He Was a Grecian lad, who coming home
With pulpy figs and wine from Sicily
Stood at his galley’s prow, and let the foam
Blow through his crisp brown curls
unconsciously,
And holding wave and wind in boy’s despite
Peered from his dripping seat across the wet
and stormy night.
Till with the dawn he saw a burnished spear
Like a thin thread of gold against the sky,
And hoisted sail, and strained the creaking
gear,
And bade the pilot head her lustily
Against the nor-west gale, and all day long
Held on his way, and marked the rowers’ time
with measured song,
And when the faint Corinthian hills were red
Dropped anchor in a little sandy bay,
And with fresh boughs of olive crowned his
head,
And brushed from cheek and throat the hoary
spray,
And washed his limbs with oil, and from the
hold
Brought
his linen tunic and his sandals brazen-soled,
And a
rich robe stained with the fishes’ juice
Which of some swarthy trader he had bought
Upon the sunny quay at Syracuse,
And was with Tyrian broideries inwrought,
And by the questioning merchants made his way
Up through the soft and silver woods, and when
the labouring day
Had spun its tangled web of crimson cloud,
Clomb the high hill, and with swift silent feet
Crept to the fane unnoticed by the crowd
Of busy priests, and from some dark retreat
Watched the young swains his frolic playmates
bring
The firstling of their little flock, and the
shy shepherd fling
The crackling salt upon the flame, or hang
His studded crook against the temple wall
To Her who keeps away the ravenous fang
Of the base wolf from homestead and from stall,
And then the clear-voiced maidens ’gan to sing,
And to the altar each man brought some goodly
offering,
A beechen cup brimming with milky foam,
A fair cloth wrought with cunning imagery
Of hounds in chase, a waxen honey-comb
Dripping with oozy gold which scarce the bee
Had ceased from building, a black skin of oil
Meet for the wrestlers, a great boar the fierce
and white-tusked spoil
Stolen from Artemis that jealous maid
To please Athena, and the dappled hide
Of a tall stag who in some mountain glade
Had met the shaft; and then the herald cried,
And from the pillared precinct one by one
Went the glad Greeks well pleased that their
simple vows had done.
And the old priest put out the waning fires
Save that one lamp whose restless ruby glowed
For ever in the cell, and the shrill lyres
Came fainter on the wind, as down the road
In joyous dance these country folk did pass,
And with stout hands the warder closed the
gates of polished brass.
Long time he lay and hardly dared to breathe,
And heard the cadenced drip of split-out wine,
And the rose-petals falling from the wreath
As the night breezes wandered through the shrine,
And seemed to be in some entranced swoon
Till through the open roof above the full and
brimming moon
Flooded with sheeny waves the marble floor,
When from his nook up leapt the venturous lad,
And flinging wide the cedar-carven door
Beheld an awful image saffron-clad
And armed for battle! the gaunt Griffin glared
from the huge helm, and the long lance of wreck
and ruin flared
Like a red rod of flame, stony and steeled,
The Gorgon’s head its laden eyeballs rolled,
And writhed its snaky horrors through the
shield,
And gaped aghast with bloodless lips and cold
In passion impotent, while with blind glaze
The blinding owl between the feet hooted in
shrill amaze.
The lonely fisher as he trimmed his lamp
Far out at sea off Sunium, or cast
The net for tunnies, heard a brazen tramp
Of horses smite the waves, and a wild blast
Divide the folded curtains of the night,
And knelt upon the little poop, and prayed in
holy fright.
And guilty lovers in their venery
Forgat a little while their stolen sweets,
Deeming they heard dread Diana’s bitter cry;
And the grim watchman on their lofty seats
Ran to their shields in haste precipitate,
Or strained black-bearded throats across the
dusky parapet.
For round the temple rolled the clang of arms,
And the twelve Gods leapt up in marble fear,
And the air quaked with dissonant alarums
Till huge Poseidon shook his mighty spear,
And on the frieze the prancing horses neighed,
And the low tread of hurrying feet rang from
the cavalcade.
Ready for death with parted lips he stood,
And well content at such a price to see
That calm wide brow, that terrible maidenhood,
The marvel of that pitiless chastity,
Ah! well content indeed, for never wight
Since Troy’s young shepherd prince had seen so
wonderful a sight.
Ready for death he stood, but lo! the air
Grew silent, and the horses ceased to neigh,
And off his brow he tossed the clustering hair,
And from his limbs he threw the cloak away;
For whom would not such love make desperate?
And nigher came, and touched her throat, and
with hands violate
Undid the cuirass, and the crocus gown,
And bared the breasts of polished ivory,
Till from the waist the peplos falling down
Left visible the secret mystery
Which to no lover will Athena show,
The grand cool flanks, the crescent thighs, the
bossy hills of snow.
Those who have never known a lover’s sin
Let them not read my ditty, it will be
To their dull ears so musicless and thin
That they will have no joy of it, but ye
To whose wan cheeks now creeps the lingering
smile,
Ye who have learned who Eros is, – O listen yet
awhile.
A little space he let his greedy eyes
Rest on the burnished image, till mere sight
Half swooned for surfeit of such luxuries,
And then his lips in hungering delight
Fed on her lips, and round the towered neck
He flung his arms, nor cared at all his
passion’s will to check.
Never I ween did lover hold such tryst,
For all night long he murmured honeyed word,
And saw her sweet unravished limbs, and kissed
Her pale and argent body undisturbed,
And paddled with the polished throat, and
pressed
His hot and beating heart upon her chill and
icy breast.
It was as if Numidian javelins
Pierced through and through his wild and
whirling brain,
And his nerves thrilled like throbbing violins
In exquisite pulsation, and the pain
Was such sweet anguish that he never drew
His lips from hers till overhead the lark of
warning flew.
They who have never seen the daylight peer
Into a darkened room, and drawn the curtain,
And with dull eyes wearied from some dear
And worshipped body risen, they for certain
Will never know of what I try to sing,
How long the last kiss was, how fond and late
his lingering.
The moon was girdled with a crystal rim,
Then sign which shipmen say is ominous
Of wrath in heaven, the wan stars were dim
And the low lightening east was tremulous
With the faint fluttering wings of flying dawn
Ere from the silent sombre shrine his lover had
withdrawn.
Down the steep rock with hurried feet and fast
Clomb the brave lad, and reached the cave of
Pan,
And heard the goat-foot snoring as he passed,
And leapt upon a grassy knoll and ran
Like a young fawn unto an olive wood
Which in a shady valley by the well-built city
stood;
And sought a little stream, which well he knew,
For oftentimes with boyish careless shout
The green and crested grebe he would pursue,
Or snare in woven net the silver trout
And down amid the startled reeds he lay
Panting in breathless sweet affright, and
waited for the day.
On the green bank he lay, and let one hand
Did in the cool dark eddies listlessly,
And soon the breath of morning came and fanned
His hot flushed cheeks, or lifted wantonly
The tangled curls from his forehead, while
He on the running water gazed with strange and
secret smile.
And soon the shepherd in rough woollen cloak
With his long crook undid the wattled cotes,
And from the stack a thin blue wreath of smoke
Curled through the air across the ripening
oats,
And on the hill the yellow house-dog bayed
As through the crisp and rustling fern the
heavy cattle strayed.
And when the light-foot mower went afield
Across the meadows laced with threaded dew,
And the sheep bleated on the misty weald,
And from its nest the waking corncrake flew,
Some marvelled much that any lad so beautiful
could seem,
Nor deemed him born of mortals, and one said,
“It is young Hylas, that false runaway
Who with a Naiad now, would make his bed
Forgetting Herakles,” but others, “Nay,
It is Narcissus, his own paramour,
Those are the fond and crimson lips no woman
can allure.”
And when they nearer came a third one cried,
“It is a young Dionysos who has hid
His spear and fawnskin by the river side
Weary of hunting with the Bassarid,
And wise indeed were we away to fly:
They live not long who on the gods immortal
come to spy.”
So turned they back, and feared to look behind,
And told the timid swain how they had seen
Amid the reeds some woodland God reclined,
And no man dared to cross the open green,
And on that day no olive-tree was slain
Nor rushes cut, but all deserted was the fair
domain,
Save when the neat-herd’s lad, his empty pail
Well slung upon his back, with leap and bound
Raced on the other side, and stopped to hail,
Hoping that he some comrade new had found,
And got no answer, and then half afraid
Passed on his simple way, or down the still and
silent glade.
A little girl ran laughing from the farm,
Not thinking of love’s secret mysteries,
And when she saw the white and gleaming arm
And all his manlihood, with longing eyes
Whose passion mocked her sweet virginity
Watched him awhile, and then stole back sadly
and wearily.
Far off he heard the city’s hum and noise,
And now and then the shriller laughter where
The passionate purity of brown-limbed boys
Wrestled or raced in the clear healthful air,
And now and then a little tinkling bell
As the shorn wether led the sheep down to the
mossy well.
Through the grey willows danced the fretful
gnat,
The grasshopper chirped idly from the tree,
In sleek and oily coat the water-rat
Breasting the little ripples manfully
Made for the wild-duck’s nest, from bough to
bough
Hopped the shy finch, and the huge tortoise
crept across the slough.
On the faint wind floated the silky seeds
As the bright scythe swept through the waving
grass,
The ousel-cock splashed circles in the reeds
And flecked with silver whorls the forest’s glass,
Which scarce had caught again its imagery
Ere from its bed the dusky tench leapt at the
dragon-fly.
But little care had he for any thing
Though up and down the beech the squirrel
played,
And from the copse the linnet ’gan to sing
To her brown mate her sweetest serenade;
Ah! little care indeed, for he had seen
The breasts of Pallas and the naked wonder of
the Queen.
But when the herdsmen called his straggling
goats
With whistling pipes across the rocky road,
And the shard-beetle with its trumpet-notes
Boomed through the darkening woods, and seemed
to bode
Of coming storm, and the belated crane
Passed homeward like a shadow, and the dull big
drops of rain
Fell on the pattering fig-leaves, up he rose,
And from the gloomy forest went his way
Past sombre homestead and wet orchard-close,
And came at last unto a little quay, a
And called his mates aboard, and took his seat
On the high poop, and pushed from land, and
loosed the dripping sheet,
And steered across the bay, and when nine suns
Passed down the long and laddered way of gold,
And nine pale moons had breathed their orisons
To the chaste stars their confessors, or told
Their dearest secret to the downy moth
That will not fly at noonday, through the foam
and surging froth
Came a great owl with yellow sulphurous eyes
And lit upon the ship, whose timbers creaked
As though the lading of three argosies
Were in the hold, and flapped its wings and
shrieked,
And darkness straightaway stole across the
deep,
Sheathed was Orion’s sword, dread Mars himself
fled down the steep,
And the moon hid behind a tawny mask
Of drifting cloud, and from the ocean’s marge
Rose the red plume, the huge and horned casque,
The seven-cubit spear, the brazen targe!
And clad in bright and burnished panoply
Athena strode across the stretch of sick and
shivering sea!
To the dull sailors’ sight her loosened locks
Seemed like the jagged storm-rack, and her feet
Only the spume that floats on hidden rocks,
And, marking how the rising waters beat
Against the rolling ship, the pilot cried
To the young helmsman at the stern to luff to
windward side.
But he, the overbold adulterer,
A dear profaner of great mysteries,
An ardent amorous idolater,
When he beheld those grand relentless eyes
Laughed loud for joy, and crying out “I come”
Leapt from the lofty poop into the chill and
churning foam.
Then fell from the high heaven one bright star,
One dancer left the circling galaxy,
And back to Athens on her clattering car
In all the pride of venged divinity
Pale Pallas swept with shrill and steely clank,
And a few gurgling bubbles rose where her boy
lover sank.
And the mast shuddered as the gaunt owl flew
With mocking hoots after the wrathful Queen,
And the old pilot bade the trembling crew
Hoist the big sail, and told how he had seen
Close to the stern a dim and giant form,
And like a dipping swallow the stout ship
dashed through the storm.
And no man dared to speak of Charmides
Deeming that he some evil thing had wrought,
And when they reached the strait Symplegades
They beached their galley on the shore, and
sought
The toll-gate of the city hastily,
And in the market showed their brown and
pictured pottery.
TO
BE CONTINUED