Book 5 — POEMS IN CLASSICAL PROSODY

PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS

Fp. I. Daniel Press. 1903.

" II. Monthly Review. July, 1903, with an abstract of Stone's Prosody, as there used.

No. 3. Printed by C. H. Daniel. 1903.

" 8. In 'Pelican,' C.C.C., Oxford.

" 9. English Review. March, 1912.

" 21. New Quarterly. Jan. 1909, with an essay on the Virgilian Hexameter, &c.

These experiments in quantitive verse were made in fulfilment of a promise to William Johnson Stone that I would some day test his theory. His premature death converted my consent into a serious obligation. This personal explanation is due to myself for two reasons: because I might otherwise appear firstly as an advocate of the system, secondly as responsible for Stone's determination of the lengths of English syllables. Before writing quantitive verse it is necessary to learn to think in quantities. This is no light task, and a beginner requires fixed rules. Except for a few minor details, which I had disputed with Mr. Stone, I was bound to take his rules as he had elaborated them; and it was not until I had made some progress and could think fairly well in his prosody that I seriously criticized it. The two chief errors that I find in it are that he relied too much on the quality of a vowel in determining its syllabic length, and that he regarded the h as always consonantal in quality. His valuation of the er sound is doubtful, but defensible and convenient, and I have never discarded it. My earlier experiments contain therefore a good many 'false quantities', and these, where they could not be very easily (though inconsistently) amended, I have left, and marked most of them in the text: a few false quantities do not make a poem less readable. Thus a long mark over a syllable means that Stone reckoned it as long, and that the verse requires it to be so pronounced, but that I regard it as short, or at least as doubtful. For example on p. 414 Rūin is thus written. Of all accented long vowels in 'open' position the long u seems perhaps to retain its quantity best, but there is evidence that Tennyson held it to be shortened, and I do not know whether it might be an exception or go with thĕory, pĭety, pŏetry, &c. Again, where a final syllable should be lengthened or not shortened by position, but lacks its consonantal support, I have put a^v in the gap: these weak places are chiefly due to my accepting Stone's unchanging valuation of h. My emancipation from Stone's rules was gradual, so that I have not been able to distinguish definitely my earlier experiments from the later, in which the quantities are such as I have now come to approve of: but my line-for-line paraphrase of Virgil is such a later experiment. It was accompanied in the New Quarterly by a long examination of the Virgilian hexameter, to which I would refer any one who is interested in the subject. In these English hexameters I have used and advocate the use of Miltonic elision. The mark ' in the text shows where I have purposely allowed a short syllable to sustain a long place. Though the difficulty of adapting our English syllables to the Greek rules is very great, and even deterrent—for I cannot pretend to have attained to an absolutely consistent scheme—yet the experiments that I have made reveal a vast unexplored field of delicate and expressive rhythms hitherto unknown in our poetry: and this amply rewarded me for my friendly undertaking.

1 EPISTLE I TO L. M. WINTRY DELIGHTS Now in wintry delights, and long fireside meditation, 'Twixt studies and routine paying due court to the Muses, My solace in solitude, when broken roads barricade me Mudbound, unvisited for months with my merry children, Grateful t'ward Providence, and heeding a slander against me Less than a rheum, think of me to-day, dear Līonel, and take This letter as some account of Will Stone's versification. We, whose first memories reach half of a century backward, May praise our fortune to have outliv'd so many dangers,— Faultiness of Nature's unruly machinery or man's—; 10 For, once born, whatever 'tis worth, LIFE is to be held to, Its mere persistence esteem'd as rēal attainment, Its crown of silver reverenc'd as one promise of youth Fruiting, of existence one needful purpose accomplish'd: And 'twere worth the living, howe'er unkindly bereft of Those joys and comforts, throu' which we chiefly regard it: Nay,—set aside the pleasant unhinder'd order of our life, Our happy enchantments of Fortune, easy surroundings, Courteous acquaintance, dwelling in fair homes, the delight of Long-plann'd excursions, the romance of journeying in lands Historic, of sēeing their glory, the famous adornments 21 Giv'n to memorial Earth by man, decorator of all-time, (—As wē saw with virginal eyes travelling to behold them,—) Her gorgeous palaces,^vher tow'rs and stately cathedrals; Where the turrets and domes of pictured Tuscany slumber, Or the havoc'd splendours of Rome imperial, or where Glare the fretted minarets and mosks of trespassing Islam, And old Nilus, amid the mummied suzerainty of Egypt, Glideth, a godly presence, consciously regardless of all things, Save his unending toil and ēternal recollections:— 30 Set these out of account, and with them too put away ART, Those ravishings of mind, those sensuous intelligences, By whose grace the elect enjoy their sacred aloofness From Life's meagre affairs, in beauty's rēgenerate youth Reading immortality's sublime revelation, adoring Their own heav'nly desire; nor alone in worship assist they, But take, call'd of God, part and pleasure in crēation Of that beauty, the first of His first purposes extoll'd:— Yea, set aside with these all Nature's beauty, the wildwood's Flow'ry domain, the flushing, softcrowding loveliness of Spring, 40 Lazy Summer's burning dīal, the serenely solemn spells Of Sibylline Autumn, with gay-wing'd Plenty departing; All fair change, whether of seasons or bright recurrent day, Morning or eve; the divine night's wonderous empyrean; High noon's melting azure, his thin cloud-country, the landscape Mountainous or maritime, blue calms of midsummer Ocean, Broad corn-grown champaign goldwaving in invisible wind, Wide-water'd pasture, with shade of whispering aspen; All whereby Nature winneth our love, fondly appearing As to caress her children, or all that in exaltation 50 Lifteth aloft our hearts to an unseen glory beyond her:— Put these out of account; yea, more I say, banish also From the credit sŭm of enjoyment those simple AFFECTIONS, Whose common exercise informs our natural instinct; That, set in our animal flesh-fabric, of our very lifeblood Draw their subsistence, and even in ungenerous hearts Root, like plants in stony deserts and 'neath pitiless snows. Yea, put away all Love, the blessings and pīeties^vof home, All delicate heart-bonds, vital tendernesses untold, Joys that fear to be named, feelings too holy to gaze on; 60 And with his inviolate peace-trīumph his passionate war Be forgone, his mighty desire, thrilling ecstasies, ardours Of mystic reverence, his fierce flame-eager emotions, Idolatrous service, blind faith and ritual of fire. If from us all these things were taken away, (that is all art And all beauty whate'er, and all love's varied affection,) Yet would enough subsist in other concerns to suffice us, And feed intelligence, and make life's justification. What this is, if you should ask me, beyond or above the rejoicing In vegetant or brute existence, answer is easy; 70 'Tis the reflective effort of mind that, conscious of itself, Fares forth exploring nature for principle and cause, Keenly with all the cunning pleasure and instinct of a hunter, Who, in craft fashioning weapon and sly snare, tracketh after His prey flying afield, and that which his arm killeth eateth. History and SCIENCE our playthings are: what an untold Wealth of inexhaustive treasure is stored up for amusement! Shall the amass'd Earth-structure appeal to me less than in early Childhood an old fives-ball, whose wraps I wondering unwound, Untwining the ravel'd worsted, that mere rubbish and waste Of leather and shavings had bound and moulded elastic 81 Into a perfect sphere? Shall not the celestial earth-ball Equally entertain a mature enquiry, reward our Examination of its contexture, conglomerated Of layer'd débris, the erosion of infinite ages? Tho' I lack the wizard Darwin's scīentific insight On the barren sea-beaches of East Patagonia gazing, I must wond'ring attend, nay learn myself to decipher Time's rich hīeroglyph, with vast elemental pencil Scor'd upon Earth's rocky crust,—minute shells slowly collecting 90 Press'd to a stone, uprais'd to a mountain, again to a fine sand Worn, burying the remains of an alien organic epoch, In the flat accretions of new sedimentary strata; All to be crush'd, crumpled, confused, contorted, abandon'd, Broke, as a child's puzzle is, to be recompos'd with attention; Nature's history-book, which shē hath torn as asham'd of; And lest those pictures on^vher fragmentary pages Should too lightly reveal frustrate Antiquity, hath laid Rūin upon rūin, revolution upon revolution: Yet no single atom, no least insignificant grain 100 But, having order alike of fate, and faulty disorder, Holds a record of Time, very vestiges of the Creation; Which who will not attend scorns blindly the only commandments By God's finger of old inscribed on table of earth-stone. This for me wer' enough: yet confin'd Gēology's field Counts not in all Scīence more than the planet to the Cosmos; Where our central Sun, almighty material author, And sustainer, appears as a half-consumed vanishing spark, Bearing along with it, entangled in immensity's onward Spiral eddies, the blacken'd dust-motes whirl'd off from around it. 110 But tho' man's microscopical functions measure all things By his small footprints, finger-spans and ticking of clocks, And thereby conceive the immense—such multiple extent As to defy Idēas of imperative cerebration,— None the less observing, measuring, patiently recording, Hē mappeth out the utter wilderness of unlimited space; Carefully weigheth a weight to the sun, reckoneth for it its path Of trackless travelling, the precise momentary places Of the planets and their satellites, their annual orbits, Times, perturbations of times, and orbit of orbit. 120 What was Alexander's subduing of Asia, or that Sheep-worry of Europe, when pigmy Napoleon enter'd Her sovereign chambers, and her kings with terror eclips'd? His footsore soldiers inciting across the ravag'd plains, Thro' bloody fields of death tramping to an ugly disaster? Shows any crown, set above the promise (so rudely accomplisht) Of their fair godlike young faces, a glory to compare With the immortal olive that circles bold Galileo's Brows, the laurel'd halo^vof Newton's unwithering fame? 129 Or what a child's surmise, how trifling a journey Columbus Adventur'd, to a land like that which he sail'd from arriving, If compar'd to Bessel's magic divination, awarding Magnificent Sirius^vhis dark and invisible bride; Or when Adams by Cam, (more nearly Leverrier in France,) From the minutely measur'd vacillation of Uranus, augur'd Where his mighty brother Neptune went wandering unnamed, And thro' those thousand-million league-darknesses of space Drew him slowly whene'er he pass'd, and slowly released him! Nil admirari! 'Tis surely a most shabby thinker 139 Who, looking on Nature, finds not the reflection appalling And if these wonders we must with wonder abandon, Astronomy's Cosmos, the Immense, and those physical laws That link mind to matter, laws mutual in revelation, Which measure and analyse Nature's primordial orgasm, Lifegiving omnipotential Light, its speed to determine, Untwist its rainbow of various earthcoloring rays, Counting strictly to each its own millionth-millimetred Wave-length, and mapping out on fray'd diffraction of ether All the adust elements and furnaced alchemy of^vheav'n; Laws which atone the disorder of infinit observation 150 With tyrannous numbers and abstract theory, closing Protean Nature with nets of principle exact; Her metamorphoses transmuting by correlation, All heat, all chemical concourse or electrical action, All force and all motion of all matter, or subtle or gross:— If we these wonders, I say, with wonder abandon, Nor can for mental heaviness their high study pursue, Yet no story of adventures or fabulous exploit Of famous'd heroes hath so rōmantic a discourse, As these growing annals of long heav'n-scaling achievement And far discoveries, which he who^vidly neglecteth 161 Is but a boor as truly ridiculous as the village clown, In whose thought the pleasant sun-ball performeth a circuit Daily above mother earth, and resteth nightly beneath her. Nor will a man, whose mind respects its own operations, Lightly resign himself to remain in darkness uninform'd, While any true scīence of fact lies easy within reach Concerning Nature's ēternal essential object, Self-matter, embodying substratum of ev'ry relation Both of Time and Space, at once the machinery and stuff Of those Idēas; carrier, giver, only receiver 171 Of such perceptions as arise in sensible organs. Now whether each element is a cōherency of equal Strictly symmetric atoms, or among themselves the atoms are Like animals in a herd, having each an identity distinct, —So that atoms of gold compar'd with sulphur or iron Are but as ancient Greeks compar'd with Chinamen and Turks;— Nor whether all elements are untransmutable offspring From one kind or more thro' endless eternity changing, Or whether invisibles claim rightly the name of immortals, I make no^venquiry; matter minutely divided 181 Showing a like paradox, with ever-continuous extent, And, as Adam, the atom will pose as a naked assumption:— But since all the knowledge which man was born to attain to Hath these only channels, (which must limit and qualify^vit,) We shall con the grammar, the material alphabet of life, Yea, ev'n more from error to preserve our inquisitive mind, Than to secure well-bēing against adversity and ill. Surely if all is a flux, 'tis well to look into the flūid, Inspect and question the apparent, shifty behaviour, 190 Wherein lurketh alone our witness of all physical law, As we read the habits unchanging of invisible things, Their timeless chronicles, the unintelligent ethic of dust: In which dense labyrinth he who was guiding avised me, With caution saying 'Were this globe's area of land Wholly cover'd from sight, pack'd close to the watery margins With mere empty vessels, I could myself put in each one Some different substance, and write its formula thereon.' Thus would speak the chemist; and Nature's superabundance, Her vast infinitude of waste vāriety untold, 200 As^vher immense extent and inconceivable object, Squandering activities throughout ēternity, dwarfeth Man's little aim and hour, his doubtful fancy: what are we? Our petty selfseekings, our speedily passing affections? Life having existed so extravagantly before us; Earth bearing so slight a regard or care for us; and all After us unconcern'd to remain, strange, beautiful as now. May not an idle echo^vof an antique pōetry haunt me, 'Friendship is all feigning, yea^vall loving is folly only'? —Yet doth not very mention of antique pōetry and love 210 Quickly recall to better motions my dispirited faith? And I see man's discontent as witness asserting His moral idēal, that, born of Nature, is heir to Her children's titles, which nought may cancel or impugn; Not wer' of all her works man least, but ranking among them Highly or ev'n as best, he wrongs himself to imagine His soul foe to her aim, or from^vher sanction an outlaw. Nay, but just as man should appear more fully accordant With things not himself, would they rank with^vhim as equals: Judging other creatures he sets them wholly beneath him; His disquīet among manifold and alien objects 221 Bēing sure evidence, the effect of an understanding, And perception allow'd by Nature solely to himself. Highly then is to be prais'd the resourceful wisdom of our time, That spunged out the written science and thēories of life, And, laying foundation of its knowledge in physical law, Gave it prēeminence o'er all enquiry, erecting Superstructive of all, bringing ev'ry research to the object, Boldly a new scīence of MAN, from dreamy scholastic Imprisoning set free, and inveterate divination, 230 Into the light of truth, to the touch of history and fact. Since 'the proper study of mankind is man',—nor aforetime Was the proverb esteem'd as a truism less than it is now,— 'Tis strange that the method lay out of sight unaccomplisht, And that we, so late to arrive, should first set a value On the delusive efforts of human babyhood; and so Witnessing impatiently the rear of their disappearance, Upgathering the relics and vestiges of primitive man, Should ratify^vinstinct for scīence, look to the darkness For light, find a knowledge where 'twas most groping or unknown: 240 While civilization's advances mutely regarding Talk we of old scapegoats, discuss bloodrites, immolations, Worship of ancestors; explain complexities involved Of tribal marriages, derivation of early religions, Priestly taboos, totems, archaic mysteries of trees, All the devils and dreams abhorr'd of barbarous ages. And 'tis a far escape from wires, wheels and penny papers And the worried congestion of our Victorian era, Whose many inventions of world-wide luxury have changed Life's very face:—but enough wē hear of progress, enough have 250 Our conscious scīence and comforts trumpeted; altho' Hardly can I, who so many years eagerly frequented Bartholomew's fountain, not speak of things to awaken Kind old Hippocrates, howe'er hē; slumbereth, entomb'd 'Neath the shatter'd winejars and rūined factories of Cos, Or where hē wander'd in Thessalian Larissa: For when his doctrine, which Rome had wisely adopted, Sank lost with the treasures of^vher deep-foundering empire, No^vart or scīence grew so contemptible, order'd 259 So by mere folly, windy caprice, superstition and chance, As boastful Medicine, with humours fit for a madhouse, Save when some Sydenham, like Samson among the Philistines, Strode bond-bursting along with a smile of genial instinct. Nor when here and there some ray, in darkness arising, Hopefully seem'd to herald the coming dawn, (as when a Laennec Or Jenner invented his meed of worthy remembrance,) Did one mind foresee, one seer foretell the appearance Of that unexpected daylight that arose upon our time. Who dream'd that living air poison'd our SURGERY, coating All our sheeny weapons with germs of an invisible death, 270 Till he saw the sterile steel work with immunity, and save Quickly as its warring scimitars of victory had slain? Saw what school-tradition for nature's kind method admir'd, —In those lifedraining slow cures and bedridden agues,— Forgotten, or condemn'd as want of care in a surgeon? Tho' Medicine makes not so plain an appeal to the vulgar, Yet she lags not a whit: her pregnant thēory touches Deeper discoveries,^vher more complete revolution Gives promise of wider benefits in larger abundance. Where she nam'd the disease she now separates the bacillus; 280 Sets the atoms of offence, those blind and sickly bloodeaters, 'Neath lens and daylight, forcing their foul propagations, Which had ever prosper'd in dark impunity unguest, Now to behave in sight, deliver their poisonous extract And their strange self-brew'd, self-slaying juice to be handled, Experimented upon, set aside and stor'd to oppose them. So novel and obscure a research, such hard revelations Of Nature's cabinet,—tho' with fact amply accordant, And by hypothesis much dark difficulty resolving, Are not quickly receiv'd nor approv'd, and sensitive idlers, Venturing in the profound terrible penetralia of life, 291 Are shock'd by^va method that shuns not contamination With crūel Nature's most secret processes unmaskt. And yet in all mankind's disappointed history, now first Have^vhis scouts push'd surely within^vhis foul enemies' lines, And his sharpshooters descried their insidious foe, Those swarming parasites, that barely within the detection Of manifold search-light, have bred, swimming unsuspected Thro' man's brain and limbs, slaying with loathly pollution His beauty's children,^vhis sweet scīons of affection, 300 In fev'rous torment and tears, his home desolating Of their fair innocence, breaking^vhis proud passionate heart, And his kindly belief in God's good justice arraigning. With what wildly directed attack, what an armory illjudged, Has he, (alas, poor man,) with what cumbrous machination Sought to defend himself from their Lilliputian onslaught; Aye discharging around him, in obscure night, at a venture, Ev'ry missile which^vhis despair confus'dly imagin'd; His simples, compounds, specifics, chemical therapeutics, Juice of plants, whatever was nam'd in lordly Salerno's 310 Herbaries and gardens, vipers, snails, all animal filth, Incredible quackeries, the pretentious jugglery of knaves, Green electricities, saints' bones and priestly anointings. Fools! that oppose his one scīentific intelligent hope! Grant us an hundred years, and man shall hold in abeyance These foul distempers, and with this world's benefactors Shall Pasteur obtain the reward of saintly devotion, His crown hēroic, who fought not destiny in vain. 'Tis success that attracts: 'twas therefore so many workers Ran pellmell to the schools of Nature in our generation, 320 While other employments have lack'd their genius and pined. Our fathers' likings wē thought semibarbarous, our art Self-consciously sickens in qualms of an æsthetic aura, Noisily in the shallows splashing and disporting uninspir'd. Our famed vulgarities whether in speech, taste or amusement, Are not amended: Is it foolish, hoping for a rescue, First to appeal to the strong, for health to the healthy amongst us? —For the Sophists' doctrine that Grace is dying of old age I hold in derision, their inkpot thēories of man, Of his cradle of art, his deathbed of algebra;—and see 330 How Scīence has wrought, since we went idling at Eton, One thing above surmise:—An' if I may dare to remind you How Vergil praises your lov'd Lucretius, (of whom My matter and metre^vhave set you thinking, as I fear,) In that glory which ends 'et inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari': Sounded not most empty to us such boast of a pagan, Strangely to us tutor'd to believe, with faith mediæval, Torture everlasting to be justly the portion of all souls, Nor but by the elects' secret prēdestiny escaped? 340 If you think to reply,—making this question in answer,— 'Did the belief disturb for a moment our pleasure in life?' No.—And men gather in harvest on slopes of an active Volcano: natheless the terror's ēnormity was there; Now 'tis away: Scīence has pierced man's cloudy common-sense, Dow'rd his homely vision with more expansive an embrace, And the rotten foundation of old superstition exposed. That trouble of Pascal, those vain paradoxes of Austin, Those Semitic parables of Paul, those tomes of Aquinas, All are thrown to the limbo of antediluvian idols, 350 Only because we learn mankind's true history, and know That not at all from a high perfection sinfully man fell, But from baseness arose: We have with sympathy enter'd Those dark caves, his joyless abodes, where with ravening brutes, Bear or filthy hyena, he once disputed a shelter:— That was his Paradise, his garden of Eden,—abandon'd Ages since to the drift and drip, the cementing accretions Whence we now separate his bones buried in the stalagma, His household makeshifts, his hunting tools, his adornments, From the scatter'd skeletons of a lost prehistoric order, 360 Its mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, the machairodos, and beasts Whose unnamed pastures the immense Atlantic inundates. In what corner of earth lie not dispersed the familiar Flinty relics of his old primitive stone-cutlery? what child Kens not now the design, the adapted structure of each one Of those hand-labor'd chert-flakes, whether axe, chisel, or knife, Spearhead, barb of arrow, rough plane or rudely serrate saw? Stones that in our grandsires' time told no sermon, (awaiting Indestructible, unnumber'd, on chary attention,) From their prēadamite pulpits now cry Revelation. 370 Not to a Greek his chanted epic had mortal allurement, Conjuring old-world fancies of Ilium and of Olympus, As this story to me, this tale primæval of unsung, Unwritten, ancestral fate and adversity, this siege Of courage and happiness protracted so many thousand Thousand years in a slow persistent victory of brain And right hand o'er all the venom'd stings, sharpnesses of fang And dread fury whate'er Nature, tirelessly devising, Could develop with tooth, claw, tusk, or horn to oppose them. See now Herakles, who strangled snakes when an infant 380 In^vhis cradle alone; and nought but those petty stonechips For the battle: 'twas wonder above wonders his achievement: Yea, and since he thought as a child 'twas natural in^vhim, Meeting in existence with purposes antagonistic, Circumstances oppos'd to desire, vast activities, which Thwarted effort, to assume All-might as spiteful against him. Nay, as an artist born, impell'd to devise a religion,— So to relate himself idēally with the immortal,— This quarrel of reason with what displeas'd his affections Was not amiss. The desire and love of beauty possess man: Art is of all that beauty the best outwardly presented; 391 Truth to the soul is merely the best that mind can imagine. No lover ēternal will hold to an older opinion If but lovelier ideas, with Nature agrēeing, Are to his understanding offer'd.... But enough: 'tis an unsolv'd Mystery.—Yet man dreams to flatter^vhis dēity saying 'Beautiful is Nature!' rather 'tis various, endless, And her efforts fertile in error tho' grand in attainment. If wé, while praising^vher scheme and infinite order, Are compell'd to select, our choice condemns the remainder; Nor can wisdom honour those loathly polluting offences, 401 Whose very names to the Muse are either accursèd or unknown. Nay, if such foul things thou deemest worthy, the fault was Making us, O Nature, thy judge and tearful accuser. Turn our thought for awhile to the symphonies of Beethoven, Or the rever'd preludes of mighty Sebastian; Is there One work of Nature's contrivance beautiful as these? Judg'd by beauty alone man wins, as sensuous artist; And for other qualities, the spirit's differentia, Nature Scarce observes them at all: that keen unfaltering insight, 410 Whereby^vearthly desire's roaming wildernesses are changed Into a garden a-bloom; its wandering impossible ways Into pillar'd avenues, alleys and fair-flow'ry terrac'd walks, (Where God talks with man, as once 'twas fancied of Eden;) That transcendental supreme interpreting of sense, Rendering intelligence passionate with mystery, linking Sympathy with grandeur, the reserve of dignity with play; Those soul-formalities, the balance held 'twixt the denīal And the betrayal of intention, whose masteries invite, Entice, welcome ever, meet, and with kindliness embrace; 420 Those guarded floodgates of boundless, lovely resources, Whence nothing ill issues, no distraction nor abortion Hindering enjoyment, but in easy security flow forth Ecstasies of fitness, raptures and harmonies of heav'n. Surely before such work of man, so kindly attemper'd, Nature must be asham'd, had shē not this ready answer, 'Fool, and who made thee?'— I shall not seem a deserter, Where in an idle essay my verse to a fancy abandon'd Praiseth others: rather while art and beauty delight us, While hope, faith and love are warm and lively in our hearts, Sweet our earthly desire and dear our human affection, 431 We may, joyfully despising the pedantries of old age, Hold to the time, nor lose the delight of mortal attainment; Keenly rejoicing in all that wisdom approves, nor allowing Ourselves at the challenge of younger craft to be outsailed; But trimming our old canvas in all change of weather and wind, Freely without fear urge o'erseas our good vessel onward, Piloting into the far, unmapp'd futurity.—Farewell.

2 EPISTLE II TO L. M. TO A SOCIALIST IN LONDON No^vethical system, no contemplation or action, No reason'd attitude of mind nor principle of faith, Neither Sōcratical wisdom nor saintly devotion, Buildeth a fortress against heart-ache & compassionate grief, Nor responds to desire, nor with true mastery yieldeth Easy repose to the mind; And since all our study endeth Emptily in full doubt,—fathoming the divine intention In this one thing alone, that, howsōe'er it affect us, 'Twas never intended for mortal fancy to compass,— I^vhave concluded that from first purposes unknown 10 None should seek to deduce idēal laws to be liv'd by; And, loving art, am true to the Muse, & pōetry extol: Therefore 'twas that afore I prais'd & heartily enjoy'd Your human verses, Fraser, when nobody bought them, More than again I praise those serious exhortations, Wherewith you wu'd amend the degraded people about you. Nay tho' like a prophet with heav'n-sent dignity inspir'd, With ready convincement and stern example assuring, Mightily you proclaim your love-messag' in the assembly, Exhibiting panacēas of ancient ill, propagating 20 Out of a Scotch cerebrum the reforming zeal of a Tolstoi, I listen all unmov'd, as a sceptic among the believers. Yet what a charm has an earnest soul, whom sympathy uncheckt For human suffering has strengthen'd and dedicated Bravely to serve his kind, to renounce his natural instinct, And liv' apart, indulging in acts of mercy, delighted In wisdom's rock-hewn citadel^vher law to illustrate, Embodying the pattern of self-integrity complete. Yea, what a charm pervades discourse, that loftily reason'd Points the narrow pathway throu' this world's ugly disorder; How very fair will appear any gate of cleanliness, open 30 From the city's tumult, its rank impurity, its dread Vulgarity's triumph: Nay sure & bounteous as Truth, Beautiful in confusion appeareth Simplicity's way. —'Simple it is, (yóu say) God is good,—Nature is ample,— 'Earth yields plenty for all,—and all might share in abundance, 'Were profit and labour but fairly divided among them. 'Scarce any laws are needed in our Utopia but these,— 'No fruitless labour to provide mere useless adornment, 'No money encouraging man's sloth & slavery, no rents 40 'Of titeld landlords, no pamper'd luxury breeding 'Fleshly disease, worst fiend & foe of mind body and soul; 'All should work, and only produce life's only requirements: 'So with days all halfholidays, toil healthfully enjoy'd, 'Each might, throu' leisure hours of amusement pīety and peace, 'In the domestic joys & holy community partake.—' —This wer' a downleveling, my friend; yoū need, to assure me, Fix a limit to the folk; else, as their number is increas't, Their happiness may dwindle away, & what was at outset Goal & prize, the provoker of all your wise revolution, 50 Will by subdivision disappear in course of atainment. When goods are^vincreas'd, mouths are^vincreas'd to devour them: If the famine be reliev'd this season in India, next dearth Will be a worse. Yoū know how one day Herschel acosted Súch a philanthropical Save-all, who claimed to acomplish Some greatest happiness for a greatest number; 'Attend, man; (Saíd-he) Resólve me anon one query: Suppose Adam and Eve First crēated on Earth but twice ten centuries ere Christ, That they gat four children in all, who liv'd, getting also Four to the pair: Had thus mankind ever equaly increast 60 By moderate families but doubling in each generation, How many souls would now be alive to revise the conundrum Of greatest happiness? No^vanswer? Well, 'tis a long sum. Say if on earth such a crowd could stand. No? Pray then imágine All earth's land as a plain, & all this company thereon, Piled together like peas in a pintpot: How many layers? No guess? Then how high the column? How far wu'd it extend Into the sky?—To the moon?—Further—To the sun?—To the sun! Pshaw! That column of happy men would reach up, as I fathom its height, Million dīameters of Neptune's infinit' orbit.' 70 My^vobjection annoys your kindly philanthropy?—'It proves 'Too much.'—Yes nature shows in that scrutiny bankrupt; Mere matter in deposit gives out. Yóu wish to determine No limit of future polities: your actual object Is to relieve suffering, to repeal injustice acruing From monied inheritance, which makes a nonentity potent For public mischief, who might, if usefully harness'd In common employment, have assisted social order. Why should Law give fifty talents where Nature alloys one? For money is the talent of supreme empery: Gold, Gold 80 Envieth all, getteth all, absorbeth, mastereth all things: It pusheth out & thrusteth away pitilessly the weak ones, Those ill-fated, opprest, unfortun'd needy: Beneath them Yawns the abyss. Down down they fall, as a stream on a mountain, With ceaseless cataract. None hearkeneth; only the silent Grave, that darkly devours their cry of desperate anguish. Spáre me the story; believe more feel this grief than avow it: 'Tis put aside from thought with death's incurable evil; Left for them, that assume mankind as cause, to lament it. And what if all Nature ratify this merciless outrage? 90 If her wonder of arch-wonders, her fair animal life, Her generate creatures, her motion'd warmblooded offspring, Haunters of the forest & royal country, her antler'd Mild-gazers, that keep silvan sabbath idly without end; Her herded galopers, sleeksided stately careerers Of trembling nostril; her coy unapproachable estrays, Stealthy treaders, climbers; her leapers furry, lissom-limb'd; Her timorous burrowers, and grangers thrifty, the sandy Playmates of the warren; her clumsy-footed, shaggy roamers; Her soarers, the feather'd fast-fliers, loftily floating 100 Sky-sailers, exiles of high solitudinous eyries; Her perching carolers, twitterers, & sweetly singing birds; All ocean's finny clans, mute-mouthers, watery breathers, Furtive arrow-darters, and fan-tail'd easy balancers, Silvery-scale, gilt-head, thorn-back, frill'd harlequinading Globe and slimy ribbon: Shell-builders of many-chamber'd Pearly dwellings, soft shapes mosslike or starry, adorning With rich floral fancy the gay rock-garden of ebb-tide: All life, from the massive-bulkt, ivory-tusht, elephantine Centēnarian, acknowledging with crouching obeisance 110 Man's will, ev'n to the least petty whiffling ephemeral insect, Which in a hot sunbeam engend'ring, when summer is high, Vaunteth an hour his speck of tinsely gaudiness and dies: Ah! what if all & each of Nature's favorite offspring, 'Mong many distinctions, have this portentous agreement, Mouth, Stomach, Intestine? Question that brute apparatus, So manifoldly devis'd, set alert with furious instinct: What doth it interpret but this, that Life Liveth on Life? That the select creatures, who^vinherit earth's domination, Whose happy existence is Nature's intelligent smile, 120 Are bloody survivors of a mortal combat, a-tweenwhiles Chanting a brief pæan for victory on the battlefield? Since that of all their kinds most owe their prosperous estate Unto the art, whereby they more successfully destroy'd Their weaker brethren, more insatiably devour'd them; And all fine qualities, their forms pictorial, admired, Their symmetries, their grace, & beauty, the loveliness of them, Were by Murder evolv'd, to 'scape from it or to effect it. 'Surely again (yoū say) too much is proven, it argues 'Mere horror & despair; unless persuasion avail us 130 'That the moral virtues are man's idēa, awaken'd 'By the spirit's motions; & therefore not to be conceiv'd 'In Nature's outward & mainly material aspect, 'As that is understood. You, since you hold that opinion, 'Run your own ship aground invoking Nature against me.'— Then withdraw the appeal, my friend, to her active alīance; Bē pessimist Nature with a pitchfork manfully expell'd, Not to return. Yet soul in hand, with brutal alegiance, Hunters & warriors do not forget the comandment. See how lively the old animal continueth in them: 140 Of what trifling account they hold life, yet what a practis'd Art pursue to preserve it: if I should rightly define sport Slaughter with danger, what were more serious and brave? Their love of air, of strength, of wildness, afford us an inkling Of the delight of beasts, with whom they might innocently Boast a fellow-feeling, summoning them forth to the combat. Nay dream not so quickly to see her ladyship expell'd. Those prowling Līons of stony Kabylia, whose roar Frights from sleep the huddled herdsmen, soon as the sudden night Falls on Mount Atlas, those grave uxorious outlaws 150 Wandering in the Somali desert or waste Kalahari, Sound a challenge that amid summer-idling London is answer'd Haply in Old Bond Street, where some fashionably attired youth Daintily stands poising the weapon foredoom'd to appay them: Or^vhe mentally sighteth a tiger of India, that low Crouches among the river jungles, or hunts desolating Grassy Tarâi, 'neath lofty Himálya, or far southward Outacamund, Mysore's residency, the Nilgherry mountains By Malabar; yea, and ere-long shall sight him in earnest, Stalked as a deer, surprised where hē lay slumbering at noon Under a rock full-gorged, or deep in reedy covert hid 160 By the trackers disturbed: Two grand eyes shall for a moment Glare upon either side the muzzle. Woe then to the hunter, If hē blench! That fury beclouded in invisible speed What marksman could arrest? what mortal abide his arrachement? Standing above the immense carcase hē gratefully praiseth God for a man-eater so fine, so worthy the slaying. See him again; 'tis war: one hill-rock strongly defended Checks advance, to be stormed at cost of half the assailants. Gaily away they go, Highlanders, English, or Irish, 170 Or swart Ghoorkas against the leaden hail, climbing, ascending, Lost in a smoke, scattering, creeping, here there, ever upwards: Till some change cometh o'er confusion. Who winneth? ah! see! Ours have arrived, and he who led their bravery is there. None that heard will ever forget that far-echoing cheer: Such heard Nelson, above the crashings & thundering of guns: At Marathon 'twas heard and all time's story remembers. See him again, when at home visiting^vhis episcopal uncle: That good priest contrast with this good captain, assay them: Find a common-measure equating their rival emotions; 180 Evaporate the rubbish, the degrading pestiferous fuss Of stuck-up importance, the palatial coterie, weigh out Then the solids: whose life would claim the award of an umpire For greatest happiness? High-priest or soldier? Adjudge it By their books: Let a child give sentence. Ev'n as a magnet Turns and points to the north, so children's obstinate insight Flies to the tale of war, hairbreadth scapes, daring achievements, Discoveries, conquests, the romance of history: these things Win them away from play to devour with greedy attention Till they long to be men; while all that clerkly palaver 190 Tastes like wormwood.—'Avast! (I hear yoū calling) Avast there! I forbid the appeal.'—Well, style my humour atrocious; Granted a child cannot understand; yet see what a huge growth Stands to be extermin'd, ere you can set dibble in ground. Nay, more yet; that mighty forest, whose wildness offends you, And silences appal, where earth-life self-suffocating Seethes, lavish as sun-life in a red star's fi'ry corona; That waste magnificence, and vain fecundity, breeding Gīants & parasites embrac'd in flowery tangle, Interwoven alive and dead, where one tyrannous tree 200 Blights desolating around it a swamp of rank vegetation; Where Reason yet dreams unawakt, & throu' the solemn day Only the monkey chatters, & discordant the parrot screams: All this is in man's heart with dateless sympathy worshipt, With filial reverence, & awful pīeties involv'd; While that other picture, your formal fancy, the garden Of your stingy promise, must that not quench his imágin'd Idēals of beauty, his angel hope of attainment? What to him are the level'd borders, the symmetric allotments, Where nothing exceedeth, nothing encroacheth, nor assaileth; Where Reason now drudgeth a sad monomaniac, all day 211 Watering & weeding, digging & diligently manuring Her label'd families, starch-makers, nitrogen-extract- Purveyors, classified potherbs & empty pretenders Of medical virtues; nay ev'n and their little impulse T'ward liberal fruiting disallow'd by stern regulation; So many beans to a pod, with so many pods to a beanstalk; Prun'd, pincht, economiz'd miserly til' all is abortion, Save in such specimens as, but for an extravagant care, Had miserably perish'd. What madness works to delude you, 220 Bēing a man, that yoū see not mankind's predilection Is for Magnificence, Force, Freedom, Bounty; his inborn Love for Beauty, his aim to possess, his pride to devise it: And from everlasting his heart is fixt with affections Prēengag'd to a few sovranly determinate objects, Toys of an ēternal distraction. Beautiful is Gold, Clear as a trumpet-call, stirring where'er it appeareth All high pow'rs to battle; with mágisterial ardour Glowing among the metals, elemental drops of a fire-god's Life-blood of old outpour'd in Chāos: Mágical also 230 EV'RY recondite jewel of Earth, with their seraphim-names, RUBY, JACYNTH, EMERALD, AMETHYST, SAPPHIRE; amaranthine Starry essences, elect emblems of purity, heirlooms Of deathless glories, most like to divine imanences. Then that heart-gladdening highpriz'd ambrosia, blending Their dissolute purples & golds with sparkling aroma, That ruddy juice exprest from favour'd vintages, infus'd With cosmic laughter, when upon some sécular epact Blandly the sun's old heart is stirr'd to a septennial smile, Causing strangefortun'd comfort to melancholy mortals: 240 Friend to the flésh, if mind be fatigued; rallying to the sound mind, When succour is needed 'gainst fainting weariness of flesh; Shall Wine not be belov'd? Or now let Aristotle answer What goods are,—Time leaves the scholar's inventory unchang'd;— All Virtues & Pow'rs, Honour & Pleasure, all that in our life Makes us self-sufficient, Friends, Riches, Comeliness, and Strength; They that^vhave these things in plenty desire to retain them, And win more; while they that lack are pleas'd to desire them. Nay and since possession will leave the desire unappeasèd, Save in mere appetites that vary with our physical state, 250 Surely delight in goods is an ecstasy rather attendant On their mental image, than on experienc'd operation. So the shepherd envies the monarch, the monarch the shepherd's lot,— 'O what a life were this, How sweet, how lovely!' the king cries. Whence, I say, as a man feels brave who reads of Achilles; One looking on riches may learn some kindred elation, And whatever notions of fortune, luxury, comfort, Genius or virtue, are shown to him, only as aspects Of possible bēing, 'tis so much gain to desire them; Learning Magnificence in mean obscurity, tasting 260 Something of all those goods which Fate outwardly denies him. But say none shall again be king or prosperous or great,— Arguing 'all eminence is unequal, unequal is unjust',— Should that once come about, then alas for this merry England, Sunk in a grey monotone of drudgery, dreamily poring O'er her illumin'd page of history, faln to regretful Worship of ancestors, with nought now left to delight her, Nought to attain, save one nurst hope, one ambition only Red Revolution, a wild Reawakening, & a Renaissance. Impatiently enough yoū hear me, longing to refute me, 270 While I^vin privileg'd pulpit my period expand. Who could allow such a list of strange miscellaneous items, So-call'd goods, Strength, Ríches, Honour, Gold, Genius, and Wine? Is not Wisdom above Rubies? more than Coral or Pearl? Yours is a scheme deep-laid on true distinctive asortment, Parting use or good from useless or evil asunder; Dismissing accessories, while half my heathenish invoice Are Vanity's vanities. Well; truly, as old Solomon said, So they be: What is excepted? What scapes his araignment? Is't Pleasure or Wisdom? Nay ask Theologia: Good-works, 280 Saith-she, offend her nostril. If I distinguish, asserting, Say, that if I^venjoyed my neighbour's excessive income I would hire me a string-quartett not an automaton car, You blame equally both our tastes for luxury, indeed His shows more of a use. If man's propensity is vain, Vulgar, inane, unworthy; 'tis also vain to bewail it: Think you to change his skin? 'Twere scale by scale to regraft it With purer traditions; and who shall amend the amenders? Nay let bé the bubbles, till man grow more solid in mind, Condemn not the follies: My neighbour's foolery were worse, Sat he agape listening to Mozart, intently desiring 291 All that time to be rattling alóng on a furious engine In caoutchouc carapace, with a trail of damnable oilstench. Yea, blame not the pleasures; they are not enough; pleasure only Makes this life liveable: nor scout that doctrine as unsound: Consider if mankind from puling birth to bitter death Knew nought but the sorrows, endured unrespited always Those agonizing assaults which no flesh wholly can escape; Were his hunger a pang like his starvation, alievement Thereof a worse torture, like that which full many die with; Did love burn his soul as fire his skin; did affections 300 Rend his will, as Turks rend men with horses asunder; Were his labour a breathless effort; his slumber occasion For visiting Furies to repair his temple of anguish; Were thoughts all mockeries; slow intelligence a deception; His mind's far ventures, her voyages into the unseen But horror & terrified nightmare; None then had ever heard Praise of a Crēator, nor seen any Dēity worshipped. 'Twas for heav'nly Pleasure that God did first fashion all thing, Nor with other benefit would holy Religion attract us 310 Picturing of Paradise. Consult our Lady's Evangel, Where Saint Luke,—colouring (was it unconsciously, suppose you?) Fact and fable alike,—contrasts a beggar with a rich man, And from holding a fool's happiness too greatly in esteem Makes pleasure ēternal the balance of temporal evil, And the reverse; nor shrinks, ascribing thus to the next world Vaster inequalities, harsher perversity than this. You have a soul's paradise, its entry the loop of a needle, Come hither & prithy tell me what I must do to be savèd I, that feeding on Idēals in temperat' estate 320 Seem so wealthy to poor Lazarus, so needy to Dives: What from my heav'n-bound schooner's dispensable outfit Has to be cast o'erboard? What see yoū here that offends you? These myriad volumes, these tons of music:—allow them Or disallow? Fiddle and trichord?—Must all be relinquished? Such toys have not a place in your socīety; you say Nobody shall make them, nor made may justly acquire them. Yet, should a plea be alleged for life's most gracious adornment, For contemplative art's last transcendental achievement, Grief's almighty solace, frolicking Mirth's Purification, 330 For Man's unparagon'd High-pōetess, inseparate Muse Companion, the belov'd most dearly among her sisters, Revivifīer of age, fairest instructor of all grace, His peacemaker alert with varied sympathy, whose speech Not to arede and love is wholly to miss the celestial Consolatries, the divine interpreting of physical life,— Yoū wince? make exception? allow things musical? admit So many faked viols, penny trumpets, and amateurish Performers? Nay, nay! stand firm, for concession is vain. Music is outmeasurably a barefaced luxury, her plea 340 Will cover art, (—almost to atone art's vile imitations—); My Japanese paintings, my fair blue Cheney, Hellenic Statues and Caroline silver, my beautiful Aldines, Prized more highly because so few, so fondly familiar, Need no tongue to defend them against rude hands, that assail them Only because their name is Rarity; hands insensate, Rending away pitilessly the fair embroideries of life, That close-clust'ring man, his comfort pared to the outskirts Of^vhis discomfort, may share in meanness unenvied But what if I^vunveil the figure that closely beside you 350 Half hides his Hell-charred skeleton with mysteries obscene, That foul one, that Moloch of all Utopias, ancient Poisoner & destroyer-elect of innumerous unborn? Know you the story of our hive-bees, the yellow honey-makers, Whose images from of old have haunted Pōetry, settling On the blossoms of man's dream-garden, as on the summer-flow'rs, Pictures of happy toil, sunny glances, gendering always Such sweet thoughts, as be by slumbrous music awaken'd? How all their outward happiness,—that fairy demeanour Of busy contentment, singing at their work,—is an inborn 360 Empty habit, the relics of a time when considerate joy Truly possest their tiny bodies; when golden abundance Was not a State-kept hoard; when feasts were plentiful indulg'd With wine well-fermented, or old-stored spicy metheglin: For they died not then miserably within the second moon Forgotten, unrespected of all; but slept many winters, Saw many springs, liv'd, lov'd like men, consciously rejoicing In Nature's promises, with like hopes and recollections. Intelligence had brought them Scīence, Genius enter'd; Seers and sages arose, great Bees, perfecting among them 370 Copious inventions, with man's art worthily compared. Then was a time when that, which haps not in ages of ages, Strangely befel: they stole from Nature's secresy one key, Found the hidden motive which works to varīety of kind; And thus came wondrously possest of pow'r to determine Their children's qualities, habitudes, yea their specialized form Masculine or feminine to produce, or asexual offspring Redow'rd and differenced with such alternative organs As they chose, to whate'er preferential function adapted, Wax-pocket or honey-bag, with an instinct rightly acordant. We know well the result, but not what causes effected 381 Their decision to prefer so blindly the race to the unit, As to renounce happiness for a problem, a vain abstraction; Making home and kingdom a vast egg-factory, wherein Food and life are stor'd up alike, and strictly proportion'd In loveless labour with mean anxīety. Wondrous Their reason'd motive, their altrūistic obedience Unto a self-impos'd life-sentence of prison or toil. Wonder wisely! then ask if these ingenious insects, (Who made Natur' against her will their activ' acomplice, And, methodizing anew her heartless system, averted 391 From their house the torrent of whelming natural increase,) Are blood-guiltless among their own-born prógeny: What skill Keeps their peace, or what price buys it? Alack! 'tis murder, Murder again. No worst Oriental despot, assuring 'Gainst birthright or faction or envy his ill-gotten empire, So decimates his kin, as do these rown-bodied egg-queens Surprise competitors, and stab their slumbering infants, Into the wax-cradles replunging their double-edged stings. Or what a deed of blood some high-day, when the summer^vhath 400 Their clammy cells o'erbrim'd, and already ripening orchards And late flow'rs proclaim that starving winter approacheth, Nor will again any queen lead forth her swarm, dispeopling Their strawbuilt citadel; then watch how these busy workers Cease for awhile from toil; how crowding upon the devoted Drones they fall; those easy fellows gave some provocation; Yet 'tis a foul massacre, cold murder of unsuspecting Life-long companions; and done bloodthirstily:—is not Exercise of pow'r a delight? have yóu not a doctrine That calls duty pleasure? What an if they make merry, saying 'Lazy-livers, runagates, evil beasts, greedy devourers, 411 'Too happy and too long ye've liv'd, unashamed to have outliv'd 'Your breeders, feeders, warmers and toiling attendants; 'Had-ye ever been worthy a public good to accomplish, 'Each had nobly perish'd long-ago. Unneeded, obese ones, 'Impious encumbrance, whose hope of service is over, 'Who did not, now can not, assist the community, Ye die!' My parable may serve. What wisdom man hath attain'd to Came to him of Nature's goodwill throu' tardy selection: Should her teaching accuse herself and her method impugn, I may share with her the reproach of approving as artist 421 Far other idēals than what seem needful in action. This difficulty besets our time. If you have an answer, Write me it, as you keep your salt in savour; or if toil Grant you an indulgence, here lies fair country, direct then Your Sabbath excursion westward, and spend a summer-day Preaching among the lilies what you^vhave preached to the chimneys.

3 PEACE ODE ON CONCLUSION OF THE BOER WAR, JUNE 1902 Now joy in all hearts with happy auguries, And praise on all lips: for sunny June cometh Chasing the thick warcloud, that outspread Sulfurous and sullen over England. Full thirty moons since unwilling enmity, Since daily suspense for hideous peril Of brethren unrescued, beleaguer'd Plague-stricken in cities unprovided, Had quencht accustom'd gaiety, from the day When first the Dutchman's implacable folly, The country of Shakspeare def̄ing, Thought with a curse to appal the nation: Whose threat to quell their kinsmen in Africa Anger'd awhile our easy democracy; That, reckless and patient of insult, Will not abide arrogant defīance: They called to arms; and war began evilly. From slily forestor'd, well-hidden armouries, And early advantage, the despot Stood for a time prevalent against us: Till from the coil of slow-gathering battle He rancorous, with full moneybags hurried, Peddling to European envy His traffic of pennyworthy slander. For since the first keel launch'd upon Ocean Ne'er had before so mighty an armament O'errun the realm of dark Poseidon, So resolutely measur'd the waters, As soon from our ports in diligent passage O'er half the round world plow'd hither & thither The pathless Atlantic, revengeful Soldiery pouring on Esperanza: Nor shows the Argive story of Ilium, With tale of ancient auxiliar cities, So vast a roll of wide alliance As, rallying to the aid of England, Came from the swarming counties accoutering, And misty highlands of Caledonia, With Cambria's half-Celtic offspring, And the ever-merry fighting Irish: Came too the new world's hardy Canadians, And from remote Australia champions Like huntsmen, and from those twin islands Lying off antipodal beyond her, Under the old flag sailing across the sea: For mighty is blood's empery, where honour And freedom ancestral have upbuilt Inheritance to a lovely glory. Thee, France, love I, fair lawgiver and scholar: Thy lively grace, thy temper illustrious; And thee, in all wisdom Diviner, Germany, deep melodist immortal; Nor less have envied soft Italy's spirit, In marble unveil'd and eloquent colour: But best love I England, wer' I not Born to her aery should envy also. Wherefore to-day one gift above every gift Let us beseech, that God will accord to her Always a right judgement in all things; Ev'n to celestial excellencies; And grant us in long peace to accumulate Joy, and to stablish friendliness and commerce, And barter in markets for unpriced Beauty, the pearl of unending empire.

May, 1902.

4 EVENING From Wm. Blake[A] Come, rosy angel, thy coronet donning Of starry jewels, smile upon ev'ry bed, And grant what each day-weary mortal, Labourer or lover, asketh of thee. Smile thou on our loves, enveloping the land With dusky curtain: consider each blossom That timely upcloseth, that opens Her treasure of heavy-laden odours. Now, while the west-wind slumbereth on the lake, Silently dost thou with delicate shimmer O'erbloom the frowning front of awful Night to a glance of unearthly silver. No hungry wild beast rangeth in our forest, No tiger or wolf prowleth around the fold: Keep thou from our sheepcotes the tainting Invisible peril of the darkness.

5 POVRE AME AMOUREUSE From Louise Labe, 1555 (Sapphics) When to my lone soft bed at eve returning Sweet desir'd sleep already stealeth o'er me, My spirit flīeth to the fairy-land of her tyrannous love. Him then I think fondly to kiss, to hold him Frankly then to my bosom; I that all day Have lookèd for^vhim suffering, repining, yea many long days. O blessèd sleep, with flatteries beguile me; So,^vif I ne'er may^vof a surety have^vhim, Grant to my poor soul amorous the dark gift of this illusion.

6 THE FOURTH DIMENSION (Hendecasyllables) Truest-hearted of early friends, that Eton Long since gáve to me,—Ah! 'tis all a life-time,— With my faithfully festive auspication Of Christmas merriment, this idle item. Plato truly believ'd his archetypal Idēas to possess the fourth dimension: For since our solid is triple, but always Its shade only double, solids as umbrae Must lack equally one dimension also. Could Plato^vhave avoided or denied it? So Saint Paul, when in argument opposing To our earthly bodies bodies celestial, Meant just those pretty Greek aforesaid abstracts Of four Plātonical divine dimensions. If this be not a holy consolation More than plumpudding and a turkey roasted, Whereto you but address a third dimension, Try it, pray, as a pill to aid digestion: I can't find anything better to send you.

7 JOHANNES MILTON, Senex Scazons Since I believe in God the Father Almighty, Man's Maker and Judge, Overruler of Fortune, 'Twere strange should I praise anything and refuse Him praise, Should love the creature forgetting the Crēator, Nor unto Him^vin suff'ring and sorrow turn me: Nay how coud I withdraw me from^vHis embracing? But since that I have seen not, and cannot know Him, Nor in my earthly temple apprehend rightly His wisdom and the heav'nly purpose ēternal; Therefore will I be bound to no studied system Nor argument, nor with delusion enslave me, Nor seek to pléase Him in any foolish invention, Which my spirit within me, that loveth beauty And hateth evil, hath reprov'd as unworthy: But I cherish my freedom in loving service, Gratefully adoring for delight beyond asking Or thinking, and in hours of anguish and darkness Confiding always on^vHis excellent greatness.

8 PYTHAGORAS Seasons Thou vainly, O Man, self-deceiver, exaltest Thyself the king and only thinker of this world, Where life aboundeth infinite to destroy thee. Well-guided are thy forces and govern'd bravely, But like a tyrant crūel or savage monster Thou disregardest ignorantly all bēing Save only thine own insubordinate ruling: As if the flowër held not a happy pact with Spring; As if the brutes lack'd reason and sorrow's torment; Or ev'n divine love from the small atoms grew not, Their grave affection unto thy passion mingling. An truly were it nobler and better wisdom To fear the blind thing blindly, lest it espy thee; And scrupulously do^vhonour to dumb creatures, No one offending impiously, nor forcing To service of vile uses; ordering rather Thy slave to beauty, compelling lovingkindness. So should desire, the only priestess of Nature Divinely inspir'd, like a good monarch rule thee, And lead thee onward in the consummate motion Of life eternal unto heav'nly perfection.

Elegiacs 9 AMIEL Why, O Maker of all, madest thou man with affections Tender above thyself, scrupulous and passionate? Nay, if compassionate thou art, why, thou lover of men, Hidest thou thy face so pitilessly from us? If thou in priesthoods and altar-glory delitest, In torment and tears of trouble and suffering, Then wert thou displeas'd looking on soft human emotion, Thou must scorn the devout love of a sire to a son. 'Twas but vainly of old, Man, making Faith to approach thee, Held an imagin'd scheme of providence in honour; And, to redeem thy praise, judg'd himself cause, took upon him Humbly the impossible burden of all misery. Now casteth he away his books and logical idols Leaveth again his cell of terrified penitence; And that stony goddess, his first-born fancy, dethroning, Hath made after his own homelier art another; Made sweet Hope, the modest unportion'd daughter of anguish, Whose brimming eye sees but dimly what it looketh on; Dreaming a day when fully, without curse or horrible cross, Thou wilt deign to reveal her vision of happiness.

10 Ah, what a change! Thou, who didst emptily thy happiness seek In pleasure, art finding thy pleasure in happiness. Slave to the soul, whom thou heldest in slavery, art thou? Thou, that wert but a vain idol, adored a goddess?

11 WALKING HOME From the Chinese Thousand threads of rain and fine white wreathing of air-mist Hide from us earth's greenness, hide the enarching azure. Yet will a breath of Spring homeward convoying attend us, And the mellow flutings of passionate Philomel.

12 THE RUIN From the Chinese These grey stones have rung with mirth and lordly carousel; Here proud kings mingled pōetry and ruddy wine. All hath pass'd long ago; nought but this rūin abideth, Sadly in eyeless trance gazing upon the river. Wouldst thou know who here visiteth, dwelleth and singeth also, Ask the swallows fl̄ing from sunny-wall'd Italy.

13 REVENANTS From the French At dead of unseen night ghosts of the departed assembling Flit to the graves, where each in body had burial. Ah, then rēvisiting my sad heart their desolate tomb Troop the desires and loves vainly buried long ago.

14 From the Greek Mortal though I bé, yea ephemeral, if but a moment I gaze up to the night's starry domain of heaven, Then no longer on earth I stand; I touch the Creator, And my lively spirit drinketh immortality.

15 ANNIVERSARY See, Love, a year is pass'd: in harvest our summer endeth: Praising thee the solemn festival I celebrate. Unto us all our days are love's anniversaries, each one In turn hath ripen'd something of our happiness. So, lest heart-contented adown life easily floating, We note not the passage while living in the delight, I have honour'd always the attentive vigil of Autumn, And thy day set apart holy to fair Memory.

16 COMMUNION OF SAINTS From Andre Chenier What happy bonds together unite you, ye living and dead, Your fadeless love-bloom, your manifold memories.

17 EPITAPHS Fight well, my comrades, and prove your bravery. Me too God call'd out, but crown'd early before the battle.

18 I died in very flow'r: yet call me not unhappy therefore, Ye that against sweet life once a lament have utter'd.

19 When thou, my belovèd, diedst, I saw heaven open, And all earthly delight inhabiting Paradise.

20 Where thou art better I too were, dearest, anywhere, than Wanting thy well-lov'd lovely presence anywhere.

21 IBANT OBSCURI A line for line paraphrase of a part of Virgil's Æneid, Bk. VI. They wer' amid the shadows by night in loneliness obscure Walking forth i' the void and vasty dominyon of Ades; As by an uncertain moonray secretly illumin'd 270 One goeth in the forest, when heav'n is gloomily clouded, And black night hath robb'd the colours and beauty from all things. Here in Hell's very jaws, the threshold of darkening Orcus, Have the avenging Cares laid their sleepless habitation, Wailing Grief, pallid Infections, & heart-stricken Old-age, Dismal Fear, unholy Famine, with low-groveling Want, Forms of spectral horror, gaunt Toil and Death the devourer, And Death's drowsy brother, Torpor; with whom, an inane rout, 278 All the Pleasures of Sin; there also the Furies in ambusht Chamber of iron, afore whose bars wild War bloodyhanded Raged, and mad Discord high brandisht her venomous locks. Midway of all this tract, with secular arms an immense elm Reareth a crowd of branches, aneath whose leafy protection Vain dreams thickly nestle, clinging unto the foliage on high: And many strange creatures of monstrous form and features Stable about th' entrance, Centaur and Scylla's abortion, And hundred-handed Briareus, and Lerna the wildbeast Roaring amain, and clothed in frightful flame the Chimæra, Gorgons and Harpies, ' and Pluto's three-bodied ogre. In terror Æneas upheld his sword to defend him, 290 With ready naked point confronting their dreaded onset: And had not the Sibyl warn'd how these lively spirits were All incorporeal, flitting in thin maskery of form, He had assail'd their host, and wounded vainly the void air. Hence is a road that led them a-down to the Tartarean streams, Where Acheron's whirlpool impetuous, into the reeky Deep of Cokytos disgorgeth, with muddy burden. These floods one ferryman serveth, most awful of aspect, Of squalor infernal, Chāron: all filthily unkempt That woolly white cheek-fleece, and fiery the blood-shotten eyeballs: 300 On one shoulder a cloak knotted-up his nudity vaunteth. He himself plieth oar or pole, manageth tiller and sheet, And the relics of mén in his ash-grey barge ferries over; Already old, but green to a god and hearty will age be. Now hitherward to the bank much folk were crowding, a medley Of men and matrons; nor did death's injury conceal Bravespirited heroes, young maidens beauteous unwed, And boys borne to the grave in sight of their sorrowing sires. Countless as in the forest, at a first white frosting of autumn Sere leaves fall to the ground; or like whenas over the ocean Myria^d birds come thickly flocking, when wintry December 311 Drives them afar southward for shelter upon sunnier shores, So throng'd they; and each his watery journey demanded, All to the further bank stretching-oút their arms impatient: But the sullen boatman took now one now other at will, While some from the river forbade he', an' drave to a distance. Æneas in wonder alike and deep pity then spake. 'Tell-me,' said he, 'my guide, why flock these crowds to the water? Or what seek the spirits? or by what prejudice are these Rudely denied, while those may upon the solemn river embark?' 320 T'whom[B] then briefly again the Avernia^n priestess in answer. 'O Son of Anchises, heavn's true-born glorious offspring, Deep Cokytos it is thou see^st & Hell's Stygia^n flood, Whose dread sanctio^n alone Jove's oath from falsehood assureth. These whom thou pitiedst, th' outcast and unburied are they; That ferryman Chāron; those whom his bark carries over Are the buried; nor ever may mortal across the livid lake Journey, or e'er upon Earth his bones lie peacefully entomb'd: Haunting a hundred years this mournful plain they wander Doom'd for a term, which term expired they win to deliv'rance.' 330 Then he that harken'd stood agaze, his journey arrested, Grieving at heart and much pitying their unmerited lot. There miserably fellow'd in death's indignity saw he Leucaspis with his old Lycian seachieften Orontes, Whom together from Troy in home-coming over the waters Wild weather o'ermaster'd, engulphing both shipping and men. And lo! his helmsman, Palinurus, in eager emotion, Who on th' Afric course, in bright star-light, with a fair wind, Fell by slumber opprest unheedfully into the wide sea: Whom i' the gloom when hardly he knew, now changed in affliction, 340 First he addrest. 'What God, tell-me O Palinurus, of all gods Plúckt you away and drown'd i' the swift wake-water abandon'd? For never erst nor in else hath kind responsive Apollo Led-me astray, but alone in this thing wholly deluded, When he aver'd that you, to remote Ausōnia steering, Safe would arrive. Where now his truth? Is this the promis'd faith?' But he, 'Neither again did Phœbus wrongly bespeak thee, My general, nor yet did a god in his enmity drown me: For the tiller, wherewith I led thy fleet's navigation, And still clung to, was in my struggling hold of it unshipt, 350 And came with-me' o'erboard. Ah! then, by ev'ry accurst sea, Tho' in utter despair, far less mine own peril awed me Than my thought o' the ship, what harm might háp to her, yawing In the billows helmless, with a high wind and threatening gale. Two nights and one day buffeted held I to the good spar Windborne, with the current far-drifting, an' on the second morn Saw, when a great wave raised me aloft, the Italyan highlands; And swimming-on with effort got ashore, nay already was saved, Had not there the wrecking savages, who spied-me defenceless, Scarce clinging outwearied to a rock, half-drowned & speechless, 360 Beát me to death for hope of an unfound booty upon me. Now to the wind and tidewash a sport my poor body rolleth. Wherefore thee, by heav'n's sweet light & airness, I pray, By thy Sire's memories, thy hope of youthful Iulus, Rescue-me from these ills, brave master; Go to Velija, O'er my mortality's spoil cast thou th' all-hallowing dust; Or better, if so be the goddess, heav'n's lady-Creatress, Show-thee the way,—nor surely without high favoring impulse Mak'st thou ventur' across these floods & black Ereban lake,— Give thy hand-to-me', an' o'er their watery boundary bring me 370 Unto the haven of all, death's home of quiet abiding.' Thus-he lamented, anon spake sternly the maid of Avernus. 'Whence can such unruly desire, Palinurus, assail thee? Wilt thou th' Eumenidan waters visit unburied? o'erpass Hell's Stygian barrier? Chāron's boat unbidden enter? Cease to believe that fate can bé by prayër averted. Let my sooth a litel thy cruel destiny comfort Surely the people of all thy new-found country, determin'd By heav'n-sent omens will achieve thy purification, 379 Build thee a tomb of honour with yearly solemnity ordain'd, And dedicate for ever thy storied name to the headland.' These words lighten awhile his fear, his sadness allaying, Nor vain was the promise his name should eternally survive. They forthwith their journey renew, tending to the water: Whom when th' old boatman descried silently emerging Out o' the leafy shadows, advancing t'ward the river-shore, Angrily gave-he challenge, imperious in salutation. 'Whosoever thou be, that approachest my river all-arm'd, Stand to announce thyself, nor further make footing onward. Here 'tis a place of ghosts, of night & drowsy delusion: 390 Forbidden unto living mortals is my Stygian keel: Truly not Alkides embarkt I cheerfully, nor took Of Theseus or Pirithous glad custody, nay though God-sprung were they both, warriors invincible in might: Hé 'twas would sportively the guard of Tartarus enchain, Yea and from the palace with gay contumely dragged him: Théy to ravish Hell's Queen from Pluto's chamber attempted.' Then thus th' Amphrysian prophetess spake briefly in answer. 'No such doughty designs are ours, Cease thou to be movèd! Nor these sheeny weapons intend force. Cerberus unvext Surely for us may affray the spirits with 'howling eternal, 401 And chaste Persephone enjoy her queenly seclusion. Troian Æneas, bravest and gentlest-hearted, Hath left earth to behold his father in out-lying Ades. If the image ' of a so great virtue doth not affect thee, Yet this bough'—glittering she reveal'd its golden avouchment— 'Thou mayst know.' Forthwith his bluster of heart was appeasèd: Nor word gave-he, but admiring the celestial omen, That bright sprigg of weird for so long period unseen, Quickly he-túrneth about his boat, to the margin approaching, 410 And the spirits, that along the gun'al benchways sat in order, Drave he ashore, offering readyroom: but when the vessel took Ponderous Æneas, her timbers crankily straining Creak'd, an' a brown water came trickling through the upper seams. Natheless both Sibyl ánd Hero, slow wafted across stream, Safe on th' ooze & slime's hideous desolation alighted. Hence the triple-throated bellowings of Cerberus invade All Hell, where opposite the arrival he lies in a vast den. But the Sibyl, who mark'd his necklaces of stiffening snakes, Cast him a cake, poppy-drench'd with drowsiness and honey-sweeten'd. 420 He, rabid and distending a-hungry' his triply-cavern'd jaws, Gulp'd the proffer'd morsel; when slow he-relaxt his immense bulk, And helplessly diffused fell out-sprawl'd over the whole cave. Æneas fled by, and left full boldly the streamway, That biddeth all men across but alloweth ne'er a returning. Already now i' the air were voices heard, lamentation, And shrilly crying of infant souls by th' entry of Ades. Babes, whom unportion'd of sweet life, unblossoming buds, One black day carried off and chokt in dusty corruption.— Next are they who falsely accused were wrongfully condemn'd Unto the death: but here their lot by justice is order'd. 431 Inquisitor Minos, with his urn, summoning to assembly His silent council, their deed or slander arraigneth.— Next the sullen-hearted, who rashly with else-innocent hand Their own life did-away, for hate or weariness of light, Imperiling their souls. How gladly, if only in Earth's air, Would-they again their toil, discomfort, and pities endure! Fate obstructs: deep sadness now, unloveliness awful Rings them about, & Styx with ninefold circle enarmeth.— Not far hence they come to a land extensive on all sides; 440 Weeping Plain 'tis call'd:—such name such country deserveth. Here the lovers, whom fiery passion hath cruelly consumed, Hide in leafy alleys ' and pathways bow'ry, sequester'd By woodland myrtle, nor hath Death their sorrow ended. Here was Phædra to see, Procris ' and sad Eriphyle, She of her unfilial deathdoing wound not ashamèd, Evadne, ' and Pasiphae ' and Laodamia, And epicene Keneus, a woman to a man metamorphos'd, Now by Fate converted again to her old feminine form. 'Mong these shades, her wound yet smarting ruefully, Dido Wander'd throu' the forest-obscurity; and Æneas 451 Standing anigh knew surely the dim form, though i' the darkness Veil'd,—as when one seëth a young moon on the horizon, Or thinketh to' have seen i' the gloaming her delicate horn; Tearfully in oncelov'd accents he-lovingly addrest her. 'Unhappy! ah! too true 'twas told me' O unhappy Dido, Dead thou wert; to the fell extreme didst thy passion ensue. And was it I that slew-thee? Alas! Smile falsity, ye heav'ns! And Hell-fury attest-me', if here any sanctity reigneth, Unwilling, O my Queen, my step thy kingdom abandon'd. 460 Me the command of a god, who here my journey determines Through Ereban darkness, through fields sown with desolation, Drave-me to wrong my heart. Nay tho' deep-pain'd to desert thee I ne'er thought to provoke thy pain of mourning eternal. Stay yet awhile, ev'n here unlook'd-for again look upon me: Fly-me not ere the supreme words that Fate granteth us are said.' Thus he: but the spirit was raging, fiercely defiant, Whom he approach'd with words to appease, with tears for atonement. She to the ground downcast her ' eyes in fixity averted; Nor were her features more by his pleading affected, 470 Than wer' a face of flint, or of ensculptur'd alabaster. At length she started disdainful, an' angrily withdrew Into a shady thicket: where her grief kindly Sychæus Sooth'd with other memories, first love and virginal embrace. And ever Æneas, to remorse by deep pity soften'd, With brimming eyes pursued her queenly figure disappearing. Thence the Sibyl to the plain's extremest boundary led him, Where world-fam'd warriors, a lionlike company, haunted. Here great Tydeus saw he eclips'd, & here the benighted Phantom of Adrastus, ' of stalwart Parthenopæus. 480 Here long mourn'd upon earth went all that prowess of Ilium Fallen in arms; whom, when he-beheld them, so many and great, Much he-bewail'd. By Thersilochus his mighty brothers stood, Children of Antenor; here Demetria^n Polyphates, And Idæus, in old chariot-pose dreamily stalking. Right and left the spirits flocking on stood crowding around him; Nor their eyes have enough; they touch, find joy unwonted Marching in equal stép, and eager of his coming enquire. But th' Argive leaders, and they that obey'd Agamemnon When they saw that Trojan in arms come striding among them, 490 Old terror invaded their ranks: some fled stricken, as once They to the ships had fled for shelter; others the alarm raise, But their thin utterance mock'd vainly the lips wide parted. Here too Deiphobus he espied, his fair body mangled, Cruelly dismember'd, disfeatur'd cruelly his face, Face and hands; and lo! shorn closely from either temple, Gone wer' his ears, and maim'd each nostril in impious outrage. Barely he-knew him again cow'ring shamefastly' an' hiding His dire plight, & thus he 'his old companyon accosted. 'Noblest Deiphobus, great Teucer's intrepid offspring, 500 Who was it, inhuman, coveted so cruel a vengeance? Who can hav' adventur'd on thée? That last terrible night Thou wert said to hav' exceeded thy bravery, an' only On thy faln enemies wert faln by weariness o'ercome. Wherefor' upon the belov'd sea-shore thine empty sepulchral Mound I erected, aloud on thy ghost tearfully calling. Name and shield keep for-thee the place; but thy body, dear friend, Found I not, to commit to the land ere sadly' I left it.' Then the son of Priam ' 'I thought not, friend, to reproach thee: Thou didst all to the full, ev'n my shade's service, accomplish. 510 'Twas that uninterdicted adultress from Lacedæmon Drave-me to doom, & planted in hell, her trophy triumphant. On that night,—how vain a security and merrymaking Then sullied us thou know'st, yea must too keenly remember,— When the ill-omened horse o'erleapt Troy's lofty defences, Dragg'd in amidst our town pregnant with a burden of arm'd men. She then, her Phrygian women in feign'd phrenzy collecting, All with torches aflame, in wild Bacchic orgy paraded, Flaring a signal aloft to her ambusht confederate Greeks. I from a world of care had fled with weariful eyelids 520 Unto my unhappy chamber', an' lay fast lockt in oblivyon, Sunk to the depth of rest as a child that nought will awaken. Meanwhile that paragon helpmate had robb'd me of all arms, E'en from aneath the pillow my blade of trust purloining;— Then to the gate; wide flíngs she it op'n an' calls Menelaus. Would not a so great service attach her faithful adorer? Might not it extinguish the repute of her earlier illdeeds? Brief-be the tale. Menelaus arrives: in company there came His crime-counsellor Æolides. So, and more also Déal-ye', O Gods, to the Greeks! an' if I call justly upon you.— 530 But thou; what fortune hitherward, in turn prithy tell me, Sent-thee alive, whether erring upon the bewildering Ocean, Or high-prompted of heav'n, or by Fate wearily hunted, That to the sunless abodes and dusky demesnes thou approachest?' Ev'n as awhile they thus converse it is already mid-day Unperceiv'd, but aloft earth's star had turn'd to declining. And haply' Æneas his time in parley had outgone, Had not then the Sibyl with word of warning avized him. 'Night hieth, Æneas; in tears our journey delayeth. See our road, that it here in twain disparteth asunder; 540 This to the right, skirting by th' high city-fortresses of Dis, Endeth in Elysium, our path; but that to the leftward Only receives their feet who wend to eternal affliction.' Deiphobus then again, 'Speak not, great priestess, in anger; I will away to refill my number among th' unfortun'd. Thou, my champyon, adieu! Go where thy glory awaits thee!' When these words he 'had spok'n, he-turn'd and hastily was fled. Æneas then look'd where leftward, under a mountain, Outspread a wide city lay, threefold with fortresses engirt, Lickt by a Tartarean river of live fire, the torrentia^l 550 Red Phlegethon, and huge boulders his roundy bubbles be: Right i' the front stareth the columnar gate adamantine, Such that no battering warfare of mén or immortals E'er might shake; blank-faced to the cloud its bastion upstands. Tisiphone thereby in a bloodspotty robe sitteth alway Night and day guarding sleeplessly the desperat entrance, Wherefrom an awestirring groan-cry and fierce clamour outburst, Sharp lashes, insane yells, dragg'd chains and clanking of iron. Æneas drew back, his heart by' his hearing affrighted: 'What manner of criminals, my guide, now tell-me,' he-question'd, 560 'Or what their penalties? what this great wail that ariseth?' Answering him the divine priestess, 'Brave hero of Il[îû]m, O'er that guilty threshold no breath of purity may come: But Hecate, who gave-me to rule i' the groves of Avernus, Herself led me around, & taught heav'n's high retribution. Here Cretan Rhadamanthus in unblest empery reigneth, Secret crime to punish,—full surely he-wringeth avowal Even of all that on earth, by vain impunity harden'd, Men sinning have put away from thought till^vimpenitent death. On those convicted tremblers then leapeth avenging 570 Tisiphone with keen flesh-whips and vipery scourges, And of her implacable sisters inviteth attendance.' —Now sudden on screeching hinges that portal accursèd Flung wide its barriers.—'In what dire custody, mark thou, Is the threshold! guarded by how grim sentry the doorway! More terrible than they the ravin'd insatiable Hydra That sitteth angry within. Know too that Tartarus itself Dives sheer gaping aneath in gloomy profundity downward Twice that height that a man looketh-up t'ward airy Olympus. Lowest there those children of Earth, Titanian elders, 580 In the abyss, where once they fell hurl'd, yet wallowing lie. There the Alöīdæ saw I, th' ungainly rebel twins Primæval, that assay'd to devastate th' Empyræan With huge hands, and rob from Jove his kingdom immortal. And there Salmoneus I saw, rend'ring heavy payment, For that he idly' had mockt heav'n's fire and thunder electric; With chariot many-yoked and torches brandishing on high Driving among 'his Graian folk in Olympian Elis; Exultant as a God he rode in blasphemy worshipt. 589 Fool, who th' unreckoning tempest and deadly dreaded bolt Thought to mimic with brass and confus'd trample of horses! But 'him th' Omnipotent, from amidst his cloudy pavilyon, Blasted, an' eke his rattling car and smoky pretences Extinguish'd at a stroke, scattering ' his dust to the whirlwind. There too huge Tityos, whom Earth that gendereth all things Once foster'd, spreadeth-out o'er nine full roods his immense limbs. On him a wild vulture with hook-beak greedily gorgeth His liver upsprouting quick as that Hell-chicken eateth. Shé diggeth and dwelleth under the vast ribs, her bloody bare neck Lifting anon: ne'er loathes-she the food, ne'er fails the renewal. 600 Where wer' an end their names to relate, their crimes and torments? Some o'er whom a hanging black rock, slipping at very point of Falling, ever threateneth: Couches luxurious invite Softly-cushion'd to repose: Tables for banqueting outlaid Tempt them ever-famishing: hard by them a Fury regardeth, And should théy but a hand uplift, trembling to the dainties, She with live firebrand and direful yell springeth on them. Their crimes,—not to' hav lov'd a brother while love was allow'd them; Or to' hav struck their father, or inveigled a dependant; 609 Or who chancing alone on wealth prey'd lustfully thereon, Nor made share with others, no greater company than they: Some for adultery slain; some their bright swords had offended Drawn i' the wrong: or a master's trust with perfidy had met: Dungeon'd their penalties they await. Look not to be answer'd What that doom, nor th' end of these men think to determine. Sóme aye roll heavy rocks, some whirl dizzy on the revolving Spokes of a pendant wheel: sitteth and to eternity shall sit Unfortun'd Theseus; while sad Phlegias saddeneth hell With vain oyez to' all loud crying a tardy repentance, "Walk, O man, i' the fear of Gód, and learn to be righteous!" Here another, who sold for gold his country, promoting 621 Her tyrant; or annull'd for a base bribe th' inviolate law. This one had unfather'd his blood with bestial incest: All some fearful crime had dared & vaunted achievement. What mind could harbour the offence of such recollection, Or lend welcoming ear to the tale of iniquity and shame, And to the pains wherewith such deeds are justly requited? Ev'n when thus she' had spok'n, the priestess dear to Apollo, 'But, ready, come let us ón, perform-we the order appointed! Hast'n-we (saith-she), the wall forged on Cyclopian anvils Now I see, an' th' archway in Ætna's furnace attemper'd, 631 Where my lore biddeth us to depose our high-privileg'd gift.' Then together they trace i' the drooping dimness a footpath, Whereby, faring across, they arrive at th' arches of iron. Æneas stept into the porch, and duly besprinkling His body with clear water affixt his bough to the lintel; And, having all perform'd at length with ritual exact, They came out on a lovely pleasance, that dream'd-of oasis, Fortunate isle, the abode o' the blest, their fair Happy Woodland. Here is an ampler sky, those meads ar' azur'd by a gentler Sun than th' Earth, an' a new starworld their darkness adorneth. 641 Some were matching afoot their speed on a grassy arena, In playful combat some wrestling upon the yellow sand, Part in a dance-rhythm or poetry's fine phantasy engage; While full-toga'd anear their high-priest musical Orpheus Bade his prime sev'n tones in varied harmony discourse, Now with finger, anon sounding with an ivory plectrum. And here Æneas met Teucer's fortunate offspring, High-spirited heroes, fair-favor'd sons o' the morning, Assarac and Ilos ' and Dardan founder of Iliu^]m: 650 Their radiant chariots he' espied rank't empty afar off, Their spears planted afield, their horses wandering at large, Grazing around:—as on earth their joy had been, whether armour Or chariot had charmed them, or if 'twer' good manage and care Of the gallant warhorse, the delight liv'd here unabated; Lo! then others, that about the meadow sat feasting in idless, And chanting for joy a familyar pæan of old earth, By fragrant laurel o'ercanopied, where 'twixt enamel'd banks Bountiful Eridanus glides throu' their bosky retirement. Here were men who bled for honour, their country defending; 660 Priests, whose lives wer' a flame of chastity on God's altar; Holy poets, content to await their crown of Apollo; Discoverers, whose labour had aided life or ennobled; Or who fair memories had left though kindly deserving. On their brow a fillet pearl-white distinguisheth all these: Whom the Sibyl, for they drew round, in question accosted, And most Musæus, who tower'd noble among them, Center of all that sea of bright faces looking upward. 'Tell, happy souls, and thou poet and high mystic illustrious, Where dwelleth Anchises? what home hath he? for 'tis in his quest 670 We hither have made journey across Hell's watery marches.' Thertó with brief parley rejoin'd that mystic of old-time. 'In no certain abode we-remain: by turn the forest glade Haunt-we, lilied stream-bank, sunny mead; and o'er valley and rock At will rove-we: but if ye aright your purpose arede me, Mount-ye the hill: myself will prove how easy the pathway.' Speaking he léd: and come to the upland, sheweth a fair plain Gleaming aneath; and they, with grateful adieu, the descent made. Now Lord Anchises was down i' the green valley musing, Where the spirits confin'd that await mortal resurrection 680 While diligently he-mark'd, his thought had turn'd to his own kin, Whose numbers he-reckon'd, an' of all their progeny foretold Their fate and fortune, their ripen'd temper an' action. He then, when he' espied Æneas t'ward him approaching O'er the meadow, both hands uprais'd and ran to receive him, Tears in his eyes, while thus his voice in high passion outbrake. 'Ah, thou'rt come, thou'rt come! at length thy dearly belov'd grace Conquering all hath won-thee the way. 'Tis allow'd to behold thee, O my son,—yea again the familyar raptur' of our speech. Nay, I look't for 't thus, counting patiently the moments, 690 And ever expected; nor did fond fancy betray me. From what lands, my son, from what life-dangering ocean Art-thou arrived? full mighty perils thy path hav' opposèd: And how nearly the dark Libyan thy destiny o'erthrew!' Then 'he, 'Thy spirit, O my sire, 'twas thy spirit often Sadly appearing aroused-me to seek thy fair habitation. My fleet moors i' the blue Tyrrhene: all with-me goeth well. Grant-me to touch thy hand as of old, and thy body embrace.' Speaking, awhile in tears his feeling mutinied, and when For the longing contact of mortal affection, he out-held 700 His strong arms, the figure sustain'd them not: 'twas as empty E'en as a windworn cloud, or a phantom of irrelevant sleep. On the level bosom of this vale more thickly the tall trees Grow, an' aneath quivering poplars and whispering alders Lethe's dreamy river throu' peaceful scenery windeth. Whereby now flitted in vast swarms many people of all lands, As when in early summer 'honey-bees on a flowery pasture Pill the blossoms, hurrying to' an' fro,—innumerous are they, Revisiting the ravish'd lily cups, while all the meadow hums. Æneas was turn'd to the sight, and marvelling inquired, 710 'Say, sir, what the river that there i' the vale-bottom I see? And who they that thickly along its bank have assembled?' Then Lord Anchises, 'The spirits for whom a second life And body are destined ar' arriving thirsty to Lethe, And here drink th' unmindful draught from wells of oblivyon. My heart greatly desired of this very thing to acquaint thee, Yea, and show-thee the men to-be-born, our glory her'after, So to gladden thine heart where now thy voyaging endeth.' 'Must it then be-believ'd, my sire, that a soul which attaineth Elysium will again submit to her old body-burden? 720 Is this well? what hap can awake such dire longing in them?' 'I will tell thee', O son, nor keep thy wonder awaiting,' Answereth Anchises, and all expoundeth in order. Know first that the heavens, and th' Earth, and space fluid or void, Night's pallid orb, day's Sun, and all his starry coævals, Are by one spirit inly quickened, and, mingling in each part, Mind informs the matter, nature's complexity ruling. Thence the living creatures, man, brute, and ev'ry feather'd fowl, And what breedeth in Ocean aneath her surface of argent: Their seed knoweth a fiery vigour, 'tis of airy divine birth, 730 In so far as unimpeded by an alien evil, Nor dull'd by the body's framework condemn'd to corruption. Hence the desires and vain tremblings that assail them, unable Darkly prison'd to arise to celestial exaltation; Nor when death summoneth them anon earth-life to relinquish, Can they in all discard their stain, nor wholly away with Mortality's plaguespots. It must-be that, O, many wild graffs Deeply at 'heart engrain'd have rooted strangely upon them: Wherefore must suffering purge them, yea, Justice atone them With penalties heavy as their guilt: some purify exposed 740 Hung to the viewless winds, or others long watery searchings Low i' the deep wash clean, some bathe in fie^ry renewal: Each cometh unto his own retribution,—if after in ample Elysium we attain, but a few, to the fair Happy Woodland, Yet slow time still worketh on us to remove the defilement, Till it hath eaten away the acquir'd dross, leaving again free That first fie^ry vigour, the celestia^l virtue of our life. All whom here thou see^st, hav' accomplished purification: Unto the stream of Lethe a god their company calleth, That forgetful of old failure, pain & disappointment, 750 They may again into' earthly bodies with glad courage enter.' * * * Twín be the gates o' the house of sleep: as fable opineth 893 One is of horn, and thence for a true dream outlet is easy: Fair the other, shining perfected of ivory carven; But false are the visions that thereby find passage upward. Soon then as Anchises had spok'n, he-led the Sibyl forth And his son, and both dismisst from th' ivory portal.

FINIS

INDEX

INDEX OF FIRST LINES

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, V, W, Y

PAGE

A cottage built of native stone, 354

A coy inquisitive spirit, 27

After long sleep when Psyche first awoke, 105

Again with pleasant green, 252

Ah heavenly joy, 219

Ah, what a change, 445

All earthly beauty hath one cause, 204

All women born, 241

A man that sees by chance, 206

Among the meadows, 372

And truly need there was, 113

An effigy of brass, 349

Angel spirits of sleep, 291

An idle June day, 206

A poppy grows upon the shore, 234

Ariel, O,—my angel, my own, 299

A single lamp there stood, 161

A song of my heart, 311

Assemble, all ye maidens, 238

At dead of unseen night, 446

A thousand times hath in my heart's behoof, 201

At times with hurried hoofs, 205

Awake, my heart, to be loved, 277

Away now, lovely Muse, 221

A winter's night with the snow about, 272

Beautiful must be the mountains, 311

Beauty sat with me, 215

Because thou canst not see, 268

Behold! the radiant Spring, 255

Belov'd of all to whom that Muse is dear, 377

Beneath the wattled bank, 330

Betwixt two billows of the downs, 301

Bright day succeedeth unto day, 61

Bright, my beloved, be thy day, 363

But Aphrodite to the house of Zeus, 153

But Eros now recover'd from his hurt, 169

But fairest Psyche still in favour rose, 97

Christ and his Mother, 313

Clear and gentle stream, 225

Close up, bright flow'rs, 71

Cold is the winter day, 308

Come gentle sleep, I woo thee, 211

Come, rosy angel, thy coronet donning, 441

Crown Winter with green, 297

Dear lady, when thou frownest, 232

Dreary was winter, 220

Ended are many days, 367

Eternal Father, who didst all create, 221

Fair lady of learning, 390

Fight well, my comrades, 447

Fire of heaven, whose starry arrow, 290

Flame-throated robin, 309

For beauty being the best of all we know, 191

For thou art mine, 188

Gay and lovely is earth, 53

Gay Marigold is frolic, 371

Gay Robin is seen no more, 285

Gird on thy sword, O man, 407

Gloom and the night are thine, 403

Hark! the world is full of thy praise, 364

Hark to the merry birds, 283

Hark! what spirit doth entreat, 405

Haste on, my joys, 269

Heavy meanwhile at heart, 145

His poisoned shafts, 240

How coud I quarrel or blame you, 193

How fares it, friend, since I, 378

How well my eyes remember, 332

I care not if I live, 203

I climb the mossy bank, 338

I died in very flow'r, 448

If I coud but forget and not recall, 207

I found to-day out walking, 468

I have loved flowers that fade, 263

I have sown upon the fields, 351

I heard a linnet courting, 231

I heard great Hector, 213

I know not how I came, 246

I live on hope, 218

I love all beauteous things, 281

I love my lady's eyes, 278

I made another song, 237

In all things beautiful, 202

In autumn moonlight, 215

I never shall love the snow again, 309

In midmost length of hundred-citied Crete, 89

In still midsummer night, 375

In the golden glade, 317

In thee my spring of life, 190

In this May-month, 307

In this neglected, ruin'd edifice, 209

In ways of beauty and peace, 404

I praise the tender flower, 272

I saw the Virgin-mother, 245

I stand on the cliff, 266

I travel to thee with the sun's first rays, 201

I will be what God made me, 218

I will not let thee go, 232

I wish'd to sing thy grace, 347

I would be a bird, 198

Je donnerais pour revivre à vingt ans, 379

Joy, sweetest lifeborn joy, 275

Let praise devote thy work, 300

Let us, as by this verdant bank, 250

Long are the hours the sun is above, 235

Look down the river, 327

Look! Look! the spring is come, 318

Love not too much, 302

Love on my heart from heaven fell, 287

Love that I know, 217

Love to Love calleth, 397

Lo where the virgin veiled in airy beams, 71

Man, born of desire, 399

Man, born to toil, 469

Man hath with man, 323

Mortal though I be, yea ephemeral, 447

My bed and pillow are cold, 273

My delight and thy delight, 339

My eyes for beauty pine, 286

My lady pleases me and I please her, 202

Myriad-voiced Queen, 394

My soul is drunk with joy, 46

My spirit kisseth thine, 298

My spirit sang all day, 281

My wearied heart, 220

No ethical system, no contemplation, 425

Nothing is joy without thee, 199

Now all the windows, 340

Now in wintry delights, 411

Now joy in all hearts, 439

Now since to me altho' by thee refused, 193

Now thin mists temper, 304

O bold majestic downs, 251

O flesh and blood, comrade to tragic pain, 197

O golden Sun, whose ray, 261

O heavenly fire, life's life, 40

O Love, I complain, 335

O Love, my muse, 286

O miserable man, 37

O my goddess divine, 204

O my life's mischief, 205

O my uncared-for songs, 212

O my vague desires, 46, 264

Once I would say, 210

One grief of thine, 375

On the Hellenic board of Crete's fair isle, 137

Open for me the gates of delight, 401

O that the earth, or only this fair isle, 72

O thou unfaithful, 273

O weary pilgrims, 198

O youth whose hope is high, 280

Perfect little body, 267

Poor withered rose, 228

Power eternal, power unknown, 403

Rejoice, ye dead, 196, 401

Resound! Resound! To jubilant music ring, 393

Riding adown the country lanes, 342

Sad, sombre place, 258

Say who be these, 195

Say who is this with silvered hair, 296

See, Love, a year is pass'd, 447

See, whirling snow, 306

Sense with keenest edge unused, 343

Since I believe in God, 443

Since not the enamour'd sun, 214

Since now from woodland mist, 377

Since then 'tis only pity looking back, 210

Since thou, O fondest and truest, 279

Since to be loved endures, 303

Since we loved, 346

Sometimes when my lady sits by me, 234

So sweet love seemed, 305

Spirit of grace and beauty, 350

Spring goeth all in white, 286

Spring hath her own bright days, 199

Sweet compassionate tears, 406

Tears of love, tears of joy, 207

The birds that sing on autumn eves, 293

The cliff-top has a carpet, 229

The clouds have left the sky, 283

The dark and serious angel, 217

The day begins to droop, 345

Thee fair Poetry oft hath sought, 395

The evening darkens over, 279

The fabled sea-snake, old Leviathan, 200

The full moon from her cloudless skies, 277

The green corn waving in the dale, 288

The hill pines were sighing, 288

The idle life I lead, 290

The image of thy love, 209

The lonely season in lonely lands, 314

The north wind came up, 315

The pinks along my garden walks, 289

The poets were good teachers, 189

There is a hill, 248

There's many a would-be poet, 192

There was no lad handsomer, 319

The saddest place, 355

The sea keeps not the Sabbath day, 341

The sea with melancholy war, 396

These grey stones have rung with mirth, 446

These meagre rhymes, 214

The sickness of desire, 376

The snow lies sprinkled on the beach, 298