NARRATIVE POEMS. (continued 2)

TRISTRAM. Is she not come? The messenger was sure. Prop me upon the pillows once again. Raise me, my page! this cannot long endure. —Christ, what a night! how the sleet whips the pane! What lights will those out to the northward be? THE PAGE. The lanterns of the fishing-boats at sea. TRISTRAM. Soft—who is that, stands by the dying fire? THE PAGE. Iseult. TRISTRAM. Ah! not the Iseult I desire. . . . . . . . . . . What knight is this so weak and pale, Though the locks are yet brown on his noble head, Propped on pillows in his bed, Gazing seaward for the light Of some ship that fights the gale On this wild December night? Over the sick man’s feet is spread A dark green forest-dress; A gold harp leans against the bed, Ruddy in the fire’s light. I know him by his harp of gold, Famous in Arthur’s court of old; I know him by his forest-dress,— The peerless hunter, harper, knight, Tristram of Lyoness. What lady is this, whose silk attire Gleams so rich in the light of the fire? The ringlets on her shoulders lying In their flitting lustre vying With the clasp of burnished gold Which her heavy robe doth hold. Her looks are mild, her fingers slight As the driven snow are white; But her cheeks are sunk and pale. Is it that the bleak sea-gale Beating from the Atlantic sea On this coast of Brittany, Nips too keenly the sweet flower? Is it that a deep fatigue Hath come on her, a chilly fear, Passing all her youthful hour Spinning with her maidens here, Listlessly through the window-bars Gazing seawards many a league From her lonely shore-built tower, While the knights are at the wars? Or, perhaps, has her young heart Felt already some deeper smart, Of those that in secret the heart-strings rive, Leaving her sunk and pale, though fair? Who is this snowdrop by the sea?— I know her by her mildness rare, Her snow-white hands, her golden hair; I know her by her rich silk dress, And her fragile loveliness,— The sweetest Christian soul alive, Iseult of Brittany. Iseult of Brittany? but where Is that other Iseult fair, That proud, first Iseult, Cornwall’s queen? She, whom Tristram’s ship of yore From Ireland to Cornwall bore, To Tyntagel, to the side Of King Marc, to be his bride? She who, as they voyaged, quaffed With Tristram that spiced magic draught Which since then forever rolls Through their blood, and binds their souls, Working love, but working teen? There were two Iseults who did sway Each her hour of Tristram’s day; But one possessed his waning time, The other his resplendent prime. Behold her here, the patient flower, Who possessed his darker hour! Iseult of the snow-white hand Watches pale by Tristram’s bed. She is here who had his gloom: Where art thou who hadst his bloom? One such kiss as those of yore Might thy dying knight restore! Does the love-draught work no more? Art thou cold, or false, or dead, Iseult of Ireland? . . . . . . . . . . Loud howls the wind, sharp patters the rain, And the knight sinks back on his pillows again; He is weak with fever and pain, And his spirit is not clear. Hark! he mutters in his sleep, As he wanders far from here, Changes place and time of year, And his closèd eye doth sweep O’er some fair unwintry sea, Not this fierce Atlantic deep, While he mutters brokenly,— TRISTRAM. The calm sea shines, loose hang the vessel’s sails; Before us are the sweet green fields of Wales, And overhead the cloudless sky of May. “Ah! would I were in those green fields at play, Not pent on shipboard this delicious day! Tristram, I pray thee, of thy courtesy, Reach me my golden cup that stands by thee, But pledge me in it first for courtesy.” Ha! dost thou start? are thy lips blanched like mine Child, ’tis no water this, ’tis poisoned wine! Iseult!... . . . . . . . . . . Ah, sweet angels, let him dream! Keep his eyelids; let him seem Not this fever-wasted wight Thinned and paled before his time, But the brilliant youthful knight In the glory of his prime, Sitting in the gilded barge, At thy side, thou lovely charge, Bending gayly o’er thy hand, Iseult of Ireland! And she too, that princess fair, If her bloom be now less rare, Let her have her youth again, Let her be as she was then! Let her have her proud dark eyes, And her petulant quick replies; Let her sweep her dazzling hand With its gesture of command, And shake back her raven hair With the old imperious air! As of old, so let her be, That first Iseult, princess bright, Chatting with her youthful knight As he steers her o’er the sea, Quitting at her father’s will The green isle where she was bred, And her bower in Ireland, For the surge-beat Cornish strand; Where the prince whom she must wed Dwells on loud Tyntagel’s hill, High above the sounding sea. And that golden cup her mother Gave her, that her future lord, Gave her, that King Marc and she, Might drink it on their marriage-day, And forever love each other,— Let her, as she sits on board, —Ah! sweet saints, unwittingly!— See it shine, and take it up, And to Tristram laughing say,— “Sir Tristram, of thy courtesy, Pledge me in my golden cup.” Let them drink it; let their hands Tremble, and their cheeks be flame, As they feel the fatal bands Of a love they dare not name, With a wild delicious pain, Twine about their hearts again! Let the early summer be Once more round them, and the sea Blue, and o’er its mirror kind Let the breath of the May-wind, Wandering through their drooping sails, Die on the green fields of Wales; Let a dream like this restore What his eye must see no more. TRISTRAM. Chill blows the wind, the pleasaunce-walks are drear: Madcap, what jest was this, to meet me here? Were feet like those made for so wild a way? The southern winter-parlor, by my fay, Had been the likeliest trysting-place to-day!— “Tristram!—nay, nay—thou must not take my hand!— Tristram!—sweet love!—we are betrayed—out-planned. Fly—save thyself—save me! I dare not stay.” One last kiss first!—“’Tis vain—to horse—away!” . . . . . . . . . . Ah! sweet saints, his dream doth move Faster surely than it should, From the fever in his blood! All the spring-time of his love Is already gone and past, And instead thereof is seen Its winter, which endureth still,— Tyntagel on its surge-beat hill, The pleasaunce-walks, the weeping queen, The flying leaves, the straining blast, And that long, wild kiss,—their last. And this rough December-night, And his burning fever-pain, Mingle with his hurrying dream, Till they rule it; till he seem The pressed fugitive again, The love-desperate, banished knight, With a fire in his brain, Flying o’er the stormy main. —Whither does he wander now? Haply in his dreams the wind Wafts him here, and lets him find The lovely orphan child again In her castle by the coast; The youngest, fairest chatelaine, That this realm of France can boast, Our snowdrop by the Atlantic sea,— Iseult of Brittany. And—for through the haggard air, The stained arms, the matted hair, Of that stranger-knight ill-starred, There gleamed something which recalled The Tristram who in better days Was Launcelot’s guest at Joyous Gard— Welcomed here, and here installed, Tended of his fever here, Haply he seems again to move His young guardian’s heart with love, In his exiled loneliness, In his stately, deep distress, Without a word, without a tear. —Ah! ’tis well he should retrace His tranquil life in this lone place; His gentle bearing at the side Of his timid youthful bride; His long rambles by the shore On winter-evenings, when the roar Of the near waves came, sadly grand, Through the dark, up the drowned sand; Or his endless reveries In the woods, where the gleams play On the grass under the trees, Passing the long summer’s day Idle as a mossy stone In the forest-depths alone, The chase neglected, and his hound Couched beside him on the ground. —Ah! what trouble’s on his brow? Hither let him wander now; Hither, to the quiet hours Passed among these heaths of ours By the gray Atlantic sea,— Hours, if not of ecstasy, From violent anguish surely free! TRISTRAM. All red with blood the whirling river flows, The wide plain rings, the dazed air throbs with blows. Upon us are the chivalry of Rome; Their spears are down, their steeds are bathed in foam. “Up, Tristram, up!” men cry, “thou moonstruck knight! What foul fiend rides thee? On into the fight!” —Above the din, her voice is in my ears; I see her form glide through the crossing spears.— Iseult!... . . . . . . . . . . Ah! he wanders forth again; We cannot keep him: now, as then, There’s a secret in his breast Which will never let him rest. These musing fits in the green wood, They cloud the brain, they dull the blood! —His sword is sharp, his horse is good; Beyond the mountains will he see The famous towns of Italy, And label with the blessed sign The heathen Saxons on the Rhine. At Arthur’s side he fights once more With the Roman Emperor. There’s many a gay knight where he goes Will help him to forget his care; The march, the leaguer, heaven’s blithe air, The neighing steeds, the ringing blows,— Sick pining comes not where these are. —Ah! what boots it, that the jest Lightens every other brow, What, that every other breast Dances as the trumpets blow, If one’s own heart beats not light On the waves of the tossed fight, If one’s self cannot get free From the clog of misery? Thy lovely youthful wife grows pale Watching by the salt sea-tide, With her children at her side, For the gleam of thy white sail. Home, Tristram, to thy halls again! To our lonely sea complain, To our forests tell thy pain. TRISTRAM. All round the forest sweeps off, black in shade, But it is moonlight in the open glade; And in the bottom of the glade shine clear The forest-chapel and the fountain near. —I think I have a fever in my blood; Come, let me leave the shadow of this wood, Ride down, and bathe my hot brow in the flood. —Mild shines the cold spring in the moon’s clear light. God! ’tis her face plays in the waters bright! “Fair love,” she says, “canst thou forget so soon, At this soft hour, under this sweet moon?”— Iseult!... . . . . . . . . . . Ah, poor soul! if this be so, Only death can balm thy woe. The solitudes of the green wood Had no medicine for thy mood; The rushing battle cleared thy blood As little as did solitude. —Ah! his eyelids slowly break Their hot seals, and let him wake; What new change shall we now see? A happier? Worse it cannot be. TRISTRAM. Is my page here? Come, turn me to the fire! Upon the window-panes the moon shines bright; The wind is down; but she’ll not come to-night. Ah, no! she is asleep in Cornwall now, Far hence; her dreams are fair, smooth is her brow. Of me she recks not, nor my vain desire. —I have had dreams, I have had dreams, my page, Would take a score years from a strong man’s age; And with a blood like mine, will leave, I fear, Scant leisure for a second messenger. —My princess, art thou there? Sweet, ’tis too late! To bed, and sleep! my fever is gone by; To-night my page shall keep me company. Where do the children sleep? kiss them for me! Poor child, thou art almost as pale as I: This comes of nursing long and watching late. To bed—good night! . . . . . . . . . . She left the gleam-lit fireplace, She came to the bedside; She took his hands in hers, her tears Down on her slender fingers rained. She raised her eyes upon his face, Not with a look of wounded pride, A look as if the heart complained; Her look was like a sad embrace,— The gaze of one who can divine A grief, and sympathize. Sweet flower! thy children’s eyes Are not more innocent than thine. But they sleep in sheltered rest, Like helpless birds in the warm nest, On the castle’s southern side; Where feebly comes the mournful roar Of buffeting wind and surging tide Through many a room and corridor. —Full on their window the moon’s ray Makes their chamber as bright as day. It shines upon the blank white walls, And on the snowy pillow falls, And on two angel-heads doth play Turned to each other; the eyes closed, The lashes on the cheeks reposed. Round each sweet brow the cap close-set Hardly lets peep the golden hair; Through the soft-opened lips, the air Scarcely moves the coverlet. One little wandering arm is thrown At random on the counterpane, And often the fingers close in haste As if their baby-owner chased The butterflies again. This stir they have, and this alone; But else they are so still! —Ah, tired madcaps! you lie still; But were you at the window now, To look forth on the fairy sight Of your illumined haunts by night, To see the park-glades where you play Far lovelier than they are by day, To see the sparkle on the eaves, And upon every giant-bough Of those old oaks, whose wet red leaves Are jewelled with bright drops of rain,— How would your voices run again! And far beyond the sparkling trees Of the castle-park, one sees The bare heaths spreading, clear as day, Moor behind moor, far, far away, Into the heart of Brittany. And here and there, locked by the land, Long inlets of smooth glittering sea, And many a stretch of watery sand All shining in the white moonbeams. But you see fairer in your dreams! What voices are these on the clear night air? What lights in the court, what steps on the stair?

TRISTRAM. Raise the light, my page! that I may see her.— Thou art come at last, then, haughty queen! Long I’ve waited, long I’ve fought my fever; Late thou comest, cruel thou hast been. ISEULT. Blame me not, poor sufferer! that I tarried: Bound I was, I could not break the band. Chide not with the past, but feel the present; I am here, we meet, I hold thy hand. TRISTRAM. Thou art come, indeed; thou hast rejoined me; Thou hast dared it—but too late to save. Fear not now that men should tax thine honor! I am dying; build (thou may’st) my grave. ISEULT. Tristram, ah! for love of heaven, speak kindly! What! I hear these bitter words from thee? Sick with grief I am, and faint with travel; Take my hand—dear Tristram, look on me! TRISTRAM. I forgot, thou comest from thy voyage; Yes, the spray is on thy cloak and hair. But thy dark eyes are not dimmed, proud Iseult! And thy beauty never was more fair. ISEULT. Ah, harsh flatterer! let alone my beauty! I, like thee, have left my youth afar. Take my hand, and touch these wasted fingers; See my cheek and lips, how white they are! TRISTRAM. Thou art paler; but thy sweet charm, Iseult, Would not fade with the dull years away. Ah, how fair thou standest in the moonlight! I forgive thee, Iseult! thou wilt stay? ISEULT. Fear me not, I will be always with thee; I will watch thee, tend thee, soothe thy pain; Sing thee tales of true, long-parted lovers, Joined at evening of their days again. TRISTRAM. No, thou shalt not speak! I should be finding Something altered in thy courtly tone. Sit—sit by me! I will think, we’ve lived so In the green wood, all our lives, alone. ISEULT. Altered, Tristram? Not in courts, believe me, Love like mine is altered in the breast: Courtly life is light, and cannot reach it; Ah! it lives, because so deep-suppressed! What! thou think’st men speak in courtly chambers Words by which the wretched are consoled? What! thou think’st this aching brow was cooler, Circled, Tristram, by a band of gold? Royal state with Marc, my deep-wronged husband,— That was bliss to make my sorrows flee! Silken courtiers whispering honeyed nothings,— Those were friends to make me false to thee! Ah! on which, if both our lots were balanced, Was indeed the heaviest burden thrown,— Thee, a pining exile in thy forest, Me, a smiling queen upon my throne? Vain and strange debate, where both have suffered Both have passed a youth repressed and sad, Both have brought their anxious day to evening, And have now short space for being glad! Joined we are henceforth; nor will thy people Nor thy younger Iseult take it ill, That a former rival shares her office, When she sees her humbled, pale, and still. I, a faded watcher by thy pillow, I, a statue on thy chapel-floor, Poured in prayer before the Virgin-Mother, Rouse no anger, make no rivals more. She will cry, “Is this the foe I dreaded? This his idol, this that royal bride? Ah! an hour of health would purge his eyesight! Stay, pale queen, forever by my side.” Hush, no words! that smile, I see, forgives me. I am now thy nurse, I bid thee sleep. Close thine eyes: this flooding moonlight blinds them. Nay, all’s well again! thou must not weep. TRISTRAM. I am happy! yet I feel there’s something Swells my heart, and takes my breath away. Through a mist I see thee; near—come nearer! Bend—bend down! I yet have much to say. ISEULT. Heaven! his head sinks back upon the pillow.— Tristram! Tristram! let thy heart not fail! Call on God and on the holy angels! What, love, courage!—Christ! he is so pale. TRISTRAM. Hush, ’tis vain: I feel my end approaching. This is what my mother said should be, When the fierce pains took her in the forest, The deep draughts of death, in bearing me. “Son,” she said, “thy name shall be of sorrow; Tristram art thou called for my death’s sake.” So she said, and died in the drear forest. Grief since then his home with me doth make. I am dying. Start not, nor look wildly! Me, thy living friend, thou canst not save. But, since living we were ununited, Go not far, O Iseult! from my grave. Close mine eyes, then seek the princess Iseult; Speak her fair, she is of royal blood. Say, I charged her, that thou stay beside me: She will grant it; she is kind and good. Now to sail the seas of death I leave thee— One last kiss upon the living shore! ISEULT. Tristram! Tristram! stay—receive me with thee! Iseult leaves thee, Tristram! nevermore. . . . . . . . . . . You see them clear—the moon shines bright. Slow, slow and softly, where she stood, She sinks upon the ground; her hood Had fallen back, her arms outspread Still hold her lover’s hands; her head Is bowed, half-buried, on the bed. O’er the blanched sheet, her raven hair Lies in disordered streams; and there, Strung like white stars, the pearls still are; And the golden bracelets, heavy and rare, Flash on her white arms still,— The very same which yesternight Flashed in the silver sconces’ light, When the feast was gay and the laughter loud In Tyntagel’s palace proud. But then they decked a restless ghost With hot-flushed cheeks and brilliant eyes, And quivering lips on which the tide Of courtly speech abruptly died, And a glance which over the crowded floor, The dancers, and the festive host, Flew ever to the door; That the knights eyed her in surprise, And the dames whispered scoffingly,— “Her moods, good lack, they pass like showers! But yesternight and she would be As pale and still as withered flowers; And now to-night she laughs and speaks, And has a color in her cheeks. Christ keep us from such fantasy!”— Yes, now the longing is o’erpast, Which, dogged by fear and fought by shame. Shook her weak bosom day and night, Consumed her beauty like a flame, And dimmed it like the desert-blast. And though the curtains hide her face, Yet, were it lifted to the light, The sweet expression of her brow Would charm the gazer, till his thought Erased the ravages of time, Filled up the hollow cheek, and brought A freshness back as of her prime,— So healing is her quiet now; So perfectly the lines express A tranquil, settled loveliness, Her younger rival’s purest grace. The air of the December-night Steals coldly around the chamber bright, Where those lifeless lovers be. Swinging with it, in the light Flaps the ghost-like tapestry. And on the arras wrought you see A stately huntsman, clad in green, And round him a fresh forest-scene. On that clear forest-knoll he stays, With his pack round him, and delays. He stares and stares, with troubled face, At this huge, gleam-lit fireplace, At that bright, iron-figured door, And those blown rushes on the floor. He gazes down into the room With heated cheeks and flurried air, And to himself he seems to say,— “What place is this, and who are they? Who is that kneeling lady fair? And on his pillows that pale knight Who seems of marble on a tomb? How comes it here, this chamber bright, Through whose mullioned windows clear The castle-court all wet with rain, The drawbridge and the moat appear, And then the beach, and, marked with spray, The sunken reefs, and far away The unquiet bright Atlantic plain? —What! has some glamour made me sleep, And sent me with my dogs to sweep, By night, with boisterous bugle-peal, Through some old, sea-side, knightly hall, Not in the free green wood at all? That knight’s asleep, and at her prayer That lady by the bed doth kneel— Then hush, thou boisterous bugle-peal! —The wild boar rustles in his lair; The fierce hounds snuff the tainted air; But lord and hounds keep rooted there. Cheer, cheer thy dogs into the brake, O hunter! and without a fear Thy golden-tasselled bugle blow, And through the glades thy pastime take— For thou wilt rouse no sleepers here! For these thou seest are unmoved; Cold, cold as those who lived and loved A thousand years ago.

A year had flown, and o’er the sea away, In Cornwall, Tristram and Queen Iseult lay; In King Marc’s chapel, in Tyntagel old: There in a ship they bore those lovers cold. The young surviving Iseult, one bright day, Had wandered forth. Her children were at play In a green circular hollow in the heath Which borders the seashore; a country path Creeps over it from the tilled fields behind. The hollow’s grassy banks are soft-inclined; And to one standing on them, far and near The lone unbroken view spreads bright and clear Over the waste. This cirque of open ground Is light and green; the heather, which all round Creeps thickly, grows not here; but the pale grass Is strewn with rocks and many a shivered mass Of veined white-gleaming quartz, and here and there Dotted with holly-trees and juniper. In the smooth centre of the opening stood Three hollies side by side, and made a screen, Warm with the winter-sun, of burnished green With scarlet berries gemmed, the fell-fare’s food. Under the glittering hollies Iseult stands, Watching her children play: their little hands Are busy gathering spars of quartz, and streams Of stagshorn for their hats; anon, with screams Of mad delight they drop their spoils, and bound Among the holly-clumps and broken ground, Racing full speed, and startling in their rush The fell-fares and the speckled missel-thrush Out of their glossy coverts; but when now Their cheeks were flushed, and over each hot brow, Under the feathered hats of the sweet pair, In blinding masses showered the golden hair, Then Iseult called them to her, and the three Clustered under the holly-screen, and she Told them an old-world Breton history. Warm in their mantles wrapped, the three stood there, Under the hollies, in the clear still air,— Mantles with those rich furs deep glistering Which Venice ships do from swart Egypt bring. Long they stayed still, then, pacing at their ease, Moved up and down under the glossy trees; But still, as they pursued their warm dry road, From Iseult’s lips the unbroken story flowed, And still the children listened, their blue eyes Fixed on their mother’s face in wide surprise. Nor did their looks stray once to the sea-side, Nor to the brown heaths round them, bright and wide, Nor to the snow, which, though ’twas all away From the open heath, still by the hedgerows lay, Nor to the shining sea-fowl, that with screams Bore up from where the bright Atlantic gleams, Swooping to landward; nor to where, quite clear, The fell-fares settled on the thickets near. And they would still have listened, till dark night Came keen and chill down on the heather bright; But when the red glow on the sea grew cold, And the gray turrets of the castle old Looked sternly through the frosty evening-air, Then Iseult took by the hand those children fair, And brought her tale to an end, and found the path, And led them home over the darkening heath. And is she happy? Does she see unmoved The days in which she might have lived and loved Slip without bringing bliss slowly away, One after one, to-morrow like to-day? Joy has not found her yet, nor ever will: Is it this thought which makes her mien so still, Her features so fatigued, her eyes, though sweet, So sunk, so rarely lifted save to meet Her children’s? She moves slow; her voice alone Hath yet an infantine and silver tone, But even that comes languidly; in truth, She seems one dying in a mask of youth. And now she will go home, and softly lay Her laughing children in their beds, and play A while with them before they sleep; and then She’ll light her silver lamp,—which fishermen Dragging their nets through the rough waves afar, Along this iron coast, know like a star,— And take her broidery-frame, and there she’ll sit Hour after hour, her gold curls sweeping it; Lifting her soft-bent head only to mind Her children, or to listen to the wind. And when the clock peals midnight, she will move Her work away, and let her fingers rove Across the shaggy brows of Tristram’s hound, Who lies, guarding her feet, along the ground; Or else she will fall musing, her blue eyes Fixed, her slight hands clasped on her lap; then rise, And at her prie-dieu kneel, until she have told Her rosary-beads of ebony tipped with gold; Then to her soft sleep—and to-morrow’ll be To-day’s exact repeated effigy. Yes, it is lonely for her in her hall. The children, and the gray-haired seneschal, Her women, and Sir Tristram’s aged hound, Are there the sole companions to be found. But these she loves; and noisier life than this She would find ill to bear, weak as she is. She has her children, too, and night and day Is with them; and the wide heaths where they play, The hollies, and the cliff, and the sea-shore, The sand, the sea-birds, and the distant sails, These are to her dear as to them; the tales With which this day the children she beguiled She gleaned from Breton grandames, when a child, In every hut along this sea-coast wild; She herself loves them still, and, when they are told, Can forget all to hear them, as of old. Dear saints, it is not sorrow, as I hear, Not suffering, which shuts up eye and ear To all that has delighted them before, And lets us be what we were once no more. No: we may suffer deeply, yet retain Power to be moved and soothed, for all our pain, By what of old pleased us, and will again. No: ’tis the gradual furnace of the world, In whose hot air our spirits are upcurled Until they crumble, or else grow like steel, Which kills in us the bloom, the youth, the spring; Which leaves the fierce necessity to feel, But takes away the power: this can avail, By drying up our joy in every thing, To make our former pleasures all seem stale. This, or some tyrannous single thought, some fit Of passion, which subdues our souls to it, Till for its sake alone we live and move,— Call it ambition, or remorse, or love,— This too can change us wholly, and make seem All which we did before, shadow and dream. And yet, I swear, it angers me to see How this fool passion gulls men potently; Being, in truth, but a diseased unrest, And an unnatural overheat at best. How they are full of languor and distress Not having it; which when they do possess, They straightway are burnt up with fume and care, And spend their lives in posting here and there Where this plague drives them; and have little ease, Are furious with themselves, and hard to please. Like that bald Cæsar, the famed Roman wight, Who wept at reading of a Grecian knight Who made a name at younger years than he; Or that renowned mirror of chivalry, Prince Alexander, Philip’s peerless son, Who carried the great war from Macedon Into the Soudan’s realm, and thundered on To die at thirty-five in Babylon. What tale did Iseult to the children say, Under the hollies, that bright winter’s day? She told them of the fairy-haunted land Away the other side of Brittany, Beyond the heaths, edged by the lonely sea; Of the deep forest-glades of Broce-liande, Through whose green boughs the golden sunshine creeps, Where Merlin by the enchanted thorn-tree sleeps. For here he came with the fay Vivian, One April, when the warm days first began. He was on foot, and that false fay, his friend, On her white palfrey; here he met his end, In these lone sylvan glades, that April-day. This tale of Merlin and the lovely fay Was the one Iseult chose, and she brought clear Before the children’s fancy him and her. Blowing between the stems, the forest-air Had loosened the brown locks of Vivian’s hair, Which played on her flushed cheek, and her blue eyes Sparkled with mocking glee and exercise. Her palfrey’s flanks were mired and bathed in sweat, For they had travelled far and not stopped yet. A brier in that tangled wilderness Had scored her white right hand, which she allows To rest ungloved on her green riding-dress; The other warded off the drooping boughs. But still she chatted on, with her blue eyes Fixed full on Merlin’s face, her stately prize. Her ’havior had the morning’s fresh clear grace, The spirit of the woods was in her face; She looked so witching fair, that learned wight Forgot his craft, and his best wits took flight, And he grew fond, and eager to obey His mistress, use her empire as she may. They came to where the brushwood ceased, and day Peered ’twixt the stems; and the ground broke away In a sloped sward down to a brawling brook. And up as high as where they stood to look On the brook’s farther side was clear; but then The underwood and trees began again. This open glen was studded thick with thorns Then white with blossom; and you saw the horns, Through last year’s fern, of the shy fallow-deer Who come at noon down to the water here. You saw the bright-eyed squirrels dart along Under the thorns on the green sward; and strong The blackbird whistled from the dingles near, And the weird chipping of the woodpecker Rang lonelily and sharp; the sky was fair, And a fresh breath of spring stirred everywhere. Merlin and Vivian stopped on the slope’s brow, To gaze on the light sea of leaf and bough Which glistering plays all round them, lone and mild, As if to itself the quiet forest smiled. Upon the brow-top grew a thorn, and here The grass was dry and mossed, and you saw clear Across the hollow; white anemones Starred the cool turf, and clumps of primroses Ran out from the dark underwood behind. No fairer resting-place a man could find. “Here let us halt,” said Merlin then; and she Nodded, and tied her palfrey to a tree. They sate them down together, and a sleep Fell upon Merlin, more like death, so deep. Her finger on her lips, then Vivian rose, And from her brown-locked head the wimple throws, And takes it in her hand, and waves it over The blossomed thorn-tree and her sleeping lover. Nine times she waved the fluttering wimple round, And made a little plot of magic ground. And in that daisied circle, as men say, Is Merlin prisoner till the judgment-day; But she herself whither she will can rove— For she was passing weary of his love.

Saint Brandan sails the northern main; The brotherhoods of saints are glad. He greets them once, he sails again; So late! such storms! The saint is mad! He heard, across the howling seas, Chime convent-bells on wintry nights; He saw, on spray-swept Hebrides, Twinkle the monastery-lights; But north, still north, Saint Brandan steered; And now no bells, no convents more! The hurtling Polar lights are neared, The sea without a human shore. At last (it was the Christmas-night; Stars shone after a day of storm) He sees float past an iceberg white, And on it—Christ!—a living form. That furtive mien, that scowling eye, Of hair that red and tufted fell, It is—oh, where shall Brandan fly?— The traitor Judas, out of hell! Palsied with terror, Brandan sate; The moon was bright, the iceberg near. He hears a voice sigh humbly, “Wait! By high permission I am here. “One moment wait, thou holy man! On earth my crime, my death, they knew; My name is under all men’s ban: Ah! tell them of my respite too. “Tell them, one blessed Christmas-night (It was the first after I came, Breathing self-murder, frenzy, spite, To rue my guilt in endless flame),— “I felt, as I in torment lay ’Mid the souls plagued by heavenly power, An angel touch mine arm, and say,— Go hence, and cool thyself an hour! “‘Ah! whence this mercy, Lord?’ I said. The leper recollect, said he, Who asked the passers-by for aid, In Joppa, and thy charity. “Then I remembered how I went, In Joppa, through the public street, One morn when the sirocco spent Its storms of dust with burning heat; “And in the street a leper sate, Shivering with fever, naked, old; Sand raked his sores from heel to pate, The hot wind fevered him fivefold. “He gazed upon me as I passed, And murmured, Help me, or I die! To the poor wretch my cloak I cast, Saw him look eased, and hurried by. “O Brandan! think what grace divine, What blessing must full goodness shower, When fragment of it small, like mine, Hath such inestimable power! “Well-fed, well-clothed, well-friended, I Did that chance act of good, that one! Then went my way to kill and lie, Forgot my good as soon as done. “That germ of kindness, in the womb Of mercy caught, did not expire; Outlives my guilt, outlives my doom, And friends me in the pit of fire. “Once every year, when carols wake, On earth, the Christmas-night’s repose, Arising from the sinner’s lake, I journey to these healing snows. “I stanch with ice my burning breast, With silence balm my whirling brain. O Brandan! to this hour of rest, That Joppan leper’s ease was pain.” Tears started to Saint Brandan’s eyes; He bowed his head, he breathed a prayer, Then looked—and lo, the frosty skies! The iceberg, and no Judas there!

In summer, on the headlands, The Baltic Sea along, Sits Neckan with his harp of gold, And sings his plaintive song. Green rolls, beneath the headlands, Green rolls the Baltic Sea; And there, below the Neckan’s feet, His wife and children be. He sings not of the ocean, Its shells and roses pale: Of earth, of earth, the Neckan sings, He hath no other tale. He sits upon the headlands, And sings a mournful stave Of all he saw and felt on earth, Far from the kind sea-wave. Sings how, a knight, he wandered By castle, field, and town; But earthly knights have harder hearts Than the sea-children own. Sings of his earthly bridal, Priest, knights, and ladies gay. “And who art thou,” the priest began, “Sir Knight, who wedd’st to-day?” “I am no knight,” he answered; “From the sea-waves I come.” The knights drew sword, the ladies screamed, The surpliced priest stood dumb. He sings how from the chapel He vanished with his bride, And bore her down to the sea-halls, Beneath the salt sea-tide. He sings how she sits weeping ’Mid shells that round her lie. “False Neckan shares my bed,” she weeps; “No Christian mate have I.” He sings how through the billows He rose to earth again, And sought a priest to sign the cross, That Neckan heaven might gain. He sings how, on an evening, Beneath the birch-trees cool, He sate and played his harp of gold, Beside the river-pool. Beside the pool sate Neckan, Tears filled his mild blue eye. On his white mule, across the bridge, A cassocked priest rode by. “Why sitt’st thou there, O Neckan, And play’st thy harp of gold? Sooner shall this my staff bear leaves, Than thou shalt heaven behold.” But, lo! the staff, it budded; It greened, it branched, it waved. “O ruth of God!” the priest cried out, “This lost sea-creature saved!” The cassocked priest rode onwards, And vanished with his mule; And Neckan in the twilight gray Wept by the river-pool. He wept, “The earth hath kindness, The sea, the starry poles; Earth, sea, and sky, and God above,— But, ah! not human souls!” In summer, on the headlands, The Baltic Sea along, Sits Neckan with his harp of gold, And sings this plaintive song.

Come, dear children, let us away; Down and away below! Now my brothers call from the bay, Now the great winds shoreward blow, Now the salt tides seaward flow; Now the wild white horses play, Champ and chafe and toss in the spray. Children dear, let us away! This way, this way! Call her once before you go,— Call once yet! In a voice that she will know,— “Margaret! Margaret!” Children’s voices should be dear (Call once more) to a mother’s ear; Children’s voices, wild with pain,— Surely she will come again! Call her once, and come away; This way, this way! “Mother dear, we cannot stay! The wild white horses foam and fret.” Margaret! Margaret! Come, dear children, come away down; Call no more! One last look at the white-walled town, And the little gray church on the windy shore; Then come down! She will not come, though you call all day; Come away, come away! Children dear, was it yesterday We heard the sweet bells over the bay,— In the caverns where we lay, Through the surf and through the swell, The far-off sound of a silver bell? Sand-strewn caverns, cool and deep, Where the winds are all asleep; Where the spent lights quiver and gleam, Where the salt weed sways in the stream, Where the sea-beasts, ranged all round, Feed in the ooze of their pasture-ground; Where the sea-snakes coil and twine, Dry their mail and bask in the brine; Where great whales come sailing by, Sail and sail, with unshut eye, Round the world for ever and aye? When did music come this way? Children dear, was it yesterday? Children dear, was it yesterday (Call yet once) that she went away? Once she sate with you and me, On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea, And the youngest sate on her knee. She combed its bright hair, and she tended it well, When down swung the sound of a far-off bell. She sighed, she looked up through the clear green sea; She said, “I must go, for my kinsfolk pray In the little gray church on the shore to-day. ’Twill be Easter-time in the world—ah me! And I lose my poor soul, merman! here with thee.” I said, “Go up, dear heart, through the waves; Say thy prayer, and come back to the kind sea-caves!” She smiled, she went up through the surf in the bay. Children dear, was it yesterday? Children dear, were we long alone? “The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan; Long prayers,” I said, “in the world they say; Come!” I said; and we rose through the surf in the bay. We went up the beach, by the sandy down Where the sea-stocks bloom, to the white-walled town; Through the narrow paved streets, where all was still, To the little gray church on the windy hill. From the church came a murmur of folk at their prayers, But we stood without in the cold blowing airs. We climbed on the graves, on the stones worn with rains, And we gazed up the aisle through the small leaded panes. She sate by the pillar; we saw her clear: “Margaret, hist! come quick, we are here! Dear heart,” I said, “we are long alone; The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan.” But, ah! she gave me never a look, For her eyes were sealed to the holy book. Loud prays the priest; shut stands the door. Come away, children, call no more! Come away, come down, call no more! Down, down, down! Down to the depths of the sea! She sits at her wheel in the humming town, Singing most joyfully. Hark what she sings: “O joy, O joy, For the humming street, and the child with its toy! For the priest, and the bell, and the holy well; For the wheel where I spun, And the blessed light of the sun!” And so she sings her fill, Singing most joyfully, Till the spindle drops from her hand, And the whizzing wheel stands still. She steals to the window, and looks at the sand, And over the sand at the sea; And her eyes are set in a stare; And anon there breaks a sigh, And anon there drops a tear, From a sorrow-clouded eye, And a heart sorrow-laden, A long, long sigh, For the cold strange eyes of a little mermaiden, And the gleam of her golden hair. Come away, away, children; Come, children, come down! The hoarse wind blows colder; Lights shine in the town. She will start from her slumber When gusts shake the door: She will hear the winds howling, Will hear the waves roar. We shall see, while above us The waves roar and whirl, A ceiling of amber, A pavement of pearl. Singing, “Here came a mortal, But faithless was she! And alone dwell forever The kings of the sea.” But, children, at midnight, When soft the winds blow, When clear falls the moonlight, When spring-tides are low; When sweet airs come seaward From heaths starred with broom, And high rocks throw mildly On the blanched sands a gloom; Up the still, glistening beaches, Up the creeks we will hie, Over banks of bright seaweed The ebb-tide leaves dry. We will gaze, from the sand-hills, At the white sleeping town; At the church on the hill-side, And then come back down, Singing, “There dwells a loved one, But cruel is she! She left lonely forever The kings of the sea.”