable beam Of sunlight with light heart. They fled away At Cypris word, beyond the bounds of day Into the awful caverns of the night, Eerie with ghosts imagined, and …
…ves, 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 Fondly quiescent while she answered him : Yea, 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 i…
…ow of a pain. But I, but I — Yea, verily, fear not But stratagem may lift thy bitter lot From thy worn shoulders. Thus for half the day Thou art as free as air, as woodland fay Treading the circle of unearthly green, By maiden eyes at summer midnight seen. These hours of freedom thy mayst use to free Love from his toils, and joy and goodly gree Shall be thy guerdon. Listen ! I have power To change thy semblance in thy happier hour ; Thou shall assume the countenance of Loves Divinest maiden in the darkling groves Of Ida. There shall thou…
…light ; The sin that looks with wistful eyes ; the sin That trembles on the olive of the skin ; 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, but slow treason creeping in, To spread corruption, and destroy the earth. But 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, …
THE TALE OF ARCHAIS 65 Sunnier days and rivers calm and clear, And music for four seasons of the year, And pleasant people with glad throat and voice To wise to grieve, too happy to rejoice. So came the dawn on Ida to disclose Within her confines a delicious rose Lying asleep, a-dreaming, white of brow, Stainless and splendid. Yea, and fair enow To tempt the lips of Death to kiss her eyes And bid her waken in the sad surprise Of seeing round her the iron gates of hell In gloomy strength : so sweet, so terrible, So fair, her image in the brook m…