s: But by her stood no godhead bathed in light,


s: But young Amphryssius, herdsman to the king,


s: Fled from the glittering earth to blackest depths


s: On wings ambrosial, or with feet as swift


s: Borne by the flame-breathing steeds ethereal;


s: Departed and was there.  Before the throne


s: Of Ades, first he hailed the long-sought queen,


s: Stolen with violent hands from grassy fields


s: Pensive, gold-haired, but innocent-eyed no more


s: As when she laughing plucked the daffodils,


s: But grave as on fulfilling a strange doom.


s: And low at Ades' feet, wrapped in grim murk


s: And darkness thick, the three gray women sat,


s: Loose-robed and chapleted with wool and flowers,


s: Purple narcissi round their horrid hair.


s: Intent upon her task, the first one held


s: The tender thread that at a touch would snap;


s: The second weaving it with warp and woof


s: Into strange textures, some stained dark and foul,


s: Some sanguine-colored, and some black as night,


s: And rare ones white, or with a golden thread


s: Running throughout the web: the farthest hag


s: With glistening scissors cut her sisters' work.


s: To these Hyperion, but they never ceased,


s: Nor raised their eyes, till with soft, moderate tones,


s: He spoke, and all hell heard, and these three looked


s: At pure mortal queen's request, who sues


s: "Then cease, for when hath Fate been moved by prayer?"


s: "But strength and upright heart should serve with you."


s: A lifetime unto men."  "The Fates swerve not


s: For supplications, like the pliant gods.


s: Have they not willed a life's thread should be cut?


s: With them the will is changeless as the deed.


s: O men! ye have not learned in all the past,


s: Desires are barren and tears yield no fruit.


s: How long will ye besiege the thrones of gods


s: With lamentations?  When lagged Death for all


s: Your timorous shirking?  We work not like you,


s: Complete each other and explain themselves."


s: "Ye will a life: then why not any life?"


s: "What care we for the king?  He is not worth


s: These many words; indeed, we love not speech.


s: We care not if he live, or lose such life


s: As men are greedy for,--filled full with hate,


s: Sins beneath scorn, and only lit by dreams,


s: Or one sane moment, or a useless hope,--


s: Lasting how long?--the space between the green


s: And fading yellow of the grass they tread."


s: Suffice ye for Admetus?"  "Yea," the crones


s: Three times repeated.  "We know no such names


s: As king or queen or slave: we want but life.


s: Begone, and vex us in our work no more."


s: And worshipped.  Then he gently: "Who will die,


s: So that the king may live?"  And she: "You ask?


s: Nay, who will live when life clasps hands with shame,


s: And death with honor?  Lo, you are a god;


s: You cannot know the highest joy of life,--


s: His parents, kinsmen, courtiers, subjects, slaves,--


s: For love of him myself would die, were none


s: Found ready; but what Greek would stand to see


s: And only once, the gods will do this thing


s: Delight to honor,--holy, temperate, chaste,


s: With reverence for his daemon and his god."


s: Of King Admetus' chamber.  All there saw


s: Her ill-timed gladness with much wonderment.


s: But she: "No longer mourn!  The king is saved:


s: The Fates will spare him.  Lift your voice in praise;


s: "O Queen, what mean these foolish words misplaced?


s: And what an hour is this to thank the Fates?"


s: "Thrice blessed be the gods!--for God himself


s: Has sued for me,--they are not stern and deaf.


s: Cry, and they answer: commune with your soul,


s: And they send counsel: weep with rainy grief,


s: And these will sweeten you your bitterest tears.


s: And ye, on hearing, will lament no more,


s: Each emulous to save."  Then--for she spake


s: They asked: "What deed of ours may serve the king?"


s: And one of you may die."  Smiling, she ceased.


s: But silence answered her.  "What! do ye thrust


s: Your arrows in your hearts beneath your cloaks,


s: Dying like Greeks, too proud to own the pang?


s: This ask I not.  In all the populous land


s: But one need suffer for immortal praise.


s: The generous Fates have sent no pestilence,


s: Famine, nor war: it is as though they gave


s: Freely, and only make the boon more rich


s: By such slight payment.  Now a people mourns,


s: Filling the cities with a pleasant sound.


s: But as for me, what faltering words can tell


s: My joy, in extreme sharpness kin to pain?


s: Wreathed with kind love and dear remembrances;


s: Your name will be the highest in the land,


s: What! silent still?  Since when has virtue grown


s: Is death more terrible, more hateworthy,


s: More bitter than dishonor?  Will ye live


s: On shame?  Chew and find sweet its poisoned fruits?


s: What sons will ye bring forth--mean-souled like you,


s: Or, like your parents, brave--to blush like girls,


s: And say,'Our fathers were afraid to die!'


s: Unto the eyes of aliens.  In the streets


s: Will women and young children point at you


s: Scornfully, and the sun will find you shamed,


s: And night refuse to shield you.  What a life


s: Is this ye spin and fashion for yourselves!


s: And what new tortures of suspense and doubt


s: Will death invent for such as are afraid!


s: Foremost, who greeted me with sanguine hands


s: From ruddy battle with a conqueror's face,--


s: These honors wilt thou blot with infamy?


s: Nay, thou hast won no honors: a mere girl


s: Would do as much as thou at such a time,


s: In clamorous battle,'midst tumultuous sounds,


s: Neighing of war-steeds, shouts of sharp command,


s: Snapping of shivered spears; for all are brave


s: At night, when no man sees,--content to die


s: When life can serve no longer those he loves."


s: Death, nor the empty darkness of the grave,


s: Subject unto my people's call, and Fate.


s: But if 't is little, no greater is the king's;


s: And though my heart bleeds sorely, I recall


s: We are not cowards, we youth of Thessaly,


s: And Thessaly--yea, all Greece--knoweth it;


s: Nor will we brook the name from even you,


s: Albeit a queen, and uttering these wild words


s: Through your umwonted sorrow."  Then she knew


s: That he stood firm, and turning from him, cried


s: To the king's parents: "Are ye deaf with grief,


s: Yet rather stand and weep with barren tears.


s: O, shame! to think that such gray, reverend hairs


s: What would ye lose?--a remnant of mere life,


s: A few slight raveled threads, and give him years


s: To fill with glory.  Who, when he is gone,


s: Will call you gentlest names this side of heaven,--


s: Father and mother?  Knew ye not this man


s: Ere he was royal,--a poor, helpless child,


s: Crownless and kingdomless?  One birth alone


s: You must give life with travail and strong pain.


s: Has he not lived to outstrip your swift hopes?


s: What after-offering may appease the gods?


s: What joy outweigh the grief of this one day?


s: What clamor drown the hours' myriad tongues,


s: Crying, 'Your son, your son? where is your son,


s: Then Pheres gravely: "These are graceless words


s: From you our daughter.  Life is always life,


s: And death comes soon enough to such as we.


s: We twain are old and weak, have served our time,


s: Arise now in their turn and save the king."


s: "O gods! look on your creatures! do ye see?


s: And seeing, have ye patience?  Smite them all,


s: Vile slaves! a woman teaches you to die.


s: Scorn in my heart, and love unutterable,


s: I yield the Fates my life, and like a god


s: Command them to revere that sacred head.


s: Thus kiss I thrice the dear, blind, holy eyes,


s: And bid them see; and thrice I kiss this brow,


s: And thus unfasten I the pale, proud lips


s: With fruitful kissings, bringing love and life,


s: I hear, I hear--unspeak thy reckless words!


s: For, lo! thy life-blood tingles in my veins,


s: And streameth through my body like new wine.


s: My pulse, and through thy sacrifice I breathe.


s: Thy lips are bloodless: kiss me not again.


s: Ashen thy cheeks, faded thy flower-like hands.


s: As mother, by the love thou bearest our child,


s: In this thy hour of passion and of love,


s: Thy words sublime!"  "I die that thou mayest live."


s: "And deemest thou that I accept the boon,


s: Craven, like these my subjects?  Lo, my queen,


s: Is life itself a lovely thing,--bare life?


s: That make it precious to its inmost core?


s: When these are lost, are there not swords in Greece,


s: And flame and poison, deadly waves and plagues?


s: No man has ever lacked these things and gone


s: Unsatisfied.  It is not these the gods refuse


s: (Nay, never clutch my sleeve and raise thy lip),--


s: Not these I seek; but I will stab myself,


s: Poison my life and burn my flesh, with words,


s: And save or follow thee.  Lo! hearken now:


s: I bid the gods take back their loathsome gifts:


s: O spurn them, and I scorn them, and I hate.


s: Will they prove deaf to this as to my prayers?


s: With tongue reviling, blasphemous, I curse,


s: With mouth polluted from deliberate heart.


s: Dishonored be their names, scorned be their priests,


s: Ruined their altars, mocked their oracles!


s: So that his queen, who worships you, may live."


s: But awful silence followed.  Then a hand,


s: And turning, he beheld his shepherd boy,


s: Who spake in tender, thrilling tones: "The gods


s: Cannot recall their gifts.  Blaspheme them not:


s: Bow down and worship rather.  Shall he curse


s: Who sees not, and who hears not,--neither knows


s: Nor understands?  Nay, thou shalt bless and pray,--


s: Pray, for the pure heart purged by prayer, divines


s: And seeth when the bolder eyes are blind.


s: A sudden sense of awe, and bowed their heads


s: Beneath the stripling's gaze: Admetus fell,


s: Crushed by that gentle touch, and cried aloud:


s: One grim and ghastly, shadowy, horrible,


s: His head a crown, within his fleshless hands


s: A sceptre,--monstrous, winged, intolerable.


s: To him a stranger coming 'neath the trees,


s: Which slid down flakes of light, now on his hair,


s: Close-curled, now on his bared and brawny chest,


s: Now on his flexile, vine-like veined limbs,


s: With iron network of strong muscle thewed,


s: And godlike brows and proud mouth unrelaxed.


s: Of indolent flesh impeded this man's strength.


s: No weapons bare he, neither shield: his hands


s: Folded upon his breast, his movements free


s: Of all incumbrance.  When his mighty strides


s: Had brought him nigh the waiting one, he paused:


s: "Whose palace this? and who art thou, grim shade?"


s: And my name is not strange unto thine ears;


s: For who hath told men that I wait for them,


s: The one sure thing on earth?  Yet all they know,


s: But who are thou who darest question me?"


s: Hath found no name.  Whom here awaitest thou?"


s: Who wooed me as the bridegroom woos the bride,


s: For her life sacrificed will save her lord


s: And kiss her lips, and kiss her throbbing heart,


s: And then the tenderest hands can do no more


s: Than close her eyes and wipe her cold, white brow,


s: Inurn her ashes and strew flowers above."


s: Luminous, starry: earth can spare her not:


s: To lose this paragon.  Save her, O Death!


s: Thou surely art more gentle than the Fates,


s: Yet these have spared her lord, and never meant


s: That she should suffer, and that this their grace,


s: Beautiful, royal on one side, should turn


s: "Nay, have they not?  O fond and foolish man,


s: Naught comes unlooked for, unforeseen by them.


s: Doubt when they favor thee, though thou mayest laugh


s: When they have scourged thee with an iron scourge.


s: Behold, their smile is deadlier than their sting,


s: And every boon of theirs is double-faced.


s: I slay relentless, but when have I mocked


s: With poisoned gifts, and generous hands that smite


s: Under the flowers? for my name is Truth.


s: Were this fair queen more fair, more pure, more chaste,


s: I would not spare her for your wildest prayer


s: Nor her best virtue.  Is the earth's mouth full?


s: Is the grave satisfied?  Discrown me then,


s: For life is lord, and men may mock the gods


s: But I command thee spare this woman's life,


s: Or wrestle with Alcides."  "Wrestle with thee,


s: Thou puny boy!"  And Death laughed loud, and swelled


s: To monstrous bulk, fierce-eyed, with outstretched wings,


s: And lightnings round his brow; but grave and firm,


s: Thy loss is bitter, for no chance, no fame,


s: for a dead mother.  Thou, O king, fulfill


s: And make him bold to wrestle, shiver spears,


s: And tell him that his mother spake with gods.


s: Farewell, farewell!  Mine eyes are growing blind:


s: The darkness gathers.  O my heart, my heart!"


s: No sound made answer save the cries of grief


s: From all the mourners, and the suppliance


s: Of strick'n Admetus: "O have mercy, gods!


s: Her voice was heard, but with strange sudden tones:


s: "Lo, I awake--the light comes back to me.


s: What miracle is this?"  And thunders shook


s: The air, and clouds of mighty darkness fell,


s: And the earth trembled, and weird, horrid sounds


s: Were heard of rushing wings and fleeing feet,


s: Saving the king, who paused not in his prayer:


s: "Have mercy, gods!" and then again, "O gods,


s: Bright floods of sunny light; the air was soft,


s: Clear, delicate as though a summer storm


s: Had passed away; and those there standing saw,


s: Afar upon the plain, Death fleeing thence,


s: And at the doorway, weary, well-nigh spent,


s: Of minstrels, minnesingers, troubadours,


s: At Wartburg in his palace, and the knight,


s: Sir Tannhauser of France, the greatest bard,


s: Inspired with heavenly visions, and endowed


s: Of noble music, fared in thoughtful wise


s: Across the Horsel meadows.  Full of light,


s: And large repose, the peaceful valley lay,


s: Of the young knight, who journeyed to the west,


s: Towards the precipitous and rugged cliffs,


s: Scarred, grim, and torn with savage rifts and chasms,


s: That in the distance loomed as soft and fair


s: And purple as their shadows on the grass.


s: The tinkling chimes ran out athwart the air,


s: Proclaiming sunset, ushering evening in,


s: Although the sky yet glowed with yellow light.


s: The ploughboy, ere he led his cattle home,


s: And doffed his cap, and duly crossed his breast,


s: The pealing vesper-bell.  But still the knight,


s: Disdainful or unconscious, held his course.


s: "Would that I also, like yon stupid wight,


s: Could kneel and hail the Virgin and believe!"


s: He murmured bitterly beneath his breath.


s: For the Olympic wreath, O with what zeal,


s: The praises of the gods!  How may my lyre


s: Who brings a sword, not peace.  A pallid Christ,


s: They give us for a heaven of living gods,


s: Beautiful, loving, whose mere names were song;


s: A creed of suffering and despair, walled in


s: That limit the soul's vision and her hope


s: Am doomed to flaming torture for my thoughts.


s: O gods! O gods! where shall my soul find peace?"


s: He raised his wan face to the faded skies,


s: Now shadowing into twilight; no response


s: Came from their sunless heights; no miracle,


s: As in the ancient days of answering gods.


s: With a long, shuddering sigh he glanced to earth,


s: Finding himself among the Horsel cliffs.


s: Gray, sullen, gaunt, they towered on either side;


s: Scant shrubs sucked meagre life between the rifts


s: Of their huge crags, and made small darker spots


s: Upon their wrinkled sides; the jaded horse


s: Stumbled upon loose, rattling, fallen stones,


s: Amidst the gathering dusk, and blindly fared


s: Through the weird, perilous pass.  As darkness waxed,


s: The roadstead and the rocks, Sir Tannhauser


s: The fluttering of white raiment.  With a sense


s: For his sagacious horse that reeked of sweat,


s: Trembling in every limb, confirmed his thought,


s: That nothing human scaled that haunted cliff.


s: The white thing seemed descending,--now a cloud


s: It looked, and now a rag of drifted mist,


s: Shapely and real,--then he lost it quite,


s: Gazing on nothing with blank, foolish face.


s: As with wide eyes he stood, he was aware


s: He turned, and, leaping from his horse, fell prone,


s: Before the matchless goddess, who appeared


s: With no less freshness of immortal youth


s: Than when first risen from foam of Paphian seas.


s: Such as his highest muse had ne'er attained,


s: Float in the air, while in the distance rang,


s: Harsh and discordant, jarring with those tones,


s: The gallop of his frightened horse's hoofs,


s: Clattering in sudden freedom down the pass.


s: Then thrilled through heart and flesh of that prone knight,


s: Triumphantly: "The gods need but appear,


s: And their usurped thrones are theirs again!"


s: Then tenderly: "Sweet knight, I pray thee, rise;


s: Of thy fair, human face."  He rose and looked,


s: Stirred by that heavenly flattery to the soul.


s: Rained in a glittering shower to the ground,


s: And cast forth lustre.  Round her zone was clasped


s: The scintillant cestus, stiff with flaming gold,


s: Thicker with restless gems than heaven with stars.


s: She might have flung the enchanted wonder forth;


s: Her eyes, her slightest gesture would suffice


s: She sprang upon the mountain's dangerous side,


s: With feet that left their print in flowers divine,--


s: The knight sped after her, with wild eyes fixed


s: Upon her brightness, as she lightly leapt


s: From crag to crag, with flying auburn hair,


s: Like a gold cloud, that lured him ever on,


s: At last amidst a grove of pines she paused,


s: Until he reached her, breathing hard with haste,


s: Delight, and wonder.  Then upon his hand


s: She placed her own, and all his blood at once


s: Tingled and hotly rushed to brow and cheek,


s: At the supreme caress; but the mere touch


s: Infused fresh life, and when she looked at him


s: With gracious tenderness, he felt himself


s: Strong suddenly to bear the blinding light


s: Of those great eyes.  "Dear knight," she murmured low,


s: "For love of me, wilt thou accord this boon,--


s: His hungry eyes gave answer ere he spoke,


s: In tones abrupt that startled his own ears


s: With their strange harshness; but with thanks profuse


s: She guided him, still holding his cold hand


s: Of spice and roses, frankincense and balm.


s: They entering stood within a marble hall,


s: With straight, slim pillars, at whose farther end


s: Of stairs, descending always 'midst black gloom


s: Down these, with fearful swiftness, they made way,


s: The knight's feet touching not the solid stair,


s: Blind, feeling but that hand divine that still


s: In vast palace filled with reveling folk.


s: Were rolling hills, cool lakes, and boscage green,


s: And all the summer landscape's various pomp.


s: In semblance of the pleached forest trees,


s: Enameled with the liveliest green, wherethrough


s: A light pierced, more resplendent than the day.


s: O'er the pale, polished jasper of the floor


s: Of burnished metal, fretted and embossed


s: With all the marvelous story of her birth


s: Painted in prodigal splendor of rich tincts,


s: And carved by heavenly artists,--crystal seas,


s: And long-haired Nereids in their pearly shells,


s: Sphered in a vermeil mist.  Upon the throne


s: She took her seat, the knight beside her still,


s: And the dance ceased, and the flushed revelers came


s: In glittering phalanx to adore their queen.


s: Beautiful girls, with shining delicate heads,


s: With flickering wings from naked shoulders soft.


s: Then with preluding low, a thousand harps,


s: And citherns, and strange nameless instruments,


s: Sent through the fragrant air sweet symphonies,


s: And the winged dancers waved in mazy rounds,


s: With changing lustres like a summer sea.


s: Fair boys, with charming yellow hair crisp-curled,


s: And frail, effeminate beauty, the knight saw,


s: But of strong, stalwart men like him were none.


s: He gazed thereon bewitched, until the hand


s: Of Venus, erst withdrawn, now fell again


s: Upon his own, and roused him from his trance.


s: He looked on her, and as he looked, a cloud


s: In luminous folds, like that vermilion mist


s: Penciled upon the throne, and as it waxed


s: In density and brightness, all the throng


s: Of festal dancers, less and less distinct,


s: Grew like pale spirits in a vague, dim dream,


s: And vanished altogether; and these twain,


s: Shut from the world in that ambrosial cloud,


s: Vivid and conflagrant, looked each on each.


s: All hours came laden with their own delights


s: Knew no divisions harsh of night and day,


s: But light was always, and desire of sleep


s: Was satisfied at once with slumber soft,


s: By unseen hands on golden tables spread.


s: But these the knight accepted like a god,


s: All less was lost in that excess of joy,


s: The crowning marvel of her love for him,


s: Meanwhile remembrance of the earth appeared


s: Like the vague trouble of a transient dream,--


s: The doubt, the scruples, the remorse for thoughts


s: Beyond his own control, the constant thirst


s: For something fairer than his life, more real


s: All nobler passions died; his lyre he flung


s: His being to herself.  She knew and seized


s: With blandishment divine she changed for him,


s: All in a breath.  And often she appeared


s: Majestic with celestial wrath, with eyes


s: Portentous as the lowering front of heaven,


s: When the reverberant, sullen thunder rolls


s: Among the echoing clouds.  Thus she denounced


s: Her ancient, fickle worshippers, who left


s: Her name forgotten.  "But I reign, I reign!"


s: She would shrill forth, triumphant; "yea, I reign.


s: Men name me not, but worship me unnamed,


s: Beauty and Love within their heart of hearts;


s: Not with bent knees and empty breath of words,


s: Then melting in a moment, she would weep


s: Ambrosial tears, pathetic, full of guile,


s: In craving worship, when she had his heart,


s: Her priceless knight, her peerless paladin,


s: Her Tannhauser; then, with an artful glance


s: Not to desert her, like the faithless world,


s: For these unbeautiful and barbarous gods,


s: Or she would never cease her prayers to Jove,


s: The knight then sealed his worship and forswore


s: All other aims and deeds to serve her cause.


s: Of reckless passion and voluptuous sloth,


s: Once when she left him with a weary sense


s: And, raising listless eyes, he saw himself


s: In a great burnished mirror, wrought about


s: He scarcely knew those sunken, red-rimmed eyes,


s: For his who in the flush of manhood rode


s: Among the cliffs, and followed up the crags


s: The flying temptress; and there fell on him


s: To feel the breath of heaven on his face.


s: Then as Fate willed, who rules above the gods,


s: He saw, within the glass, behind him glide


s: The form of Venus.  Certain of her power,


s: The enchanted cestus, and Sir Tannhauser,


s: Duped by a lovely witch.  Before he moved,


s: She knew her destiny; and when he turned,


s: He seemed to drop a mask, disclosing thus


s: An alien face, and eyes with vision true,


s: That for long time with glamour had been blind.


s: Hiding the hideous rage within her breast,


s: With girlish simpleness of folded hands,


s: Auroral blushes, and sweet, shamefast mien,


s: She spoke: "Behold, my love, I have cast forth


s: With tears as of real woe.  I thought my belt,


s: By Vulcan wrought with matchless skill and power,


s: Was the sole bond between us; this being doffed,


s: I seemed to thee an old, unlovely crone,


s: Wrinkled by every year that I have seen.


s: Thou turnedst from me with a brutal sneer,


s: So that I woke with weeping.  Then I rose,


s: And drew the glittering girdle from my zone,


s: Jealous thereof, yet full of fears, and said,


s: 'If it be this he loves, then let him go!


s: No hope of change or death to comfort me


s: Though I could hold him fast with heavy chains,


s: See, I am kneeling, and kiss thy hands,--


s: As she looked down, the infernal influence


s: Worked on his soul again; for she was fair


s: Seemed luminous with high self-sacrifice.


s: He bent and kissed her head, warm, shining, soft,


s: With its close-curling gold, and love revived.


s: But ere he spoke, he heard the distant sound


s: Of violent anger flashed across the face


s: And singleness of purpose.  Then he sprang,


s: Well-nigh a god himself, with sudden strength


s: to vanquish and resist, beyond her reach,


s: Crying, "My old Muse calls me, and I hear!


s: Thy fateful vision is no baseless dream;


s: I will be gone from this accursed hall!"


s: And sullen clouds veiled all her rosy limbs,


s: Refulgent, and her voice rang wrathfully:


s: "Have I cajoled and flattered thee till now,


s: To lose thee thus!  How wilt thou make escape?


s: Yea, not my love, but my poor slave and fool."


s: But he, with both hands pressed upon his eyes,


s: Against that blinding lustre, heeded not


s: Her thundered words, and cried in sharp despair,


s: The roof was rived, the goddess disappeared,


s: And Tannhauser stood free upon the cliff,


s: Amidst the morning sunshine and fresh air.


s: Around him were the tumbled blocks and crags,


s: Huge ridges and sharp juts of flinty peaks,


s: Black caves, and masses of the grim, bald rock.


s: Dotted with yellow hayricks, that exhaled


s: Sweet, healthy odors to the mountain-top.


s: He breathed intoxicate the infinite air,


s: And plucked the heather blossoms where they blew,


s: Reckless with light and dew, in crannies green,


s: And scarcely saw their darling bells for tears.


s: No sounds of labor reached him from the farms


s: And hamlets trim, nor from the furrowed glebe;


s: But a serene and sabbath stillness reigned,


s: Till broken by the faint, melodious chimes


s: Of the small village church that called to prayer.


s: He hurried down the rugged, scarped cliff,


s: And swung himself from shelving granite slopes


s: To narrow foot-holds, near wide-throated chasms,


s: Tearing against the sharp stones his bleeding hands,


s: With long hair flying from his dripping brow,


s: Uncovered head, and white, exalted face.


s: No thought of fear upon those dreadful hills;


s: For worship 'midst his fellow men.  He reached


s: The beaten, dusty road, and passed thereon


s: The pious peasants faring towards the church,


s: And scarce refrained from greeting them like friends


s: How more than fair the sunburnt wenches looked,


s: In their rough, homespun gowns and coifs demure,


s: His air extravagant and face distraught,


s: With bursts of laughter from the red-cheeked boys,


s: And prudent crossings of the women's breasts.


s: He passed the flowering close about the church,


s: And trod the well worn-path, with throbbing heart,


s: The little heather-bell between his lips,


s: And his eyes fastened on the good green grass.


s: With frequent tapers, and with sunbeams stained


s: Through painted glass.  How pure and innocent


s: Kneeling, or seated with calm brows upraised!


s: With faltering strength, he cowered down alone,


s: And held sincere communion with the Lord,


s: And then began the service,--not in words


s: To raise the lowly, and to heal the sick,


s: But an alien tongue, with phrases formed,


s: And meaningless observances.  The knight,


s: Unmoved, yet thirsting for the simple word


s: That might have moved him, held his bitter thoughts,


s: But when in his own speech a new priest spake,


s: Looked up with hope revived, and heard the text:


s: "Go, preach the Gospel unto all the world.


s: He that believes and is baptized, is saved.


s: He that believeth not, is damned in hell!"


s: He sat with neck thrust forth and staring eyes;


s: He felt alone in some black sea of hell,


s: While a great light smote one exalted face,


s: Whose fatal mouth now thundered forth his doom.


s: He longed in that void circle to cry out,


s: With one clear shriek, but sense and voice seemed bound,


s: And his parched tongue clave useless to his mouth.


s: As the last words resounded through the church,


s: And once again the pastor blessed his flock,


s: Who, serious and subdued, passed slowly down


s: The arrow aisle, none noted, near the wall,


s: A heap of huddled garments and loose hair,


s: Unconscious 'mid the rustling, murmurous stir,


s: 'Midst light and rural smell of grass and flowers,


s: Let in athwart the doorway.  One lone priest,


s: Darkening the altar lights, moved noiselessly,


s: Amidst the smooth, slim pillars of hewn ash.


s: But from the vacant aisles he heard at once


s: A hollow sigh, heaved from a depth profound.


s: Upholding his last light above his head,


s: He cried, "Be blest who cometh in God's name."


s: Then the gaunt form of Tannhauser arose.


s: I can regain the joy of peace with God."


s: 'Although thy sins be scarlet,' He hath said,


s: 'Will I not make them white as wool?'  Confess,


s: And I will shrive you."  Thus the good priest moved


s: Towards the remorseful knight and pressed his hand.


s: But shrinking down, he drew his fingers back


s: From the kind palm, and kissed the friar's feet.


s: "Thy pure hand is anointed, and can heal.


s: The cool, calm pressure brings back sanity,


s: And what serene, past joys! yet touch me not,


s: While I disburden my charged soul."  He lay,


s: Casting about for words and strength to speak.


s: "O father, is there help for such a one,"


s: "Who hath rebelled against the laws of God,


s: With pride no less presumptuous than his


s: Who lost thereby his rank in heaven?"  "My son,


s: There is atonement for all sins,--or slight


s: Or difficult, proportioned to the crime.


s: Though this may be the staining of thy hands


s: With blood of kinsmen or of fellow-men."


s: "My hands are white,--my crime hath found no name,


s: This side of hell; yet though my heart-strings snap


s: To live it over, let me make the attempt.


s: I was a knight and bard, with such a gift


s: Draw from those common and familiar themes,


s: Of every church,--the mother and her child,


s: The death, the resurrection?  Fool and blind!


s: What tortures did my skeptic soul endure,


s: The restless nights of feverish sleeplessness,


s: With balancing of reasons nicely weighed;


s: The dawn that brought no hope nor energy,


s: The blasphemous arraignment of the Lord,


s: With all the grief and folly of the world.


s: And hollow prayer and praise from craven heart.


s: Before a sculptured Venus I would kneel,


s: Crown her with flowers, worship her, and cry,


s: At least my heart and prayer return to thee,


s: Hot with the first rich flush of ripened life?'


s: And self-sufficing pride.  Yet constantly


s: I gained men's charmed attention and applause,


s: With the wild strains I smote from out my lyre,


s: As all things whose solution and whose source


s: Of minstrels at the Landgrave Hermann's court.


s: Resolved to publish there my pagan creed


s: That all the world would share my zeal and faith,


s: I journeyed towards the haunted Horsel cliffs.


s: Yet fresh as April?  She bewitched my sense,


s: Poisoned my judgment with sweet flatteries,


s: There is no sin of lust so lewd and foul,


s: Which I learned not in that alluring hell,


s: Until this morn, I snapped the ignoble tie,


s: And look men in the eyes!  What penitence,


s: What scourging of the flesh, what rigid fasts,


s: To cleanse me in the sight of God and man?"


s: Then sprang unto his feet with sudden force,


s: Confronting in his breathless vehemence,


s: With palpitating heart, the timid priest.


s: One day, at the great judgment seat yourself."


s: "I cannot answer," said the timid priest,


s: "I have not understood."  "Just God! is this


s: The curse Thou layest upon me?  I outstrip


s: From their clean innocence.  Inspire me,


s: Prompt me to words that bring me near to them!


s: That sin like mine you cannot apprehend.


s: More than the truth perchance I have confessed,


s: But I have sinned, and darkly,--this is true;


s: And I have suffered, and am suffering now.


s: Is there no help in your great Christian creed


s: "My son," the priest replied, "your speech distraught


s: Hath quite bewildered me.  I fain would hope


s: That Christ's large charity can reach your sin,


s: But I know naught.  I cannot but believe


s: That the enchantress who first tempted you


s: That leads to Rome,--a sage and reverend priest,


s: The Bishop Adrian, bides there.  Say you have come


s: And may absolve you freely of your sin."


s: Over the rolling hills, through summer fields,


s: Through glowing days, when all the landscape stretched


s: Towards the cathedral town.  Sir Tannhauser


s: Had donned the mournful sackcloth, girt his loins


s: With a coarse rope that ate into his flesh,


s: Hung a great leaden cross around his neck;


s: And bearing in his hands a knotty staff,


s: With swollen, sandaled feet he held his course.


s: He snatched scant rest at twilight or at dawn,


s: When his forced travel was least difficult.


s: But most he journeyed when the sky, o'ercast,


s: Uprolled its threatening clouds of dusky blue,


s: And angry thunder grumbled through the hills,


s: And earth grew dark at noonday, till the flash


s: Of the thin lightning through the wide sky leapt.


s: And tumbling showers scoured along the plain.


s: Drenched, weird, and hastening as as to some strange doom,


s: And the Lord Christ had sent the deadly bolt


s: Harmless upon his cursed, immortal head.


s: At length the hill-side city's spires and roofs,


s: With all its western windows smitten red


s: By a rich sunset, and with massive towers


s: greeted his sight.  Some weary paces more,


s: And as the twilight deepened in the streets,


s: He stood within the minster.  How serene,


s: In sculptured calm of centuries, it seemed!


s: How cool and spacious all the dim-lit aisles,


s: The vesper had been said, yet here and there


s: Or burly burgher on the cold floor knelt,


s: And still the organist, with wandering hands,


s: And filled the church with flying waifs of song,


s: That with ethereal beauty moved the soul


s: To a more tender prayer and gentler faith


s: Than choral anthems and the solemn mass.


s: A thousand memories, sweet to bitterness,


s: Rushed on the knight and filled his eyes with tears;


s: Youth's blamelessness and faith forever lost,


s: The love of his neglected lyre, his art,


s: He was unworthy now to touch the strings,


s: And high resolves, as in the days agone;


s: And yet, with all his spirit's earnestness,


s: He yearned to feel the lyre between his hands,


s: Unto the Muse who understands and helps.


s: Outworn with travel, soothed to drowsiness


s: His limbs relaxed, and sleep possessed his frame.


s: Auroral light the eastern oriels touched,


s: When with delicious sense of rest he woke,


s: Amidst the cast and silent empty aisles.


s: "God's peace hath fallen upon me in this place;


s: He spake, and passed with staff and wallet forth


s: Through the tall portal to the open square,


s: And turning, paused to look upon the pile.


s: The northern front against the crystal sky


s: Loomed dark and heavy, full of sombre shade,


s: With each projecting buttress, carven cross,


s: Gable and mullion, tipped with laughing light


s: By the slant sunbeams of the risen morn.


s: The noisy swallows wheeled above their nests,


s: Builded in hidden nooks about the porch.


s: No human life was stirring in the square,


s: Save now and then a rumbling market-team,


s: Fresh from the fields and farms without the town.


s: He knelt upon the broad cathedral steps,


s: And kissed the moistened stone, while overhead


s: The circling swallows sang, and all around


s: To stranger's ears must yet again be made


s: A deathly chill, with something worse than fear,


s: Seized the knight's heart, who knew his every word


s: Widened the gulf between his kind and him.


s: The Bishop sat with pomp of mitred head,


s: In pride of proven virtue, hearkening to all


s: The friar understood the pilgrim's grief,


s: The language of his eyes; his speech alone


s: Was alien to these kind, untutored ears.


s: From out the depths of his remorseful soul,


s: And have it weighed with the precision cool


s: That call for strict, immediate punishment.


s: Though base, yet fallen through passions and rare gifts


s: And knew his weary head was growing gray


s: Found his old sense of proper worth revive;


s: O holy Father, in the church, this morn,


s: With merciful compassion; yea, as though


s: Mine own salvation, through repentant prayers."


s: A pilgrimage through pleasant summer lands,


s: May not atone for years of impious lust;


s: Thy heart hath lied to thee in offering hope."


s: "Is there no hope on earth?" the pilgrim sighed.


s: "None through thy penance," said the saintly man.


s: "Yet there may be through mediation, help.


s: Hath won the right to intercede with God.


s: No sins of his own flesh hath he to purge,--


s: This is my only counsel,--through thyself


s: How different from the buoyant joy of morn


s: Was this discouraged sense of lassitude,


s: The Bishop's words were ringing in his ears,


s: Measured and pitiless, and blent with these,


s: The memory of the goddess' last wild cry,--


s: Was it the truth, despite his penitence,


s: And the dedication of his thought to God,


s: That still some portion of himself was hers,


s: Some lust survived, some criminal regret,


s: For her corrupted love?  He searched his heart:


s: And yet her dreadful curse still haunted him;


s: For all men shunned him, and denied him help,


s: Ploughed with deep lines and prematurely old,


s: That he had struggled with some deadly fiend,


s: Just past the outskirts of the town, he stopped,


s: To strengthen will and courage to proceed.


s: The storm had broken o'er the sultry streets,


s: But now the lessening clouds were flying east,


s: And though the gentle shower still wet his face,


s: The west was cloudless while the sun went down,


s: And the bright seven-colored arch stood forth,


s: Against the opposite dull gray.  There was


s: A beauty in the mingled storm and peace,


s: Beyond clear sunshine, as the vast, green fields


s: Basked in soft light, though glistening yet with rain.


s: That whirred their gauzy wings around his head.


s: The breeze that follows on the sunsetting


s: Was blowing whiffs of bruised and dripping grass


s: Disconsolate with thoughts of fate and sin,


s: Still wrestling with his soul to win it back


s: Then on the delicate air there came to him


s: There was in those familiar peals, that spake


s: Leading him back, with gracious influence,


s: To pleasant thoughts and tender memories,


s: And last, recalling the fair hour of hope


s: He passed that morning in the church.  Again,


s: The glad assurance of God's boundless love


s: Filled all his being, and he rose serene,


s: And journeyed forward with a calm content.


s: Southward he wended, and the landscape took


s: The gardens of the graceful, festooned with hops,


s: With their slight tendrils binding pole to pole,


s: Gave place to orchards and the trellised grape,


s: The hedges were enwreathed with trailing vines,


s: With clustering, shapely bunches, 'midst the growth


s: Less frequent grew than cactus, cypresses,


s: And golden-fruited or large-blossomed trees.


s: The far hills took the hue of the dove's breast,


s: Veiled in gray mist of olive groves.  No more


s: He passed dark, moated strongholds of grim knights,


s: With fountains leaping in the sunny air,


s: And hanging gardens full of sumptuous bloom.


s: Then cloisters guarded by their dead gray walls,


s: Where now and then a golden globe of fruit


s: Or full-flushed flower peered out upon the road,


s: Nodding against the stone, and where he heard


s: Sometimes the voices of the chanting monks,


s: Sometimes the laugh of children at their play,


s: Amidst the quaint, old gardens.  But these sights


s: Were in the suburbs of the wealthy towns.


s: For many a day through wildernesses rank,


s: Or marshy, feverous meadow-lands he fared,


s: The fierce sun smiting his close-muffled head;


s: Or 'midst the Alpine gorges faced the storm,


s: That drave adown the gullies melted snow


s: And clattering boulders from the mountain-tops.


s: At times, between the mountains and the sea


s: Fair prospects opened, with the boundless stretch


s: Of restless, tideless water by his side,


s: And their long wash upon the yellow sand.


s: Beneath this generous sky the country-folk


s: Could lead a freer life,--the fat, green fields


s: Rang tinkling cow-bells and the shepherds' pipes.


s: The knight met many a strolling troubadour,


s: Bearing his cithern, flute, or dulcimer;


s: At night, he heard their mellow voices rise,


s: Blent with stringed instruments or tambourines,


s: Chanting some lay as natural as a bird's.


s: Then Nature stole with healthy influence


s: Into his thoughts; his love of beauty woke,


s: His Muse inspired dreams as in the past.


s: And he would tighten round his loins the rope,


s: And lie for hours beside some wayside cross,


s: The splendid gift and privilege of life.


s: Then forth he hurried, spurred by his desire


s: And gain his absolution.  Some leagues more


s: Would bring him to the vast Campagna land,


s: When by a roadside well he paused to rest.


s: 'T was noon, and reapers in the field hard by


s: Lay neath the trees upon the sun-scorched grass.


s: But from their midst one came towards the well,


s: Not trudging like a man forespent with toil,


s: With light steps.  The pilgrim watched him come,


s: And found him scarcely older than a child,


s: A large-mouthed earthen pitcher in his hand,


s: A wide straw hat threw all his face in shade,


s: But doffing this, to catch whatever breeze


s: Might stir among the branches, he disclosed


s: A charming head of rippled, auburn hair,


s: A frank, fair face, as lovely as a girls,


s: With great, soft eyes, as mild and grave as kine's.


s: Above his head he slipped the instrument,


s: Lowered his pitcher down the well-head cool,


s: The watchful pilgrim, craving (as he thought)


s: The precious draught.  "Your pardon, holy sir,


s: Drink first," he cried, "before I take the jar


s: Touched by the cordial kindness of the lad,


s: The pilgrim answered,--"Thanks, my thirst is quenched


s: From mine own palm."  The stranger deftly poised


s: The brimming pitcher on his head, and turned


s: Back to the reaping-folk, while Tannhauser


s: Looked after him across the sunny fields,


s: Clasping each hand about his waist to bear


s: The balanced pitcher; then, down glancing, found


s: The lad's guitar near by, and fell at once


s: To striking its tuned string with wandering hands,


s: And pensive eyes filled full of tender dreams.


s: "Yea, holy sir, it is a worthless thing,


s: And yet I love it, for I make it speak."


s: The boy again stood by him and dispelled


s: His train of fantasies half sweet, half sad.


s: "That was not in my thought," the knight replied.


s: "Its worth is more than rubies; whoso hath


s: The art to make this speak is raised thereby


s: More to himself than to the lad he spake,


s: Who, understanding not, stood doubtfully


s: At a loss for answer; but the knight went on:


s: "How came it in your hands, and who hath tuned


s: your voice to follow it."  "I am unskilled,


s: Good father, but my mother smote its strings


s: To music rare."  Diverted from one theme,


s: Pleased with the winsome candor of the boy,


s: The knight encouraged him to confidence;


s: Then his own gift of minstrelsy revealed,


s: And told bright tales of his first wanderings,


s: When in lords' castles and kings' palaces


s: Men still made place for him, for in his land


s: The gift was rare and valued at its worth,


s: And brought great victory and sounding fame.


s: Thus, in retracing all his pleasant youth,


s: His suffering passed as though it had not been.


s: Wide-eyed and open-mouthed the boy gave ear,


s: His fair face flushing with the sudden thoughts


s: That went and came,--then, as the pilgrim ceased,


s: Drew breath and spake: "And where now is your lyre?"


s: The knight with both hands hid his changed, white face,


s: Crying aloud, "Lost! lost! forever lost!"


s: Then, gathering strength, he bared his face again


s: Unto the frightened, wondering boy, and rose


s: With hasty fear.  "Ah, child, you bring me back


s: And yet I owe you thanks for one sweet hour


s: Farewell!"  The impetuous, remorseful boy,


s: Seeing sharp pain on that kind countenance,


s: Fell at his feet and cried, "Forgive my words,


s: Without a blessing."  Moved unutterably,


s: The pilgrim kissed with trembling lips his head,


s: And muttered, "At this moment would to God


s: That I were worthy!"  Then waved wasted hands


s: But faltered, "Cleanse me through his innocence,


s: O heavenly Father!" and with quickening steps


s: The noon was past, the reapers drew broad swaths


s: With scythes sun-smitten 'midst the ripened crop.


s: Thin shadows of the afternoon slept soft


s: On the green meadows as the knight passed forth.


s: He trudged amidst the sea of poisonous flowers


s: With Rome, the many-steepled, many-towered,


s: Before him regnant on her throne of hills.


s: A thick blue cloud of haze o'erhung the town,


s: But the fast-sinking sun struck fiery light


s: From shining crosses, roofs, and flashing domes.


s: Across his path an arching bridge of stone


s: Was raised above a shrunken yellow stream,


s: Towards the great town and outward to the sea.


s: Upon the bridge's crest he paused, and leaned


s: Against the barrier, throwing back his cowl,


s: That was the Tiber.  Quaggy banks lay bare,


s: And myriad insects hovered o'er the reeds,


s: Whose lithe, moist tips by listless airs were stirred.


s: When the low sun had dropped behind the hills,


s: He found himself within the streets of Rome,


s: Walking as in a sleep, where naught seemed real.


s: The chattering hubbub of the market-place


s: Loud cries, gay laughter, snatches of sweet song,


s: The tinkling fountains set in gardens cool


s: With trickling of the conduits in the squares,


s: The noisy teams within the narrow streets,--


s: All these the stranger heard and did not hear,


s: While ringing bells pealed out above the town,


s: And calm gray twilight skies stretched over it.


s: Wide open stood the doors of every church,


s: And through the porches pressed a streaming throng.


s: Vague wonderment perplexed him, at the sight


s: Beside the cross, immense cathedrals reared


s: Upon a dead faith's ruins; all the whirl


s: Filling the storied streets, whose very stones


s: Were solemn monuments, and spake of death.


s: Although he wrestled with himself, the thought


s: Of that poor, past religion smote his heart


s: Beyond the fervor which the Church inspired.


s: Where was the noble race who ruled the world,


s: With sternest virtues, every man a king,


s: These lounging beggars, stealthy monks and priests,


s: And womanish patricians filled their place.


s: Pagan through mind and Christian through the heart,


s: Fared thoughtfully with wandering, aimless steps,


s: He raised his eyes and found himself alone


s: By something less than day and more than night,


s: Rather divined than seen on ivied walls,


s: And crumbled battlements, and topless columns--


s: But by the light of all the ancient days,


s: Ringed with keen eager faces, living eyes,


s: Where brandished swords flashed white, and human blood


s: Streamed o'er the thirsty dust, and Death was king.


s: He started, shuddering, and drew breath to see


s: The foul pit choked with weeds and tumbled stones,


s: The cross raised midmost, and the peaceful moon


s: Shining o'er all; and fell upon his knees,


s: Restored to faith in one wise, loving God.


s: Day followed day, and still he bode in Rome,


s: And from the gates, on pretext frivolous,


s: Passed daily forth,--his Eminency slept,--


s: And thus the patient pilgrim was referred


s: Unto the Pope.  The worn, discouraged knight


s: Read the brief scroll, then sadly forth again,


s: Passed to the glare and noise of summer streets.


s: "Good God!" he muttered, "Thou hast ears for all,


s: And sendest help and comfort; yet these men,


s: Thy saintly ministers, must deck themselves


s: With arrogance, and from their large delight


s: In all the beauty of the beauteous earth,


s: Yet even as he nourished bitter thoughts,


s: To wound him there, for the brooding o'er those deeps


s: Yet not to leave a human chance untried,


s: Thronged with high dignitaries of the Church,


s: He took his seat amidst the humblest friars.


s: Through open windows came sweet garden smells,


s: Bright morning light, and twittered song of birds.


s: Around the hall flashed gold and sunlit gems,


s: And splendid wealth of color,--white-stoled priests,


s: In violet vestments,--while beneath the shade


s: Of the high gallery huddled dusky shapes,


s: With faded, travel-tattered, sombre smocks,


s: And shaven heads, and girdles of coarse hemp;


s: Some, pilgrims penitent like Tannhauser;


s: The brassy blare of trumpets smote the air,


s: Shrill pipes and horns with swelling clamor came,


s: And through the doorway's wide-stretched tapestries


s: Passed the Pope's trumpeters and mace-bearers,


s: His vergers bearing slender silver wands,


s: Then mitred bishops, red-clad cardinals,


s: The stalwart Papal Guard with halberds raised,


s: And then, with white head crowned with gold ingemmed,


s: Holding his pastoral rod of smooth-hewn wood,


s: With censer swung before and peacock fans


s: Attended thus, they bore him to his throne,


s: And priests and laymen fell upon their knees.


s: Then, after pause of brief and silent prayer,


s: The pilgrims singly through the hall defiled,


s: To kiss the borders of the papal skirts,


s: Smiting their foreheads on the paven stone;


s: Craving his grace, and passing pardoned forth.


s: Sir Tannhauser came last, no need for him


s: To cry "Peccavi," and crook suppliant knees.


s: His gray head rather crushed than bowed, his face


s: Livid and wasted, his deep thoughtful eyes,


s: His tall gaunt form in those unseemly weeds,


s: Spake more than eloquence.  His hollow voice


s: Brake silence, saying, "I am Tannhauser.


s: The assembled folk; some turbulently rose;


s: Some clamored, "From the presence cast him forth!"


s: But the knight never ceased his steady gaze


s: Upon the Pope.  At last,--"I have not spoken


s: To be condemned," he said, "by such as these.


s: Look thou upon me with the eyes of Christ.


s: And work mine own redemption?"  "Insolent man!"


s: Thundered the outraged Pope, "is this the tone


s: Wherewith thou dost parade thy loathsome sin?


s: Down on thy knees, and wallow on the earth!


s: Nay, rather go! there is no ray of hope,


s: For the redemption of a soul like thine.


s: Yea, sooner shall my pastoral rod branch forth


s: In leaf and blossom, and green shoots of spring,


s: Than Christ will pardon thee."  And as he spoke,


s: He struck the rod upon the floor with force


s: That gave it entrance 'twixt two loosened tiles,


s: So that it stood, fast-rooted and alone.


s: The knight saw naught, he only heard his judge


s: Ring forth his curses, and the court cry out


s: "Anathema!" and loud, and blent therewith,


s: And a wild voice that thrilled through flesh and heart:


s: Half-mad he clasped both hands upon his brow,


s: Amidst the storm of voices, till they died,


s: And all was silence, save the reckless song


s: And shrieked, "'T is false!  I am no longer thine!"


s: And through the windows open to the park,


s: Rushed forth, beyond the sight and sound of men.


s: By church nor palace paused he, till he passed


s: All squares and streets, and crossed the bridge of stone,


s: And stood alone amidst the broad expanse


s: He knelt upon a knoll of turf, and snapped


s: The cord that held the cross about his neck,


s: And far from him the leaden burden flung.


s: "O God!  I thank Thee, that my faith in Thee


s: Subsists at last, through all discouragements.


s: Between us must no type nor symbol stand,


s: Than the incarnate Christ.  All forms, all priests,


s: Beneath the empty sky of noon, with naught


s: Between my nothingness and thy high heavens--


s: Spirit with spirit.  O, have mercy, God!


s: Cleanse me from lust and bitterness and pride,


s: Have mercy in accordance with my faith."


s: Long time he lay upon the scorching grass,


s: With his face buried in the tangled weeds.


s: Ah! who can tell the struggles of his soul


s: When shadows long and thin lay on the ground,


s: Shivering with fever, helpless he arose,


s: When the Lord's wrestling angel, at gray dawn,


s: All night, he wandered, striving to emerge


s: From the wild, pathless plain,--now limitless


s: Outstretching like a sea, with landmarks none,


s: And ruined columns glinting 'neath the moon.


s: His dress was dank and clinging with the dew;


s: A thousand insects fluttered o'er his head,


s: With buzz and drone; unseen cicadas chirped


s: Among the long, rank grass, and far and near


s: The fire-flies flickered through the summer air.


s: Vague thoughts and gleams prophetic filled his brain.


s: "Ah, fool!" he mused, "to look for help from men.


s: Had they the will to aid, they lack the power.


s: In mine own flesh and soul the sin had birth,


s: Through mine own anguish it must be atoned.


s: Our saviours are not saints and ministers,


s: But tear-strung women, children soft of heart,


s: Or fellow-sufferers, who, by some chance word,


s: Some glance of comfort, save us from despair.


s: These I have found, thank heaven! to strengthen trust


s: In mine own kind, when all the world grew dark.


s: One black and foul corruption, yet I know


s: Neither is this the slender straw of hope,


s: Whereto I, drowning, cling, but firm belief,


s: That fills my inmost soul with vast content.


s: Shriveled to dust before one ray of Truth,


s: Piled upon rotten doctrines, baseless forms,


s: And man will look in his own breast for help,


s: Yea, search for comfort his own inward reins,


s: Revere himself, and find the God within.


s: Patience and patience!"  Through the sleepless night


s: He held such thoughts; at times before his eyes


s: Flashed glimpses of the Church that was to be,


s: To the Pope's hall, thronged with high priests, who hurled


s: Their curses on him.  Staggering, he awoke


s: Unto the truth, and found himself alone,


s: Beneath the awful stars.  When dawn's first chill


s: Crept though the shivering grass and heavy leaves,


s: Upon the dripping weeds, nor dreamed nor stirred,


s: Until the wide plain basked in noon's broad light.


s: He dragged his weary frame some paces more,


s: Which, in the vagueness of the moonlit night,


s: Was touched with lines of beauty, till it grew


s: Fair as the ruined works of ancient art,


s: Now squat and hideous with its wattled roof,


s: Decaying timbers, and loose door wide oped,


s: Half-fallen from the hinge.  A drowsy man,


s: Bearded and burnt, in shepherd habit lay,


s: Stretched on the floor, slow-munching, half asleep,


s: His frugal fare; for thus, at blaze of noon,


s: The shepherds sought a shelter from the sun,


s: Leaving their vigilant dogs beside their flock.


s: The knight craved drink and bread, and with respect


s: For pilgrim weeds, the Roman herdsman stirred


s: His lazy length, and shared with him his meal.


s: Refreshed and calm, Sir Tannhauser passed forth,


s: To see the kind face of the minstrel boy


s: He reached the place; the reaping-folk were gone,


s: The day's toil over, yet he took his seat.


s: Came slowly from the pasture, paused and drank.


s: And filled his wooden pail, and to his home


s: Returned across the fields.  A herdsman came,


s: And drank and gave his dog to drink, and passed,


s: Greeting the holy man who sat there still,


s: Awaiting.  But his feeble pulse beat high


s: When he descried at last a youthful form,


s: Crossing the field, a pitcher on his head,


s: Advancing towards the well.  Yea, this was he,


s: The same grave eyes, and open, girlish face.


s: But he saw not, amidst the landscape brown,


s: The knight's brown figure, who, to win his ear,


s: Asked the lad's name.  "My name is Salvator,


s: To serve you, sir," he carelessly replied,


s: With eyes and hands intent upon his jar,


s: Brimming and bubbling.  Then he cast one glance


s: "Good Father, pardon me, I knew you not.


s: Ah! you have travelled overmuch: your feet


s: Are grimed with mud and wet, your face is changed,


s: Your hands are dry with fever."  But the knight:


s: "Nay, as I look on thee, I think the Lord


s: Wills not that I should suffer any more."


s: "Then you have suffered much," sighed Salvator,


s: With wondering pity.  "You must come with me;


s: A knight and minstrel who cast by his lyre,


s: His health and fame, to give himself to God,--


s: If you will lie with us this night, our home


s: Will verily be blessed."  By kindness crushed,


s: Wandering in sense and words, the broken knight


s: To the boy's home.  The outcast and accursed


s: Once more his blighted spirit was revived


s: There, when the morning broke upon the world,


s: The humble hosts no longer knew their guest.


s: His fleshly weeds of sin forever doffed,


s: Tannhauser lay and smiled, for in the night


s: The angel came who brings eternal peace.


s: Riding in furious haste; among them, one


s: Who bore a branch of dry wood burst in bloom;


s: The pastoral rod had borne green shoots of spring,


s: Note.--In spite of my unwillingness to imply any possible


s: belief of mine that the preceding unrhymed narratives can


s: enter into competition with the elaborate poems of the author


s: of "The Earthly Paradise," yet the similarity of subjects,


s: and the imputation of plagiarism already made in private


s: circles, induce me to remark that "Admetus" was completed


s: before the publication of the "Love of Alcestis," and


s: "Tannhauser" before the "Hill of Venus."


s: The little and the great are joined in one


s: By God's great force.  The wondrous golden sun


s: Is linked unto the glow-worm's tiny spark;


s: The eagle soars to heaven in his flight;


s: And in those realms of space, all bathed in light,


s: Soar none except the eagle and the lark.


s: I give God thanks that I, a lean old man,


s: Wrinkled, infirm, and crippled with keen pains


s: Now rest in spirit, and possess "the peace


s: Which passeth understanding." Th' end draws nigh,


s: And a broad lifetime spreads 'twixt this and that--


s: A favored life, though outwardly the butt


s: Yet lighted from within by the clear star


s: To see at last its utmost goal attained.


s: Here founded by my hands and filled with saints--


s: Swayed by my voice, by mine example led;


s: For this is but the natural harvest reaped


s: From labors such as mine when blessed by God.


s: Though I rejoice to think my spirit still


s: Will work my purposes, through worthy hands,


s: Yet have I gleaned a finer, sweeter fruit


s: Though subtler than the tissue of the air--


s: From her companion through this life, the flesh;


s: Communing with high angels, she can hold,


s: Ye know, O saints of heaven, what I have borne


s: Of discipline and scourge; the twisted lash


s: Of knotted rope that striped my shrinking limbs;


s: Vigils and fasts protracted, till my flesh


s: Wasted and crumbled from mine aching bones,


s: And the last skin, one woof of pain and sores,


s: Thereto like yellow parchment loosely clung;


s: When 'mongst the hollows of the hills I lurked


s: The burden of the cross, while picturing


s: The bliss of disembodied souls, the grace


s: That nowise touched the trouble of the hour,


s: Until the grief and pain seemed far less real


s: Than the creations of my brain inspired.


s: I speak not now as one who hath not learned


s: The purport of those lightly-bandied words,


s: The thunders of the terrors of the world.


s: No mortal chance or change, no earthly shock,


s: Can move or reach my soul, securely throned


s: On heights of contemplation and calm prayer,


s: Of present peace than faith in joys to come.


s: This soft, sweet, yellow evening, how the trees


s: Stand crisp against the clear, bright-colored sky!


s: How the white mountain-tops distinctly shine,


s: Taking and giving radiance, and the slopes


s: Are purpled with rich floods of peach-hued light!


s: Thank God, my filmy, old dislustred eyes


s: Find the same sense of exquisite delight,


s: My heart vibrates to the same touch of joy


s: In scenes like this, as when my pulse danced high,


s: And youth coursed through my veins!  This the one link


s: That binds the wan old man that now I am


s: To the wild lad who followed up the hounds


s: For there how oft would I lose all delight


s: In the pursuit, the triumph, or the game,


s: To stray alone among the shadowy glades,


s: With gazing, at the large, bright, breathing sea,


s: The forest glooms, and shifting gleams between


s: The fine dark fringes of the fadeless trees,


s: On gold-green turf, sweet-brier, and wild pink rose!


s: How rich that buoyant air with changing scent


s: Of pungent pine, fresh flowers, and salt cool seas!


s: And when all echoes of the chase had died,


s: Of horn and halloo, bells and baying hounds,


s: How mine ears drank the ripple of the tide


s: On the fair shore, the chirp of unseen birds,


s: The rustling of the tangled undergrowth,


s: When through their high tops swept the sudden breeze!


s: There was my world, there would my heart dilate,


s: Were active round me, yet whose presence, sphered


s: Made itself felt, but reigned invisible.


s: This ere the day that made me what I am.


s: Still can I see the hot, bright sky, the sea


s: That morning.  Though I deemed I took no note


s: Of heaven or earth or waters, yet my mind


s: Light-hearted 'midst the dewy lanes I fared


s: Unto the sea, whose jocund gleam I caught


s: Between the slim boles, when I heard the clink


s: Sickening to hear, and then a stifled groan;


s: That seared itself for ever on my brain--


s: Fallen upon his side, his bright young head


s: Among the pine-spurs, and his cheek pressed close


s: Unto the moist, chill sod: his fingers clutched


s: A handful of loose weeds and grass and earth,


s: And slowly from his heart the thick stream flowed,


s: Fouling the green, leaving the fair, sweet face


s: Ghastly, transparent, with blue, stony eyes


s: Who triumphed over him.  With hot desire


s: Of instant vengeance I unsheathed my sword


s: In his first terror of blood-guiltiness.


s: Within my heart a something snapped and brake.


s: What was it but the chord of rapturous joy


s: For ever stilled?  I tottered and would fall,


s: Had I not leaned against the friendly pine;


s: From their firm anchorage, appeared to float


s: Like hollow phantoms past my dizzy brain.


s: The strange delusion wrought upon my soul


s: This net of trees spread round, these iron heavens,


s: Unnumbered cycles back, and fronted HIM,


s: My father; and he felt mine eyes as now,


s: Yet saw me not; and then, as now, that form,


s: The one thing real, lay stretched between us both.


s: The fancy passed, and I stood sane and strong


s: To grasp the truth.  Then I remembered all--


s: A few fierce words between them yester eve


s: Soon silenced into courteous, frigid calm:


s: This was the end.  I could not meet him now,


s: To curse him, to accuse him, or to save,


s: Coiled by his own hands round his ruined life.


s: God pardon me!  My heart that moment held


s: No drop of pity toward this wretched soul;


s: And cowering down, as though his guilt were mine,


s: Of that grim wood, resolved to nurse alone


s: My boundless desolation, shame, and grief.


s: There, in that thick-leaved twilight of high noon,


s: Once more my wandering thoughts were calmly ranged,


s: Shepherded by my will.  I wept, I prayed


s: Blessed with response instant, miraculous;


s: With Him who knows and satisfies her needs.


s: The supplication and the blessing sprang


s: From the same source, inspired divinely both.


s: I prayed for light, self-knowledge, guidance, truth,


s: And these like heavenly manna were rained down


s: To feed my hungered soul.  His guilt was mine.


s: What angel had been sent to stay mine arm


s: Of withering remorse?  I found the germs


s: That waited but occasion's tempting breath


s: To overgrow with poisoned bloom my life.


s: What God thus far had saved me from myself?


s: Here was the lofty truth revealed, that each


s: Must feel himself in all, must know where'er


s: The great soul acts or suffers or enjoys,


s: His proper soul in kinship there is bound.


s: Then my life-purpose dawned upon my mind,


s: Crushed by the weight of universal love,


s: Which mine own thoughts had heaped upon myself,


s: I heard the clear chime of a slow, sweet bell.


s: I knew it--whence it came and what it sang.


s: From the gray convent nigh the wood it pealed,


s: And called the monks to prayer.  Vigil and prayer,


s: Clean lives, white days of strict austerity:


s: Such were the offerings of these holy saints.


s: A riotous world's indulgence?  Here my life,


s: So bound to mine, till both should be forgiven.


s: They sheltered me, not questioning the need


s: That led me to their cloistered solitude.


s: How rich, how freighted with pure influence,


s: Was the first day I passed within those walls!


s: The gentle greetings, the rare temperate speech,


s: The chastening discipline, the atmosphere


s: Who perisheth of thirst.  Was this the world


s: That yesterday seemed one huge battlefield


s: For brutish passions?  Could the soul of man


s: Her own fair temple for her own high ends?


s: But this serene contentment slowly waned


s: That bound the order in strait brotherhood.


s: Yet when I sought to gain a larger love,


s: And scoffs and gibes beset me on all sides.


s: I held aloof from all my brethren's feasts


s: Till they should leave their blessing on my head;


s: White, bloodless, as I saw it 'midst the ferns,


s: Now staring out of darkness, and it held


s: Mine eyes from slumber and my brain from rest


s: And drove me from my straw to weep and pray.


s: Rebellious thoughts such subtle torture wrought


s: As gradual as the slow gold moon that mounts


s: The airy steps of heaven.  My faith arose


s: With sure perception that disaster, wrong,


s: Are merely circumstance, and cannot touch


s: The soul's fine essence: they exist or die


s: It floods my heart with peace as surely now


s: As on that day the friars drove me forth,


s: Endured through pride, would bring into reproach


s: Their customs and their order.  Then began


s: Against me, and I was the seasons' sport,


s: Drenched, parched, and scorched and frozen alternately,


s: Burned with shrewd frosts, prostrated by fierce heats,


s: Shivering 'neath chilling dews and gusty rains,


s: And buffeted by all the winds of heaven.


s: My daily thoughts perpetual converse held


s: With angels ministrant; mine ears were charmed


s: With sweet accordance of celestial sounds,


s: Song, harp and choir, clear ringing through the air.


s: And visions were revealed unto mine eyes


s: By night and day of Heaven's very courts,


s: I gave God thanks, not that He sheltered me,


s: And fed me as He feeds the fowls of air--


s: For had I perished, this too had been well--


s: To exalt, to heal, to quicken, to inspire;


s: Was crowned with joy more solid, more secure,


s: Than all the comfort of the vales could bring.


s: Then the good Lord touched certain fervid hearts,


s: Aspiring toward His love, to come to me,


s: Timid and few at first; but as they heard


s: From mine own lips the precious oracles,


s: That soothed the trouble of their souls, appeased


s: All of the God within them to themselves,


s: They flocked about me, and they hailed me saint,


s: And sware to follow and to serve the good


s: Which my word published and my life declared.


s: Thus the lone hermit of the mountain-top


s: And midway 'twixt the summit and the vale


s: One whit of strict restraint and abstinence.


s: And they who love me and who serve the truth


s: Have learned to suffer with me, and have won


s: The supreme joy that is not of the flesh,


s: This faith, to them imparted, will endure


s: After my tongue hath ceased to utter it,


s: And the great peace hath settled on my soul.


s: Sail slowly northward in the soft-hued sky,


s: With blur half-tints and rolling summits bright,


s: By the late sun caressed; slight hazes shroud


s: All things afar; shineth each leaf anigh


s: The summer landscape basks in utter peace:


s: In lazy streams the lazy clouds are seen;


s: Low hills, broad meadows, and large, clear-cut squares


s: Of ripening corn-fields, rippled by the breeze,


s: A sound less soothing than the rustle cool


s: Of swaying leaves, the steady wiry drone


s: Of unseen crickets, sudden chirpings clear


s: And air balm-freighted, fill the soul with bliss,


s: Transpierced like yonder clouds with lustrous gleams,


s: Fantastic, brief as they, and, like them, spun


s: 'T is good to be alive, to see the light


s: That plays upon the grass, to feel (and sigh


s: With perfect pleasure) the mild breezes stir


s: To mar the sweet suggestions of the hour:


s: The soul, at peace, reflects the peace without,


s: Rest, beauty, stillness: not a waif of a cloud


s: From gray-blue east sheer to the yellow west--


s: No film of mist the utmost slopes to shroud.


s: The earth lies grace, by quiet airs caressed,


s: And shepherdeth her shadows, but each stream,


s: Free to the sky, is by that glow possessed,


s: And traileth with the splendors of a dream


s: Athwart the dusky land.  Uplift thine eyes!


s: The vast clear reach of mild, wan twilight skies.


s: But look again, and lo, the evening star!


s: Against the pale tints black the slim elms rise,


s: The earth exhales sweet odors nigh and far,


s: And from the heavens fine influences fall.


s: Familiar things stand not for what they are:


s: What they suggest, foreshadow, or recall


s: Labor and thought and care are at an end:


s: The soul is filled with gracious reveries,


s: And with her mood soft sounds and colors blend;


s: For simplest sounds ring forth like melodies


s: Of some far bell, the distant farmyard cries,


s: A barking dog, the thin, persistent drone


s: Of crickets, and the lessening call of birds.


s: Breaks on the sense like music.  Beyond word


s: The peace that floods the soul, for night is here,


s: And Beauty still is guide and harbinger.


s: Dark lies the earth, and bright with worlds the sky:


s: That soft, large, lustrous star, that first outshone,


s: Still holds us spelled with potent sorcery.


s: Dilating, shrinking, lightening, it hath won


s: Our spirit with its strange strong influence,


s: And sways it as the tides beneath the moon.


s: What impulse this, o'ermastering heart and sense?


s: Exalted, thrilled, the freed soul fain would soar


s: Craving new fields and some unheard-of shore,


s: To mount with daring flight, to hover o'er


s: Low hills of earth, flat meadows, level sea,


s: And earthly joy and trouble.  In this hour


s: Of shadowed love and beauty-veiled power,


s: She feels her wings: she yearns to grasp her own,


s: Knowing the utmost good to be her dower.


s: A dream! a dream! for at a touch 't is gone.


s: O mocking spirit! thy mere fools are we,


s: Unto the depths from heights celestial thrown.


s: From these blind gropings toward reality,


s: This thirst for truth, this most pathetic need


s: To help and comfort while we faint and bleed,


s: May we not draw, wrung from the last despair,


s: Some argument of hope, some blessed creed,


s: That we can trust the faith which whispers prayer,


s: A trance wherein no thought finds speech or name,


s: She sinks with drooping wing--poor unfledged bird,


s: That fain had flown!--in fluttering breathlessness.


s: To what end those high hopes that wildly stirred


s: The beating heart with aspirations vain?


s: Why proffer prayers unanswered and unheard


s: To blank, deaf heavens that will not heed her pain?


s: Where lead these lofty, soaring tendencies,


s: That leap and fly and poise, to fall again,


s: Yet seem to link her with the utmost skies?


s: What mean these clinging loves that bind to earth,


s: And claim her with beseeching, wistful eyes?


s: This little resting-place 'twixt death and birth,


s: Why is it fretted with the ceaseless flow


s: Of flood and ebb, with overgrowth and dearth,


s: And vext with dreams, and clouded with strange woe?


s: Ah! she is tired of thought, she yearns for peace,


s: Seeing all things one equal end must know.


s: Of narrow fears and hopes that may not cease?


s: A chill falls on her from the skyey ways,


s: Black with the night-tide, where is none to hear


s: The ancient cry, the Wherefore of our days.


s: The ceaseless whirr of crickets fills the ear


s: From underneath each hedge and bush and tree,


s: Deep in the dew-drenched grasses everywhere.


s: Of gloom and terror gathering round the mind.


s: It seems a pleasant thing to breathe, to be,


s: To hear the many-voiced, soft summer wind


s: The black slim-branching elms.  Sad thoughts have fled,


s: Trouble and doubt, and now strange reveries


s: And odd caprices fill us in their stead.


s: From yonder broken disk the redness dies,


s: Like gold fruit through the leaves the half-sphere gleams,


s: Then over the hoar tree-tops climbs the skies,


s: Blanched ever more and more, until it beams


s: Whiter than crystal.  Like a scroll unfurled,


s: And shadowy as a landscape seen in dreams,


s: Reveals itself the sleeping, quiet world,


s: Painted in tender grays and whites subdued--


s: The speckled stream with flakes of light impearled,


s: The wide, soft meadow and the massive wood.


s: In this weird hour: our finest dreams hold good.


s: Quaint elves and frolic flower-sprites we see,


s: And angels floating through the filmy air.


s: With dewy midnight, and the moon rides high


s: O'er ghostly fields, pale stream, and spectral hill.


s: This hour the dawn seems farthest from the sky


s: So weary long the space that lies between


s: Of earth and heaven: no glimmering is seen,


s: In the star-sprinkled east, of coming day,


s: Nor, westward, of the splendor that hath been.


s: Strange fears beset us, nameless terrors sway


s: The brooding soul, that hungers for her rest,


s: Out worn with changing moods, vain hopes' delay,


s: With conscious thought o'erburdened and oppressed.


s: The mystery and the shadow wax too deep;


s: She longs to merge both sense and thought in sleep.


s: From the oped lattice glance once more abroad


s: While the ethereal moontide bathes with light


s: Hill, stream, and garden, and white-winding road.


s: All gracious myths born of the shadowy night


s: Airy and vague, before the drowsy sight.


s: Breathes kisses on his cheeks and lips and eyes.


s: 'Twixt bush and bush gleam flower-white limbs, left bare,


s: Of huntress-nymphs, and flying raiment thin,


s: Vanishing faces, and bright floating hair.


s: The quaint midsummer fairies and their kin,


s: Gnomes, elves, and trolls, on blossom, branch, and grass


s: Gambol and dance, and winding out and in


s: Leave circles of spun dew where'er they pass.


s: Through the blue ether the freed Ariel flies;


s: Enchantment holds the air; a swarming mass


s: Of myriad dusky, gold-winged dreams arise,


s: Throng toward the gates of sense, and so possess


s: O strange, dim other-world revealed to us,


s: Lying 'twixt life and death, and populous


s: With souls from either sphere! now enter we


s: Thy twisted paths.  Barred is the silver gate,


s: Spring noiselessly apart: between them straight


s: Flies forth a cloud of nameless shadowy things,


s: With harpies, imps, and monsters, small and great,


s: Blurring the thick air with darkening wings.


s: All humors of the blood and brain take shape,


s: From this unnatural region can there be.


s: Fixed eyes stare on us, wide mouths grin and gape,


s: Fain would we scream, to shatter with a cry


s: When, lo! the air grows clear, a soft fair sky


s: Shines over head: sharp pain dissolves in peace;


s: We float away: all troublous visions cease.


s: By a strange sense of joy we are possessed,


s: Body and spirit soothed in perfect rest.


s: Athwart our dreamless sleep rings sweet and clear,


s: Till all the fumes of slumber are brushed by,


s: The pipe of birds?  Look forth!  The sane, white day


s: Blesses the hilltops, and the sun is near.


s: With the night's vapors toward the western sky.


s: The Real enchants us, the fresh breath of hay


s: Blows toward us; soft the meadow-grasses lie,


s: Of eastern hills, the morning joyousness


s: Thrills tingling through the frame; life's pulse beats strong;


s: Night's fancies melt like dew.  So ends the song!


s: The grass of fifty Aprils hath waved green


s: Above the spent heart, the Olympian head,


s: The hands crost idly, the shut eyes unseen,


s: Unseeing, the locked lips whose song hath fled;


s: Yet mystic-lived, like some rich, tropic flower,


s: His fame puts forth fresh blossoms hour by hour;


s: Wide spread the laden branches dropping dew


s: On the low, laureled brow misunderstood,


s: That bent not, neither bowed, until subdued


s: By the last foe who crowned while he o'erthrew.


s: Fair was the Easter Sabbath morn when first


s: Men heard he had not wakened to its light:


s: The end had come, and time had done its worst,


s: For the black cloud had fallen of endless night.


s: Then in the town, as Greek accosted Greek,


s: 'T was not the wonted festal words to speak,


s: "Christ is arisen," but "Our chief is gone,"


s: With such wan aspect and grief-smitten head


s: Filled echoing hill and valley with its moan.


s: "I am more fit for death than the world deems,"


s: So spake he as life's light was growing dim,


s: And turned to sleep as unto soothing dreams.


s: What terrors could its darkness hold for him,


s: Familiar with all anguish, but with fear


s: Still unacquainted?  On his martial bier


s: They laid a sword, a helmet, and a crown--


s: Meed of the warrior, but not these among


s: His voiceless lyre, whose silent chords unstrung


s: Shall wait--how long?--for touches like his own.


s: An alien country mourned him as her son,


s: And hailed him hero: his sole, fitting tomb


s: Fondly she deemed.  His brethren bare him home,


s: Their exiled glory, past the guarded gate


s: Where England's Abbey shelters England's great.


s: New lustre on her with the song he sings.


s: So Shakespeare rests who scorned to lie with kings,


s: Sleeping at peace midst the unhonored dead.


s: With gentle memories the foul weeds of hate


s: That shamed his grave.  The world begins to know


s: Her loss, and view with other eyes his fate.


s: Even as the cunning workman brings to pass


s: The sculptor's thought from out the unwieldy mass


s: The stony crust of falsehood that concealed


s: His just proportions, and, at last revealed,


s: Most beautiful, most human.  Let them fling


s: The first stone who are tempted even as he,


s: And have not swerved.  When did that rare soul sing


s: The victim's shame, the tyrant's eulogy,


s: Or grudge his gift, his blood, to disenthrall


s: Stung by fierce tongues himself, whose rightful fame


s: Did the winged arrows of the barbed wit glance?


s: The years' thick, clinging curtains backward pull,


s: And show him as he is, crowned with bright beams,


s: "Beauteous, and yet not all as beautiful


s: As he hath been or might be; Sorrow seems


s: No monument whose name and song and deeds


s: Are graven in all foreign hearts; but she


s: His mother, England, slow and last to wake,


s: Needs raise the votive shaft for her fame's sake:


s: Uplift the ponderous, golden mask of death,


s: Behold the young, heroic face, round-eyed,


s: Of one who in his full-flowered manhood died;


s: Of nobler frame than creatures of to-day,


s: Swathed in fine linen cerecloths fold on fold,


s: With carven weapons wrought of bronze and gold,


s: We gaze in awe at these huge-modeled limbs,


s: Shrunk in death's narrow house, but hinting yet


s: Their ancient majesty; these sightless rims


s: Whose living eyes the eyes of Helen met;


s: The speechless lips that ah! what tales might tell


s: Of earth's morning-tide when gods did dwell


s: Amidst a generous-fashioned, god-like race,


s: Who dwarf our puny semblance, and who won


s: The secret soul of Beauty for their own,


s: While all our art but crudely apes their grace.


s: The golden buttons chased with wondrous craft,


s: The sculptured trinkets and the crystal cup,


s: The sheathed, bronze sword, the knife with brazen haft.


s: Fain would we wrest with curious eyes from these


s: On whom once more the living daylight beams,


s: To shame our littleness, to mock our dreams,


s: Yet could we rouse him from his blind repose,


s: How might we meet his searching questionings,


s: Concerning all the follies, wrongs, and woes,


s: Since his great day whom men call King of Kings,


s: Those large, clear eyes confront, which scornfully


s: Would view us as a poor, degenerate race,


s: Base-souled and mean-proportioned?  What reply


s: Give to the beauty-loving Greek's heart-cry,


s: Seeking his ancient gods in vacant space?


s: What should he find within a world grown cold,


s: Save doubt and trouble?  To his sunny creed


s: A thousand gloomy, warring sects succeed.


s: How of the Prince of Peace might he be told,


s: When over half the world the war-cloud lowers?


s: How would he mock these faltering hopes of ours,


s: Who knows the secret now of death and fate!


s: As one who feels the breathless nightmare grip


s: His heart-strings, and through visioned horrors fares,


s: Now on a thin-ledged chasm's rock-crumbling lip,


s: The front of heaven, while always unawares


s: Weird monsters start above, around, beneath,


s: Each glaring from some uglier mask of death,


s: So the White Czar imperial progress made


s: Through terror-haunted days.  A shock, a cry


s: Whose echoes ring the globe--the spectre's laid.


s: Hurled o'er the abyss, see the crowned martyr lie


s: Resting in peace--fear, change, and death gone by.


s: Fit end for nightmare--mist of blood and tears,


s: The world draws breath--one long, deep-shuddering sigh,


s: At that which dullest brain prefigured clear


s: As swift-sure bolt from thunder-threatening sky.


s: How heaven-anointed humblest lots appear


s: His spiked crown, sackcloth purple, poisoned cates,


s: His golden palace honey-combed with hates.


s: Which after myriad plots succeeds at last


s: In robbing of his life this poor old man,


s: Whose sole offense--his birthright--has but passed


s: To fresher blood, with younger strength recast.


s: What men are these, who, clamoring to be free,


s: Would bestialize the world to what they be?


s: Whose sons are they who made the snow-wreathed head


s: Their frenzy's target?  In their Russian veins,


s: What alien current urged on to smite him dead,


s: Whose word had loosed a million Russian chains?


s: What brutes were they for whom such speechless pains,


s: Awoke, in hearts drunk with the lust to kill?


s: Not brutes!  No tiger of the wilderness,


s: No jackal of the jungle, bears such brand


s: As man's black heart, who shrinks not to confess


s: The desperate deed of his deliberate hand.


s: Our kind, our kin, have done this thing.  We stand


s: Bowed earthward, red with shame, to see such wrong


s: Prorogue Love's cause and Truth's--God knows how long!


s: "Tears, nor the black pall, nor the wormy grave,


s: Grief's hideous panoply I would not have


s: Be these around me when my lips are mute,


s: One long, eternal day, in sunshine bathed,


s: Or ere clean flame consume my fleshly veil,


s: To my unshrinking limbs by some true hand,


s: Athwart the orange-fragrant laughing land,


s: Gemmed as the dew, voluptuous as the breeze,


s: The sweet of folly and the pains of love,


s: Though each be strange to each, to me all dear


s: In languid contra dances, and shall shed


s: Their smiling eyebeams as I were not dead,


s: To tender ruth, perchance their breast shall fill,


s: Seeing him that was so mobile grown so still,


s: The pinched guitar, the smitten tambourine,


s: Have ceased their rhythmic beat,--oh, friends of mine,


s: The happy rose that on your bosom breathes,


s: The fresh-culled clusters and the dewy wreaths


s: Though dead, shall feel your presence and shall know,


s: I who was beauty's life-long slave, shall so


s: Back to your joys.  My brother shall make room


s: For my tried sword upon the high-piled bloom,


s: Obscure, beset with peril and fierce pain.


s: Large death has many portals to his fane,


s: When we may soar through air on wings of flame,


s: Dissolve to small, white dust our perfect frame,


s: The pure, fire-winnowed ashes shall inurn,


s: And lay them in the orange grove where burn


s: Even for my dust--more snowy-soft the flower,


s: More juicy-sweet the fruit's live pulp--the bower


s: "Tears and the black pall and the wormy grave,


s: Grief's hideous panoply I would not have


s: How could that phantom moon break through,


s: Close-gathering shadows near, more near,


s: As the mother-foot poised lightly, falls and lifts.


s: Smiles to feel the warm, life-giving ray above.


s: His auroral spirit basks in dreams divine.


s: Bringing what? dry chaff and tares, or full-eared sheaves?


s: Shall he dwell amidst the humble and the low?


s: Be as manna midst the turmoil and the strife?


s: Child-Napoleon down the lilied river sailed.


s: As she watched beside thy cradle and by mine.


s: Whom she crooned to sleep and rocked upon her knee.


s: Light silken curtain, colorless and soft,


s: Dreamlike before me floating! what abides


s: Where sleek red kine, and dappled, crunch day-long


s: Thick, luscious blades and purple clover-heads,


s: No more; for on the rim of the globed world


s: I seem to stand and stare at nothingness.


s: Bring sweet assurance of continuous life


s: Beyond this silvery cloud.  Fantastic dreams,


s: An Orient town, with slender-steepled mosques,


s: Turret from turret springing, dome from dome,


s: Through spacious streets, where running waters flow,


s: Sun-screened by fruit-trees and the broad-leaved palm,


s: Hark! you can hear the many murmuring tongues,


s: While loud the merchants vaunt their gorgeous wares.


s: And through the lattice high in yon dead wall,


s: See where, unveiled, an arch, young, dimpled face,


s: From her dark, ringleted and bird-poised head


s: She hath cast back the milk-white silken veil:


s: Beckons she not with those bright, full-orbed eyes,


s: And open arms that like twin moonbeams gleam?


s: I come!  I come!--Hark! from some far-off mosque


s: And from the lattice he hath scared my love.


s: The lattice vanisheth itself--the street,


s: That cry is yet prolonged.  I wake to hear


s: The distant fog-horn peal: before mine eyes


s: Even to the mighty sun-god's keen red shafts!


s: Well do I know deep in thine inmost folds,


s: Dove-eyed, with fair, free-floating, pearl-wreathed hair,


s: Where her feet, rosy as a shell, have grazed


s: The freshened grass, a richer emerald glows:


s: She knows the tops of jagged mountain-peaks,


s: She knows the green soft hollows of their sides,


s: She loves to bask within the moon's wan beams,


s: Lying, night-long upon the moist, dark earth,


s: Ah! that athwart these dim, gray outer courts


s: And feel her cool and dewy fingers press


s: My mortal-fevered brow, while in my heart


s: See! the close curtain moves, the spell dissolves!


s: Slowly it lifts: the dazzling sunshine streams


s: Swift, snowy-breasted sandbirds twittering glance


s: Through crystal air.  On the horizon's marge,


s: Shall charm his sense and fire his blood,


s: What art thou doing here, O Imagination?  Go


s: away I entreat thee by the gods, as thou didst


s: come, for I want thee not.  But thou art come


s: according to thy old fashion.  I am not angry


s: Night, and beneath star-blazoned summer skies


s: A creole with still-burning, languid eyes,


s: Voluptuous limbs and incense-breathing mouth:


s: Within these sumptuous woods she lies at ease,


s: By rich night-breezes, dewy cool, caressed:


s: 'Twixt cypresses and slim palmetto trees,


s: Like to the golden oriole's hanging nest,


s: And through the dark her mocking-bird yet sings.


s: Twines round her shadowy, free-floating hair:


s: Young, weary, passionate, and sad as death,


s: Dark visions haunt for her the vacant air,


s: With lithe, lax, folded hands and heavy eyes.


s: Full well knows she how wide and fair extend


s: Her groves bright-flowered, her tangled everglades,


s: Through lush savanna or dense forest shades,


s: To broad bayou 'neath hazy-golden skies.


s: Hers is the savage splendor of the swamp,


s: With pomp of scarlet and of purple bloom,


s: Where blow warm, furtive breezes faint and damp,


s: Strange insects whir, and stalking bitterns boom--


s: Oft looms the great-jawed alligator's head.


s: Her wealth, her beauty, and the blight on these,--


s: Fresh, living, sunlit, in her dream she sees;


s: O'ergrown by creeping tendrils and rank moss.


s: And is it well that all was borne in vain?


s: She knows no more than one who slow doth win,


s: After fierce fever, conscious life again,


s: From rich sea-islands fringing her green shore,


s: From broad plantations where swart freemen bend


s: Bronzed backs in willing labor, from her store


s: Of golden fruit, from stream, from town, ascend


s: Her aims shall be subserved with boundless wealth.


s: Yet now how listless and how still she lies,


s: Like some half-savage, dusky Indian queen,


s: Rocked in her hammock 'neath her native skies,


s: Great-souled, hath suffered much and much hath loved!


s: But look! along the wide-branched, dewy glade


s: Glimmers the dawn: the light palmetto-trees


s: And SHE hath wakened.  Through clear air she sees


s: And leaps from dreams to hail the coming day.


s: Beside her casement oped the maiden sits,


s: Where the mild evening spirit of the Spring


s: Gently between the city's homesteads flits


s: To kiss her brows, and floats on languid wing,


s: While her heart trembles 'neath those dim, deep skies,


s: As the quick sea that 'neath the globed moon lies.


s: Where her eyes rest the full-orbed evening star


s: Burns with white flame: it beckons, shrinks, dilates.


s: She, dazzled by that shining world afar,


s: May not withdraw her gaze: breathless she waits.


s: Some promised joy from Heaven's very gates


s: Unto her soul seems proffered.  When shall be


s: The bright fulfilment of that star's decree?


s: Nor glad nor sad is she: she doth not know


s: That through the city's throng one threads his way,


s: Thrilled likewise by that planet's mystic glow,


s: And hastes to seek her.  What sweet change shall sway


s: Upon his shadowy life from her shall fall?


s: The silent star burns on, and knoweth all.


s: Nerves unstrung, spent will, dull brain.


s: Look! the round-cheeked moon floats high,


s: Strong with the people's strength, yet mild,


s: Bright with fair portents, big with power,--


s: The first since history's course has run,


s: Oh, how they loved him!  They stood there,


s: Thronging the road, the street, the square,


s: With hushed lips locked in silent prayer,


s: Through all its ways with boisterous rush,


s: Had barked, and once was heard the sound


s: Oh, toil-worn, patient Heart that bleeds,


s: Wronged, cursed, despised, misunderstood--


s: Your day-dawn breaks from shore to shore.


s: In the sun-brimmed sapphire cup that is the sky--


s: Not a ripple on the black translucent lane


s: As the gondoliers with velvet oar glide by,


s: Where the carved, age-yellowed balcony o'erjuts


s: Yonder liquid, marble pavement, see the light


s: All the pageant from this ivory porch of ours,


s: Masques and jesters, mimes and minstrels, while we hark


s: Flung from boat to boat in rainbow radiant showers


s: Like a flock of serpent-throated black-plumed swans,


s: Floating mantles like a great moth's streaky vans


s: In their midst a white unruffled swan appear.


s: One strange barge that snowy tapestries enfold,


s: Prince of Love in masquerade or Prince of Fear,


s: Where the mask's edge stops are of the hoar-frosts hue,


s: And no eyebeams seem to sparkle from within


s: Seem to fly him, he seems ever to pursue.


s: Stands the goldenest of beauties; from her glance,


s: From her forehead, shines the splendor of a bride,


s: For she leaps into a wild and rhythmic dance,


s: Just to hold, to clasp her once against his breast,


s: Hers to flee him, to elude him in the game.


s: Is it earnest? a strange riddle lurks half-guessed


s: That his snow-white fingers reach her, fades some ray


s: From the glory of her beauty in its prime;


s: And the knowledge grows upon us that the dance


s: 'Twixt the pale, mysterious lover and the fay--


s: Of the broad lagoon sinks plumb into the sea,


s: There the mystic gondolier hath won his bride.


s: Mimes and minstrels, flowers and music, where are ye?


s: Light glows through the trees like wine.


s: Late-born and woman-souled I dare not hope,


s: The freshness of the elder lays, the might


s: (Who veiled and screened by womanhood must grope)


s: With the world's strong-armed warriors and recite


s: The dangers, wounds, and triumphs of the fight;


s: Twanging the full-stringed lyre through all its scope.


s: But if thou ever in some lake-floored cave


s: O'erbrowed by hard rocks, a wild voice wooed and heard,


s: Answering at once from heaven and earth and wave,


s: Misprize thou not these echoes that belong


s: The pathos of the stupid, stumbling throng.


s: To pour my soul forth in one trumpet strain,


s: One clear, grief-shattering, triumphant song,


s: For all the victories of man's high endeavor,


s: Palm-bearing, laureled deeds that live forever,


s: The splendor clothing him whose will is strong.


s: Hast thou beheld the deep, glad eyes of one


s: Who has persisted and achieved?  Rejoice!


s: On naught diviner shines the all-seeing sun.


s: Salute him with free heart and choral voice,


s: 'Midst flippant, feeble crowds of spectres wan,


s: Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,


s: With conquering limbs astride from land to land;


s: Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand


s: A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame


s: Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name


s: Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command


s: The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.


s: "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she


s: With silent lips.  "Give me your tired, your poor,


s: Your huddled masses yearning to be free,


s: The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.


s: Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,


s: Down the long hall she glistens like a star,


s: The foam-born mother of Love, transfixed to stone,


s: Yet none the less immortal, breathing on.


s: Time's brutal hand hath maimed but could not mar.


s: When first the enthralled enchantress from afar


s: Serenely poised on her world-worshipped throne,


s: As when she guided once her dove-drawn car,--


s: Her life adorer, sobbed farewell to love.


s: Here Heine wept!  Here still we weeps anew,


s: While mourns one ardent heart, one poet-brain,


s: Tireless to spin the unseen, fairy woof,


s: Of the entangling waltz.  Bright eyebeams meet,


s: Gay laughter echoes from the vaulted roof.


s: Warm perfumes rise; the soft unflickering glow


s: Of branching lights sets off the changeful charms


s: Of glancing gems, rich stuffs, dazzling snow


s: Of necks unkerchieft, and bare, clinging arms.


s: Hark to the music!  How beneath the strain


s: The pulse-beat of the poet's heart that throbs.


s: So yearns, though all the dancing waves rejoice,


s: The troubled sea's disconsolate, deep voice.


s: Who shall proclaim the golden fable false


s: Of Orpheus' miracles?  This subtle strain


s: Above our prose-world's sordid loss and gain


s: Lightly uplifts us.  With the rhythmic waltz,


s: Of love and languor, varied visions rise,


s: That melt and blend to our enchanted eyes.


s: The Polish poet who sleeps silenced long,


s: The seraph-souled musician, breathes again


s: Revived the exalted face we know so well,


s: The illuminated eyes, the fragile frame,


s: We stir not, speak not, lest we break the spell.


s: A voice was needed, sweet and true and fine


s: As the sad spirit of the evening breeze,


s: Throbbing with human passion, yet divine


s: A voice for him 'neath twilight heavens dim,


s: Who mourneth for his dead, while round him fall


s: The wan and noiseless leaves.  A voice for him


s: Who sees the first green sprout, who hears the call


s: Of the first robin on the first spring day.


s: A voice for all whom Fate hath set apart,


s: Who, still misprized, must perish by the way,


s: Longing with love, for that they lack the art


s: Of their own soul's expression.  For all these


s: Sing the unspoken hope, the vague, sad reveries.


s: Then Nature shaped a poet's heart--a lyre


s: From out whose chords the lightest breeze that blows


s: Drew trembling music, wakening sweet desire.


s: How shall she cherish him?  Behold! she throws


s: This precious, fragile treasure in the whirl


s: Of seething passions; he is scourged and stung,


s: Must dive in storm-vext seas, if but one pearl


s: Of art or beauty therefrom may be wrung.


s: No pure-browed pensive nymph his Muse shall be,


s: An amazon of thought with sovereign eyes,


s: Whose kiss was poison, man-brained, worldly-wise,


s: Rich gain for us!  But with him is it well?


s: The poet who must sound earth, heaven, and hell!


s: Blue storm-clouds in hot heavens of mid-July


s: Our hearts, a-tremble, throbbed in harmony


s: With the wild, restless tone of air and sky.


s: And with him to wander by a sun-bright shore,


s: Above earth's wrack and ruin?  Far and nigh


s: The laughter of the thunder echoed loud,


s: And harmless lightnings leapt from cloud to cloud.


s: Poised 'twixt clear heavens and glittering surf were we.