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Cornell University Library 
 PR 5843.W5T5 
 
 Tiresias. 
 
 3 1924 013 573 518 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013573518 
 
TIRESIAS. 
 
TI.RESIAS 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS WOOLNER 
 <^ 
 
 AUTHOR OF "MY BEAUTIFUL LADY," "PYGMALION," 
 "SILENUS." 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, 
 
 COVENT GARDEN. 
 
 1886. 
 
 The right of translation is reserved. 
 
CHISWICK press;— C. WHITTINCHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT* 
 CHANCERY LANE. 
 
TO EMILY KEY. 
 
 Will you grace by your acceptance this 
 story of Tiresias ? 
 
 In our "age of mechanical arts and 
 merchandize," your love of verse is grateful 
 as a garden in a populous city, where the 
 flowers yet blossom and the birds sing. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 Book I. Tiresias i 
 
 „ II. Chariclo 8 
 
 „ III. Tiresias i6 
 
 „ IV. Chariclo and Tiresias . . -30 
 
 PART SECOND. 
 
 Book I. Chariclo and Tiresias. The Birds 47 
 
 „ II. Tiresias. Song of Imagination . 72 
 
BOOK I. 
 T I R E S I A S. 
 
 Pallas Athena, perfect, powerful, Wise ! 
 As Gods revered art thou, O Chariclo ; 
 And less of mortal than a life divine ; 
 At all times having served Her lofty hest. 
 Therefore, O Mother, soothed by thee to peace, 
 I on thy bosom weeping dare disclose 
 The story of my blindness born of light. 
 
 Half the day long had I been in pursuit 
 Of one wide-antlered stag, that oftentimes 
 Passed me within an easy range, or stood 
 Proudly at gaze, prick-eared, snuffing the wind. 
 Oft raised my bended bow ; but ere I drew 
 The arrow backward to its biting point, 
 
 B 
 
2 TIRESIAS. [PART I. 
 
 I paused for pity, as the creature bent 
 His clear full gaze on mine : and ever he 
 Within these lapses turned from me and fled. 
 At length this faltering in my hunter craft 
 So shamed my practice I unstrung my bow, 
 And thought of home : but first the Fates de- 
 creed 
 My feet to wander into ways obscure ; 
 Between gaunt rocks, and overshadowing trees 
 Whose twisting rootage gripped the rocks like 
 
 prey; 
 TBy shrubs whose shrewd incline seemed ques- 
 tioning ; 
 Where rills thro' clefts came spurting in disdain. 
 Then vanished haughtily amid the flowers 
 That peered with saucy looks or sidewise smile ; 
 All seeming aliens in my native land, 
 And I intrusive on their privacy ; 
 While thro' the silence of the steadfast woods, 
 Afar-off, sad, one solitary croak 
 Was answered by another more remote. 
 
BOOK I.] TIRESIAS. 3 
 
 What meant this dayhght mystery, and murk 
 Of cloying, dull stagnation in my blood ? 
 
 Had I given chase to hart of Artemis, 
 And angering Her, the Huntress keen, been 
 
 smit 
 With lifelong tremor for unconscious crime ? 
 A grim high-shouldered boar of shining tusks, 
 And graceful fir-tree, yoang, with slender shoots. 
 Must straightway be my offering at Her shrine. 
 While, contrite, meekly I beseech Her grace ! 
 
 This reverent spirit, Mother^ nerved my 
 strength . 
 Like breezes from the sea, and bore me on 
 Where lay the land, whose favouring bosom beat 
 All tremulous, there welcoming with smiles 
 To her embrace the ardent gazing sun ; 
 And, looking back, I saw the woodliind wane 
 To blank and vanish into mist away. 
 
 In newborn exaltation, as tho' wings 
 
4 TIRESIAS. {PART I. 
 
 Lifting my brows had raised me from myself, 
 I came to where a yawning ridged ravine, 
 Rill-streaked, and breathing vapour, closed in 
 
 gloom. 
 Adown this ridged descent I leapt my way, 
 Certain of footfall, lightly as a bird. 
 Thro' tangled bushes thralled in eglantine 
 I strove unbafHed, when a vale of grass. 
 Quivering in flower and parted by a stream. 
 That bore the sunshine on its winding way, 
 With sudden beauty held me motionless. 
 
 Why went I not cl down-stream wanderer, 
 Pacing in measure to the river-song ? 
 
 Fate, with resistless hand then clasping mine. 
 Enticed me upward, and ordained that I 
 Never again might wander with the flow ! 
 
 On in pleased conflict with the thronging 
 flowers, 
 Taking their golden tribute as I went ; 
 Across fresh rillets innocently clear ; 
 Grass, laced with thyme and smiles of gold and 
 blue, 
 
T300K I.] TIRESIAS. 5 
 
 To where I saw a rocky headland cleave 
 The river's margin and oppose advance. 
 Abruptly rose its smouldering naked flank, 
 And reached a forest where Titanic growth 
 Lay mixed in darkness with a world of cloud, 
 That eagles haunted circling till they poised. 
 And quitted not their station in the sky. 
 
 My heart, as tho' unleashed, sprang in my 
 brea'&t 
 And checked my breath, " For there great Zeus," 
 
 I knew, 
 " Or Pallas, His great daughter, was below. 
 Their eagles watching Them ! " 
 
 Audaciously 
 Skirting the rock, I trod a crescent lawn 
 Of brilliant emerald, screened by shadowy trees ; 
 Then, while in marvel why so quenched and 
 
 lone 
 I shrank in precincts of Elysian calm, 
 I heard a wondrous splash, as tho' some wing 
 Had struck the water with a sudden beat. 
 
6 TIRESIAS. [PART I. 
 
 Awe-smitten, kneeling in bewildered fear, 
 I felt the presence of a God. 
 
 Lo, high. 
 Leaning against an oak, Athena's spear 
 Pulsed fiercely, edge and point ! The golden 
 
 scales 
 That guard Her breast, a shimmering net of flame. 
 Lay with Her garment by the Gorgon shield, 
 Its visage turned in mercy toward the tree. 
 But how to tell of great Athena's Self, 
 When She in overwhelming stately power, 
 With light inscrutable, before me shone ! 
 
 Resplendent from the water, on the grass. 
 Within a shower of trembling sparkles She 
 Stood wringing out the river from Her hair. 
 Stretching Her hand to shake the drops away. 
 She showed the length, the strength, the rounded 
 
 glow 
 Of beauty gleaming in Her mighty arm ; 
 And hallowed, twin in glory, proudly rose 
 
BOOK 1.] TIRESIAS. 7 
 
 Her sacred bosom lifted loftily. 
 While living radiance round Her presence clung 
 And moved in faithful concord as She turned 
 And bent Her gaze on mine. O not in scorn, 
 Approval, nor surprise ; but as a star. 
 Serene, remote, and unapproachable. 
 Beams upon water troubled in the wind. 
 And I in worship strove to penetrate 
 Deep in the brightness of those azure heavens, 
 But felt their lustre pierce into my brain. 
 And I myself in darkness ; evermore 
 Closed from adventure in the world of men. 
 Since that dark hour, I say it not in pride, 
 I have not tasted life nor known regret. 
 
BOOK II. 
 CHARICLO. 
 
 Thou art Tiresias, my hapless son, 
 Tho' sad indeed, yet more than others blessed. 
 Thy guides for ever gone from this dark life 
 Wherein we stumble, tho' our sight be keen ; 
 A need the poorest creeping things enjoy, 
 And Gods themselves cannot restore when lost. 
 Great Pallas, wise Athena heard my prayer. 
 And granted that which makes thee more than 
 
 man : 
 Yea, made thee as the Gods with power to see 
 Determined courses rule far times to come ; 
 But made thee not as Gods with power to aid 
 The due fulfilment of Their wills divine. 
 Tho' thus denied ; and men seem unto thee 
 
BOOK 11.] CHARICLO. 9 
 
 As fevered victims in their chase for power ; 
 
 Yet happily their tumult canst thou shun 
 
 For blossoming sweets that breathe around thine 
 
 home, 
 Within whose shadow, smiling, dwells content. 
 
 Thy fateful glimpse of Wisdom left thee dazed 
 And listless from thy terrible delight : 
 Regardful, I discerned thine eyes were clear. 
 Without a wound or scar to mark their scath, 
 But taking shapes as mirrors void of life. 
 Ah, could I brook thee mine, but one of those 
 Who eat and sleep, and only sleep and eat ! 
 
 Faith fired the hope my Goddess might in- 
 cline 
 To hear the prayer of suffering Chariclo ; 
 And, strong in resolution, timidly 
 Her temple steps ascending, bent I down 
 Before Athena's statue, where I wept. 
 The lifelong issue or of joy or woe, 
 Awe weighted me to silence while I kissed 
 The ground made sacred by Her sandalled feet. 
 
10 CHARICLO. [PART I. 
 
 I strove to make each sentence close and true 
 To urge my supplication piercingly, 
 Lest its defect should cause thy suit to fail 
 And leave thee hapless. 
 
 " Goddess lov^d," I cried, 
 " We know Thine owls, that blink in films, more 
 
 wise 
 Than all the fluttering birds that haunt the day, 
 And sleep at dusk with bill pushed under wing. 
 When wasteful mice, unwelconle, taint the stores 
 Of corn our anxious men have heaped by toil. 
 Thy mute-winged favorites, sure of claw, descend, 
 Seize and devour the tiny plunderers. 
 
 " Thy serpents, lithe as winding water, glide. 
 And moving watchful with attentive eyes 
 Are wisely silent till a danger threats, 
 When, hissing terror, they recoil and gape. 
 And, breathing horror, fright away the foe. 
 
 " Thy birds of battle crow to greet the morn, 
 Or challenge rivals to a gallant main ; 
 
BOOK n.] CHARICLO. ii 
 
 Defending chick and dame, with wing and spur 
 They front the prowling fox and strike him dead. 
 
 " Enriching food, and mitigating pain, 
 Thine olives, more to man than horse or kine, 
 Cheer him with light, and shield his tender flesh 
 Against the sun at noon and wintry chill ; 
 And make a woodland meet for loitering 
 When fall at eventide the shadows cool. 
 
 " Kindly to man and his desires art Thou ; 
 But kindliest when, decisive Monitress, 
 Directing him on narrow perilous paths ! 
 So gracious in Thy justice, ah, vouchsafe 
 One beam of mercy on Tiresias, 
 Darkling from light's excess, O Loved, Revered ! 
 For when by Fate impelled, when rapt he gazed 
 Near on Thy very loveliness, thro' light 
 Thy beauty shed, his mortal sight gave way 
 In utter gloom, and left him but as one 
 ''Helpless and hopeless in a dungeon bound. 
 Lift him from darkness into radiant day ; 
 To freedom, joy ; O bring him back to life ! " 
 
12 CHARICLO. [PART I. 
 
 Athena heard me. Her divine response 
 Came as the marshalled spirits of a dream ; 
 Immortal following Immortal feet, 
 As star on star successive close in light, 
 And spacious wonder shining fills the heavens. 
 
 " Severely fortune smote Tiresias, 
 When he beheld Me neither clad for war, 
 Nor in the garment worn beneath My mail ; 
 For as I glowing from the river sprang 
 The Gods themselves could scarce behold Me 
 
 thus! 
 And mortal vision lacks the strength to bear 
 The lustre of My presence unassuaged. 
 Therefore thy son was blinded, and remains 
 In outer darkness till his days are done. 
 As voices mute can never sing again, 
 The Gods are powerless to recover power ; 
 But injured worth receiving sure amends, 
 Tiresias, gladdened by immortal light. 
 The time, ere he beheld Me verily, 
 
BOOK II.] CHARICLO. 13 
 
 Shall seem uncertain, and a wavering mist, 
 Where hovered vague inexplicable shapes, 
 In phantom mimicry of restless man, 
 Building up palaces with crumbling towers, 
 And sailing fleets to sea-washed mountain crags 
 That fold their tops in cloud ; where trampling 
 
 hosts 
 Without a sound in ghostly combat close, 
 And high-walled towns are captured by surprise. 
 Where whirlwinds spin ripe harvest into ruin ; 
 And ever-striving ever ends in waste, 
 Until thro' heaven a sword of sunshine cleaves 
 The shrinking vapour down and strikes the 
 
 earth. 
 When, softly melting, opens forth the day ! 
 
 Blest in this light will your Tiresias dwell. 
 And, Godlike, thro' the tangle of desires, 
 Shall mark its value in an aim ^pursued, 
 And balance cost against the substance won. 
 
 Now are his inborn hopes for ever fled ! 
 But cheered by Truth's imperishable smile ; 
 
14 CHARICLO. [part i. 
 
 Aloof from strife, well knowing craft and strength, 
 Unceasing struggle for ascendency, 
 He shall, forecasting issues, now behold 
 The future fixed and certain as the past. 
 His sayings shall be winged with prophecy ! 
 Fulfilment following prescience, in due course 
 He will be honoured as the living voice 
 Discoursing Destiny and laws divine ! 
 
 Tho' towns arisen in splendour from the earth 
 Are worn to dust by Time's unheeded feet, 
 Time cannot, nor can God-compelling Fate 
 Once overthrow a wise man's simple word ;j 
 Whose wisdom mellowing slowly age by age 
 Augments the treasures of futurity. 
 
 But nerves must tingle to the touch of joy ; 
 Piping and dancing after labour done ! 
 As now Tiresias can watch no more 
 The shining clouds nor shadows they let fall ; 
 The many-coloured garb of spring to him 
 Being but as winter's gray, his vision closed : 
 I will the hindrance from his ears withdraw, 
 
BOOK n.] CHARICLO. 15 
 
 And then your son shall understand the birds, 
 Their music, and the meaning in their songs : 
 And with these blest ones, in their lovely lives 
 Rejoicing, he will know his vanished world 
 But as the memory of a raging war 
 Where sang and whistled arrows carrying death. 
 
BOOK III. 
 TIRESIAS. 
 
 O Mother, careless ears can never learn 
 Nor rightly ponder words of mighty Gods ! 
 His watch must constant be, his spirit meek 
 Whose will with Their's unflagging would keep 
 
 pace. 
 Weak dalliance shuns he, and the lavish grape, 
 And dares not spur dark passion to attain 
 The reigning heights few clamber but to fall ; 
 For unto him pursuits of fretful men, 
 Unconsecrated by divine intent. 
 Shall seem a dance of folly, or a chase 
 That finds disaster, or the quarry fled. 
 
 Apart from men I now am less than they, 
 
BOOK III.] TIRfiSIAS. 17 
 
 The active, who beat substance into shape, . 
 Or guide the streams of power ; but more am 
 
 ■ blest 
 In fortune ; for^ by contact unbegrimed 
 In. the foul reek of contest, I maintain 
 My force unwasted by antagonism ; ■ 
 And clearly know at what they darkly grope. 
 Or vainly guess. 
 
 Sometimes when faint, and hope 
 Reluctantly folds over-wearied wings, 
 And I am fain in peaceful death to cease. 
 That vision of Her glowing purity 
 Transmutes my sorrow into secret joy i 
 
 To these blank eyes the outer world is blank ; 
 The pale blue hills afar, beneath my feet. 
 The happy flowers alike are blank to me. 
 But pastures ever rich in flowers divine, 
 Unfading, lustrous, of ethereal hue. 
 Are mine, and cheer the margin where a 
 stream, 
 
 c 
 
iS TIRESIAS. [PART I. 
 
 Brimmed with celestial light, for ever flows 
 Toward some great ocean washing nameless 
 shores. 
 
 O Mother, from the rough and roaring 
 world, 
 I feel as one now safe on blessed earth ; 
 Borne thitherward by savage billows churned 
 And gnashed to foam betwixt the teeth of 
 rocks! 
 
 Impious indeed it were to think it truth ; 
 But I have known such evil wrought meseemed 
 The Gods had left their power to evil men ; 
 Or that dark Chaos ruling meant to strike 
 These slaves corrupted into endless night ! 
 
 Think but of Titias, whose continual tongue 
 Assailed our Council, and revealed the faults 
 They dared not for high dignity resent, 
 And thus lay at the mercy of this daw ; 
 Until at length descrying plain escape. 
 They smiled in easy unanimity. 
 
BOOK III.] TIRESIAS. 19 
 
 Straightway they shipped him for a distant 
 clime, 
 To govern stout adventurers from our shores, 
 Who, thriven by labour, waxed content and glad 
 There he, by substituting pettish will 
 For treaties fixed, embroiled the state in war 
 That cost our armies sore to save our sons. 
 When here at length disgust to clamour raged, 
 And Titias was recalled ; the pecking beak. 
 Again triumphant, made the Council quail. 
 To rule a wealthy isle they sent him, where. 
 Warmly enamoured of his own intent, 
 Some factions pressing hard, and fostering 
 Their crafty rivals, fanned he smouldering hate 
 That burst outright in open massacre ; 
 And he in terror from the fell results 
 That chase ungainly skill, took ship and fled. 
 Our Council, uninstructed by events, 
 Sent him again to rule a greater charge. 
 Where now he plots to worst and circumvent, 
 And hatch disasters dire in natural course. 
 
20 TIRESIAS. [PART I. 
 
 Thus our dishonoured Guides, from cowardice, 
 To shun a periling daw that pecked their heels, 
 Have thrice their trust betrayed. Thrice on fair 
 
 Peace 
 Begotten wrong, and war, and massacre ! 
 Thrice violated their own sacred Charge ! 
 Yea, thrice while slumbering within their care ! 
 
 Contrast Pylaon's with this Titias' fate. 
 Pylaon's gentle voice and courtesy 
 Warmed every heart to measure with his 
 
 own. 
 Yet soft of touch he held in Titan grip 
 The state's advantage and our honour pledged. 
 
 Once on a time, ruling a dangerous tribe 
 In some wild far-away dependency ; 
 While war in many flames between our sons 
 And natives fiercely raged ; Godlike, inspired, 
 Pylaon gathering in his whole command, 
 Sent them with all his trained and bravest 
 
 chiefs 
 
BOOK III.] TIRESIAS. 21 
 
 To aid ouf brethren in their bitter hour ; 
 Leaving himself, and dearer yet than self, 
 Bereft of power save an unflinching will, 
 Alone amid the lately conquered who, 
 Cunning and stern, were scarcely tamed to law. 
 Such was the man. 
 
 Our Council driven by need 
 Of -firm authority and kindly craft. 
 Sent great Pylaon to a troubled land 
 To soothe some factions there, whose differing 
 
 aims 
 Issued unhindered in continuous strife. 
 
 When there Pylaon, as a warrior, scanned 
 His foes before him marshalled for assault. 
 And swiftly marching on them unforeseen, 
 Delivering his own forces breaks their ranks 
 And rolls them backward on their native wilds. 
 For thus, by prowess and perfected skill, 
 He brought contention to a welcome close ; 
 And promised plenty flowered the slopes of 
 peace. 
 
22 • TIRESIAS. [PART J. 
 
 Pylaon thus was kneading their rude lives 
 Surely to fashion of an ordered state, 
 When here some money-bags, athirst for praise. 
 Puffed chatterers vain with' cross-grained para- 
 dox, 
 Flattering the people's ear with fallacies, 
 And undigested rumour, raised a storm 
 Of howling hate against his noble name ; 
 And our half-hearted caitiff rulers cast, 
 To save their fondled popularity, 
 Cast forth their noblest to these howling 
 wolves ! 
 
 Throughout that troubled province yet agajn 
 Ramp dock and 'thistle where they choke the 
 
 corn ; 
 Stray torrents rut the road ; the watercourse, 
 Checked by accumiilated tangle, spreads. 
 And overflowing nteadows soak to swamp ; 
 Men frown and leave their useful husbandry, 
 The. silent plough, the tmisic of the flail ; 
 
BOOK III.] TIRESIAS. 33 
 
 Dark herds that teem increasing opulence, 
 The bleating cries from • fields and pasture 
 
 lands, 
 They leave and swelter in the fields of war ; 
 Where they, instead of sweet productive showers,' 
 Meet showers that carry grisly wounds and 
 
 death ; 
 Instead of ntiilk, that quenches thirsting toil. 
 Comes the fell thirst is only quenched in blood. 
 He, my Pylaon, gentle, learned, wise ; 
 
 Whose dearest pastime was the work ordained ; 
 
 Who lived to shape," augment, and purify; 
 
 By clamour driven from his usefulness 
 
 Into an empty name ! ' ..Ingratitude 
 
 From those he served had chilled the hero's 
 soul. 
 
 And curdled thro' his frame the generous blood, 
 
 Beating no more attuned to high resolve, 
 
 But shrunken as a brook, when after drought 
 
 No longer singing on its wonted way. 
 
 He left us while that furious tempest raged. 
 
24 
 
 TIRESIAS. - fPART I. 
 
 " KiHed by the sudden cold," the mourners 
 
 said : 
 But he was slain by shameful cowardice, . 
 And broken-hearted our Pylaon died. 
 
 Wretches are honoured now, and- heyoes slain. 
 Is there then no appeal, O Chariclo .' 
 Can crime thus vault and .yet the race endure } 
 These sons of glory, favoured of the Gods, 
 Thus slain and uhayenged !.'. 
 
 From c^e to';age 
 Run stories of a mighty day when Greeks ■ 
 Were God-directed, and when men obeyed. 
 But when I strive to pierce the. black abyss 
 Of unborn time I see but shameful shades ! 
 
 O, sight of horror ; rent that blank abyss ! • 
 Where, thunder-armed, the great Olympian 
 
 Gods 
 All breathe indignant vengeance as one face. 
 And storm their chariots oyer thundering plains j 
 
BOOK III.] , TIRESIAS. 25 
 
 Forth stream their hissing bolts, speed swift 
 
 their shafts; 
 . In lines of lightning sing their angry spears ! 
 And flanking h^rd move strange stupendous 
 
 Shapes 
 Who, .plucking splintered rocks, and forest trees, 
 Dash cities out of being at a blow ; 
 And moiistrous creatures leap whose caverned 
 
 jaws 
 Crash and make havoc on distracted flocks.. . 
 Last taihine stalks close linked with pestilence ; 
 And blight that chars the traversed space like 
 
 flame. 
 
 • The Gods have gone and left the smitten 
 land, 
 Where lies'their anger black in ghastly heaps ; : 
 All left of Greeks and their intolerant pride ; 
 Their haughty sages and heroic chiefs ; 
 Their beauty fairer than sweet flowers in bloom ; 
 Their Temples, where the only sacrifice 
 
26 TIRESIAS. [part I. 
 
 Was flesh of beast and gold-bought offering ; 
 Their palaces, where dwelt unkingly kings 
 Who throve in costly state, and could not 
 
 rule; 
 Now all have vanished like a waking dream 
 That leaves a growing taint of certainty 
 Its visions but foreshadowed danger near. 
 Uprising slowly in that wasted scene 
 Crawl dwindled forms in search for something 
 
 hid. 
 That keeps their faces spell-bound near the 
 
 soil; 
 Anon, in mockery of ancient deeds 
 They seem a world of phantoms lacking life. 
 
 My gift of gazing thus on pictured doom, 
 Is but a doubtful boon, O Chariclo ! 
 However crime corrupt our rulers' blood. 
 However basely are their wills obeyed, 
 However dire the vengeance justly due. 
 
BOOK III.] TIRESIAS. 27 
 
 Alas, the speeding thunderbolts, that burst 
 Among the guilty, likewise overwhelm 
 With woe, or crush the guiltless into ruin ! 
 
 Stern, unrelenting are the Gods, and mark 
 That man accursed ; mark him for ever cursed 
 Who lifts a knave to high authority. 
 And drives the hero from his sacred trust. 
 
 And ever must our mortal race endure 
 The chastisement Fate wills, and angry Gods 
 Ordain for men unfaithful to their charge. 
 Abject and haughty, both alike as one 
 Swept unappealably to nothingness. 
 
 Heedless of frowning Doom's unfaltering eye. 
 Lightly they laugh ; they wave their arms 
 
 abroad 
 And cry, " This good old earth and all her fruit 
 Are ours of right ; then let us every one 
 Enjoy the fragrant juices of the vine ; 
 
28 tiRESIAS. [PART I. 
 
 Clasping fair woman let us round the dance, 
 And dance together until sunken day. 
 Leaves us a safe exa.mpl.e, where the stars 
 Still burn' in glory and rejoice the night ! 
 For nowj the waves away, sand smooth and 
 
 dry, 
 The beaming Hours will not our arms escape 
 Till taxed of rosy smile and sweeter kiss, 
 And lips made redder with the crimson. 
 
 draught; 
 Thus, fondling beauty, her new-quickened 
 
 breath 
 Runs thro' our veins in swift delicious fire ; 
 Until our rapture slacken in repose, 
 And languor lapt by music softly sleep." 
 
 On the warmed beach they breathe the summer 
 
 wind, 
 And wear a transient pallor of the moon, 
 Where sprinkled snug, like sheep ere breaking 
 
 dawn, 
 
BOOK III.] •■ TIRESIAS. ,; 29 
 
 They rest in df earns of neyer-endinig bliss. 
 And meanwhile rising clear from ocean gloom, 
 Creeps, white-lipped, hissing, the returning 
 tide. 
 
BOOK IV. 
 CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. 
 
 "When preening downy breasts the water- 
 fowl 
 Quiver, ere spreading timorous wings to rise 
 From water freshened with the breath of morn, 
 And span the dazzled distance into space ; 
 So freshly wing our lives Tiresias, 
 So bright with promise are the days to come." 
 
 "O Mother, grateful sound! Fair are thy 
 words ; 
 And touch me as pale shivering in the leaves 
 Whispers of rainy wind on scorching days, 
 Before the summer showers on meads athirst 
 Awaken hushed and grateful murmurings ; 
 
BOOK IV.] CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. 31 
 
 So thirsting I thy pleasant accents take, 
 And like the warblers roundabout I hear 
 I would in music like to their's respond ! 
 
 " That vision of annihilated Greeks, 
 Tho' justly due to vengeance, wrings my heart. 
 Save for my strange God-stricken destiny, 
 Could I not hope by mixing much with men, 
 Thro' clear, persuasive, seasonable words. 
 To reach their temper at the wavering pause ; 
 And, gently aiding undetermined bent. 
 To turn their footsteps into settled ways 
 Approved by wisdom, and of Gods beloved ! 
 But now, alas, unable, I discern. 
 Dimly as thro' a veil, our people range 
 Disorderly wide trackless waste, with eyes 
 Hard set on fancies they have cast before, 
 To find delusive nothing in their grasp ; 
 Or phantoms fair that smile and lure advance. 
 Till seized at length they change to demons dire 
 And rend them out of life ! " 
 
J2 . . CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. [PART i. 
 
 "Thy words ring true 
 And tuned on tender chords, Tiresias ! 
 But.the dread Goddess, is Her charge forgot ? 
 Not lightly will She pardon shouldst thou fail . 
 . In reverejit concord with Her will divine. 
 Thine own bow in;pbediehce, nor allow 
 Winged hopes to hover where they may fiot test ;' 
 Fpr Gods despise thei foolish tears of nieti 
 Born of unchecked desire,. No, let the vain 
 Hithfer and thithepgad a senseless dance, 
 Their course of no mbre count than T^ind-borae 
 
 ■ leaves. 
 Exalted, thou shaltknowtte living truth- 
 Athena signified, and sun thy soul 
 In ever-varying -beauty born of law 
 That love, wing-fplded from pursuit, adores: 
 It is not thine to toil and herd with men, 
 Who fondly trust they track their purposes, 
 But are blind shuttles in the loom of Patej 
 Each working out his doom. Thy deathless 
 
 , glance 
 
BOOK IV.] CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. 33 
 
 Of Pallas great Athena's very self, 
 
 Enwrapt thee Her's in worship evermore : 
 
 For having seen perfection in pure light, 
 
 No earthly memory can seem to thee 
 
 Other than darkness shown by glimmering 
 
 rays. 
 Or form unfashiohed yet to comely shape. 
 Thy mortal loss being thus immortal gain, 
 Saved art thou now the dolour and despair 
 Of seeing wounds thou lackest skill to heal ; 
 Or tottering blindness that will not be led ; 
 And, breathing air attempered to response, 
 The voices of the high Olympian Gods 
 Shall sanction thine in music with Their own." 
 
 " Take, take, O Mother, take my trembling 
 thanks ! 
 As beat his heart who clomb to weary heights 
 When blew the gracious zephyrs round his brow; 
 So braced by loving words, my life rebounds 
 Within obedient range, and gathers strength 
 
34 CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. [part i. 
 
 To pace the lonely path prescribed by Fate, 
 Athena's self disclosed. 
 
 " Once on a day, 
 Upon the ledge of rock that overhangs 
 Where one huge torrent thrills the mountain- 
 cleft, 
 I lay and listened to the constant roar 
 Of leaves and water musically mixed. 
 And heard high voices of the earth and air, 
 Discourse of stars, and whisper of the force 
 That vomits blocks of fire, or by a smile 
 Clusters the primroses to living light. 
 Rapt thus lay I and wondered. 
 
 As they kiss, 
 Are tempests fired with transport mortals feel 
 When eager lips unite ? Or, is it hate. 
 When in mad thunder rushing they expire ! 
 
 " While thus by strangeness lured, or beauty 
 caught ; 
 
BOOK IV.] CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. 35 
 
 Where secrets opened to my will, or closed 
 For future pondering in some happy hour ; 
 More purely blew the wind ; a glory smote 
 These sightless balls as on that day of doom 
 When I beheld Her silent on the grass 
 And clad in light alone. But now Her voice 
 Pierced me with music, such as wildest love 
 Could never hope for utterance, tho' his fate 
 Hung in the balance of a blissful word. 
 
 " ' Hail my Tiresias, to the Gods endeared ! 
 Thy thoughts wing happily an even pace, 
 And happily alight to muse their gains. 
 Thy swift exultant march cut off and balked 
 By sheer impossibility, 
 
 Thou didst not dash thy breast against the wall, 
 And bruised and bleeding, clamour unto Gods 
 For aid to break the laws themselves obey ; 
 But meek, submissive, paid'st thy forfeiture 
 Without rebellious questioning, or hope 
 The will of Gods might change for thy behoof. 
 
36 CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. [part i. 
 
 Thus, tho' perforce a rugged path is thine, 
 Thy quickened sense shall be to thee a staff 
 To guide thee on thy way : for thou shalt feel 
 The wandering air, checked by the rocks and 
 
 trees, 
 Beat backward on thy face ; and steadfastly 
 Threading obstructions, as a bird in flight. 
 Pursue thy needs in safety as before. 
 
 " ' When silvery dawn warms into golden day 
 And hearts of men are glad, the feathered world 
 In voices infinite salute the morn ; 
 And stooping their homed brows the cattle 
 
 graze 
 With faces toward the sun ; their manes asweep, 
 Horses while thundering over plains proclaim 
 Their joy aloud in stormy clarion shouts ; 
 While flocks at feed upon the happy hills, 
 Pause at short intervals to bleat delight ; 
 And all awakened glow in life renewed 
 From dark unfeeling night. And thou shalt 
 
 wake 
 
BOOK IV.] CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. 37 
 
 From gloom to living glory ; truth on truth 
 Unfolding lovely secrets to thy love, 
 Shall breathe their rarest sweetnesses unsought ; 
 When thou shalt learn that loveliness in .flowers 
 Is one with women and their gracious smiles ; 
 And crawling eyeless worms that feed on clay 
 Own life identical with scornful man ; 
 And woodland berries, fed on earth and air, 
 And every drop of dew that weights the grass 
 Is fashioned by the force that moulds the stars. 
 " ' Clear to the wise, but hidden from the 
 
 dull. 
 All life unites inspired by harmony, 
 From inborn essence to the outward hue ; 
 And life, tho' ever-varying, onward moves 
 From earth thro' herbage and becomes the 
 
 brute : 
 Thus men from earth divine the laws of heaven. 
 And seek by day the stars in deepest wells, 
 Tho' oft, by noon-sun dazzled, blind to flowers 
 In constellations shining at their feet ! 
 
38 CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. [part i. 
 
 " ' Thy soul responsive to their warbling tongues 
 Thou hear'st the stories little songsters tell 
 On thorns bloom-smothered in the odorous 
 
 spring, 
 And read'st their merry-making poured aloof 
 In veiled security of loftiest leaves, 
 Or quivering upward singing into light. ' 
 
 Their witchery cast upon thy loosened lips 
 Shall tell in singing what was caught of songs 
 Tuned deep in woodland shade, or windy banks, 
 Or fields of spacious air. As now thine eyes 
 Are closed to every being of thy love. 
 Thou now art granted vision, grace divine 
 To penetrate and know each dark recess. 
 From subtle motives to their plain escape 
 In action issuing to remotest time. 
 And men shall be thy friends, in knowing thou 
 Can'st rightly scan what unto most will seem 
 An untold message or a senseless vaunt. 
 Thy sway shall be as kings'. Wise men shall take 
 Direction from thy maxims, proven and found 
 
BOOK IV.] CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. 39 
 
 Trusty upon the strain, and furtherance 
 To purposes that strike and flower in deeds. 
 For thou, undoubting, undismayed, shalt know 
 The will of Gods, and speak the voice of Fate ; 
 Resistless Fate for ever following fast 
 On any trodden pathway, foul or fair ! 
 
 " ' But many a harvest moon shall light the 
 land. 
 And many a season will release its showers, 
 And gather night in midday thunderstorms, 
 Ere men will give a welcome to thy words ;| 
 For, as at peril, will they start, and shun 
 The plainest blessing pregnant with delight, 
 When seen in guise unknown to them before. 
 
 But meantime can'st thou loiter while the 
 grass 
 Plays to the pleasant singing of the rain ; 
 And join in laughter when tempestuous fire 
 Rioting shatters throughout iron skies 
 In far redoubled roars that shake the world, 
 And rends an azure emptiness in space. 
 
40 CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. [part i. 
 
 Flower-laden winds shall breathe and whisper 
 
 thee 
 If over primroses or violets borne, 
 Or deeply-blushing roses sore ashamed. 
 To languish zephyr-plundered of their sweets. 
 Softly, with babbling lips, these winds shall lisp 
 Of timorous lovers glimmering in the dawn, 
 And sighing for noontide's unattainable 
 Delight of brightest heaven. Or they shall tell 
 Of streams, where golden-hearted lotus flowers 
 Shed spectral light beneath the gloom of 
 
 palms ; 
 Where dusky women launch their babes to 
 
 float, 
 Then in the water flashing breast the flow ; 
 Or bring dark hints of contest from afar 
 Where numbers meet in fell resolve to smite 
 Each unknown other into senseless death. 
 '"And thus in beauty hallowed safe art 
 
 thou 
 From cares that poison gladness with distrust. 
 
BOOK IV.] CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. 41 
 
 And doubts of danger that may never rise : 
 But open, unobstructed, as the flow 
 Of mighty rivers, will thy seasons glide. 
 That wind by many a reach of flowery mead 
 To find like others their great ocean home.' 
 
 "Athena spake no more ; and then I seemed 
 To traverse airily the boundless waves. 
 Wind-borne thro' space and penetrating light, 
 That glorified my being as the flowers 
 Are glorified by morn. The Goddess' words 
 Still singing by me, underneath my feet, 
 In shoals the wondrous creatures of the deep, 
 Of richest hues and silvery brightness sped. 
 By huge ones followed swiftly and devoured. 
 And passing over cities I beheld 
 Great nations spread and cover smaller states. 
 And flourish into temples, towers, and fleets ; 
 Then coil themselves together, leopard-like, 
 To watch with evil eyes should any chance 
 Relax some other's guard, or weight his lids 
 
42 CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. [parti. 
 
 In sleep, and give the fatal vantage sought. 
 Afar then I descried an eagle swoop 
 And strike a great swan soaring dead to earth ; 
 But being near man's home, the eagle fled 
 Until the sun grew crimson, then returned 
 To gorge his prey ; marked by a fowler, who 
 Hard by in ambush with a ready bow, 
 Pierced his fierce heart with death. The fowler, 
 
 proud, 
 Boasting of twofold spoil and subtle skill. 
 Hoisted the prize for praises from his dame ; 
 But she, cross-grained, upbraided him for loss 
 And waste on eagles, worthless on the board, 
 When all his children cried with hungry maws ! 
 To her sharp tongue he daring no reply, 
 And needing solace, roundly beat his babes. 
 "Such the strange pastime of that mighty 
 
 world 
 I have for ever lost. Where beauty dies 
 Fresh in her dawn of trustful innocence. 
 Mammocked by ruthless force and cast away ; 
 
BOOK IV.] CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. 43 
 
 Where wise men bow unhonoured heads, while 
 
 fools, 
 In loud-pitched shouts, assert that Wisdom's 
 
 ways 
 Are better now forgot for pathways new, 
 Obvious and sweeping* Where lithe Falsehood's 
 
 self, 
 Wearing a scanty garment filched from Truth, 
 Flaunts her bedizened foulness to the crowd, 
 Pronouncing Truth a worn-out blunderer, 
 Unneeded in this growing world of ours. 
 Where things so mixed and complex must be 
 
 touched 
 By lighter fingers, or their bloom will fly ! 
 And gaping multitudes agrin with joy 
 Strain their deep throats to inharmonious howl ; 
 As wolves at midnight when they scent the fold, 
 And rage against her worthless purity. 
 Her worn-out useless rags. Tho' beaming clear 
 Her purity, clad in eternal light ! 
 " All this is darkness murkier than the gloom 
 
44 CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. [PART I. 
 
 Whereon these blank orbs dwell ; but when I 
 
 heard 
 The door, by which ye entered, opening, came 
 With thy dear voice the welcome joy of love, 
 And now, within mine arms, to hear and and feel 
 My home, the beating of thy tuneful heart, 
 I have no other wish, but rest content ; 
 Contented with my fate, and most with thee." 
 
PART SECOND. 
 
BOOK I. 
 
 CHARICLO AND TIRESIAS. 
 THE BIRDS. 
 
 " Throughout this wholesome air, Tiresias, 
 
 Refreshed and cleansed by rinsing midnight rain, 
 
 On every treetop, roof, or drifting cloud, 
 
 I hear the songsters twit and trill their lays 
 
 In notes so high and variably attuned 
 
 The morning's beauty brightens with their joy. 
 
 Altho' responsive to their dainty songs. 
 To me they are as babblings of a babe 
 That laughs for gladness, but can tell no more ; 
 Disclosing no intelligible tale, 
 As unto thee, Tiresias, who hear'st 
 Of innocent sweet love, and woodland wiles 
 Where sunlight plays within illumined shade." 
 
48 CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS, [part ii. 
 
 " My well-loved Mother, as the Gods revered ! 
 Truth brightly shines in jealous secrecy, 
 And clouds hang heavy round her dwelling 
 
 place. 
 But oft a momentary ray escapes. 
 And tempts conjecture thro' the tangled gloom, 
 We must await fair breezes to dispel. 
 Thus checked perforce, tho' happily I scan 
 The tales these songsters to each other sing, 
 I can translate them into words of speech 
 But haltingly, and with imperfect tongue, 
 That sounds as twittering noised at early dawn 
 To lusty warblings in the risen day." 
 
 " Describe, Tiresias, tho'. in halting speech, 
 This linnet's rapturous trilling overhead ; 
 His throbbing throat just seen among the leaves." 
 
 " To his blithe mate, shaking her feathers free. 
 After a lengthened sitting on her nest. 
 He tells the fury of the storm, and sings. 
 
BOOK I.J CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 49 
 
 " ' I saw thee, as the storm grew nigh, 
 
 Half unclose a dreamy eye 
 And let a moonbeam enter there. 
 
 Ah, was it fair 
 
 The moon should dare 
 To let her beams thus peer and pry ! 
 
 " ' And when the storm grew nearer still, 
 
 Thee I saw uplift thy bill 
 And sink down deeper in the nest ; 
 
 Not for the rest 
 
 To thy warm breast, 
 But saving thy loved eggs from chill ! 
 
 " ' The raging storm upon us came ; 
 
 Thunder-voiced, in rosy flame 
 A vivid instantaneous glow ; 
 
 When up, down low. 
 
 Then to and fro 
 Wildly it swayed thy shivering frame. 
 
so" CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS, [part ii. 
 
 " ' Within thy nest I watched thee cling, 
 
 Stretching either side a wing ; 
 Thy fragile treasure fast concealing ! 
 ' Thunder pealing. 
 
 Fire revealing 
 How fiercely swirling branches swing ! 
 
 " ' The tempest, fearing bright-faced day, 
 
 Fled in gusty sighs away ; 
 Ah, yet wert thou affright, or shy. 
 And did'st not vie 
 With me and fly 
 To sit and dance our favourite spray ! '" 
 
 " The fretful creature, jealous of the moon. 
 Could never understand, Tiresias, 
 That in no terror for herself she clung, 
 But over-anxious for the babes unhatched ! " 
 
 " Showing, dear Mother, tho' the tale is told, 
 It carries only vague significance, 
 
BOOK I.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 51 
 
 Save thro' experience and sympathy. 
 
 At easy ranges aye these triflers flit 
 
 Round bush and tree ; and, haunting in the spring 
 
 Our upper lands, weave unregarded nests. 
 
 And utter little songs from hour to hour. 
 
 " On yestereven, ere the sun went down, 
 I scaled the crags, for ever sacred, where 
 Pallas Athena's voice foretold my doom. 
 I lay and meditated feats unwrought 
 By daring men of parents yet unborn : 
 As one, while musing, sees a city, rise, 
 Whose paven streets slope down to massive 
 
 quays ; 
 The rock, meanwhile, whence hewn the stone 
 
 must come, 
 For temples, towers, and palaces superb. 
 Untouched as yet of chisel, pick, or bar. 
 A city airy as a morning dream. 
 That grows to shape and harbours multitudes ! 
 While thus I saw this phantom populace, 
 Urging alway in ceaseless ebb and flow. 
 
52 CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS, [part II. 
 
 I heard a haughty pair of eagles croon ; 
 
 In trouble for a nestling that had fallen, 
 
 Breaking its unfledged winglet on the rock, 
 
 And marked for death ; as, thralled with damaged 
 
 limb; 
 
 Tho' haply it might forage and escape, 
 
 Escape were hopeless, should perchance it 
 
 catch 
 A shepherd's eye ; as shepherds ever kill. 
 
 Or maim with cruel torture creatures rare. 
 
 " This danger lit ungovernable ire 
 
 In those grim parents : loudly then cried one : 
 
 " ' Woe to these sheepclad, hard, unsatisfied ; 
 Who stintless slay all born of earth and tide ; 
 Pursuing savagely through day and night, 
 For food and raiment less than for delight. 
 
 "'They grow not feathers, hair, nor hardened 
 
 scales. 
 And naked are unsightly, lacking tails. 
 
BOOK I.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 53 
 
 The veils they wear are torn from slaughtered 
 
 beasts, 
 Whose mangled carcases they burn for feasts. 
 
 '"They crouch bewildered when the tempest 
 
 flies; 
 They hear in thunder threats and mockeries ! 
 But stalk and stare on every tranquil day, 
 As they would dare the sun to disobey ! 
 
 " ' When hunger shrinks their empty maws in 
 
 pain, 
 Like wolves, or rats, or monsters of the main. 
 Should any chance or purpose make him bleed, 
 Straightway they seize and on their brother 
 
 feed. 
 
 " ' But late, within a boat, of oars unfinned, 
 Three were borne far from shore by stress of 
 
 wind. 
 Adrift without a sail. Two wore their prime ; 
 The other lacked some years of mating time. 
 
54 CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS, [part ii. 
 
 " ' With foodless days and weakness grew desire 
 To quell the hunger gnawing them like fire ; 
 And where the famished boy exhausted lay, 
 I saw their glances ravenously play, 
 
 " ' Then meet each other's ; when the boldest 
 
 spake, 
 " We must not let him die ere he awake, 
 For his good blood we lose if he go dead : " 
 " Then wake and eat him now," the other said. 
 
 " ' Refreshed, consoled, they with a cheery laugh 
 The boy divided, taking each a half ; 
 Then gorged him day by day till all was gone, 
 And only bones left bleaching in the sun. 
 
 " ' Then covertly, as hunger gnawed again, 
 And nought but dry white bones between the 
 twain. 
 
BOOK I.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 55 
 
 They watched each others' eyes with steadfast 
 
 gaze. 
 But neither spake. And thus for many days 
 
 " ' Neither dared sleep, the other open-eyed ! 
 Ofttimes would they so gradually slide 
 Near to each other, each would start and grip 
 His weapon's haft, and slowly backward slip. 
 
 " ' Hunger and watch were weighted agony ; 
 They both were cursed ; and neither dared to 
 
 die 
 And end his torture, for the sickening dread 
 His foe would gladden on his flesh when dead. 
 
 " ' Made blind by watching, deafened by fell 
 
 hate, 
 They cared for nothing but each other's fate ; 
 Nor saw a high-decked vessel by them pause, 
 Nor heard the sailors shout, and ask the cause 
 
56 CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS, [part ii. 
 
 " ' Those bones were lying there. Vj^fuely they 
 
 clutched, 
 And fell down both aswoon when they were 
 
 touched. 
 At length in harbour, carried by the gale. 
 They told the citizens their ghastly tale. 
 
 " ' Tears ran amain in pity for their crime, 
 And dreadful issue during famine time. 
 No pity for the murdered boy was raised, 
 But all his murderers' endurance praised, 
 
 " ' Laws rule the sheepclad ; law must be obeyed ! 
 Forth sounds their hollow judgment, long 
 
 delayed, 
 " Both must a little while in durance be. 
 Then, as the winds of heaven, may both go free ! " 
 
 " The other eagle snapped her angry beak, 
 ' I grieve these sheepclad know the use of bows. 
 Or we might rule them as befits their worth ! ' 
 
BOOK I.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 57 
 
 Scoffed she, and flapped her widespread wings. 
 
 I heard 
 Both then wing inland to the mountains far." 
 
 " 'Tis well, Tiresias, to learn how men's 
 Free actions falter seen by visions clear : 
 But fondly held illusions thus assailed, 
 May make us wiser tho' they make us sad. 
 Those solitary birds of kingly strength, 
 Watchful and sternly tender to their young, 
 Complete and perfect in the world they range, 
 Can feel but scanty tolerance for sin. 
 
 " Now loved one, read me those rich melodies, 
 Thrown unrestrained, of yonder nightingales, 
 Singing in rival ardour for her love 
 Who waits, bright-eyed, with keen attentive ear." 
 
 " ' O could I mightily stretch wings of power. 
 And beat with tempests thro' the sapphire sky. 
 
 To gather every sight 
 Seen by enraptured eagles soaring high ! 
 
5? CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS, [part ii. 
 
 Then thro' thy dreams at night, 
 When moonbeams glorify the slumbering hour, 
 To thee in consecrated apple-flower. 
 Warble the treasures of my stored delight ! 
 
 " ' How Iris strode athwart a stormy wood 
 And flushed with magic hues each trembling tree ; 
 
 And from the mountain shone 
 Brighter than princess in array, when she 
 
 Before her father's throne. 
 Outshining all around her, wondering stood 
 'Mid dames and damosels, in timorous mood 
 Lest he, her chosen, failed to claim his own ! 
 
 '"Or I would, sunrise-warmed, and passion- 
 strong. 
 Flit near and supplicate thee. Love, for grace. 
 
 Of thine accorded smile. 
 But should'st thou fcoldly from me turn thy face, 
 
 I would in gloom the while 
 There soothe an aching heart in lonely song. 
 
BOOK I.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. S9 
 
 In utterance swifter as the sorrows throng 
 On me, poor outcast of a flowerless isle ! 
 
 " ' And should some falcon peering thro' the day, 
 In search of plunder for his greedy bill, 
 
 Perchance my Love espy, 
 With startling cries would I the coppice fill, 
 
 That her irradiant eye 
 Marking the peril, she might speed away, 
 And nestled close in odorous safety stay, 
 Till death there hovering had relieved the sky. 
 
 " ' Responsive then in flight ; or side by side 
 While swayed around the palpitating glow 
 
 Of fervid noontide sun. 
 Where gem-bespangled insects to and fro 
 
 Flashed meteors, one by one. 
 In trackless webs to net some fiery bride ; 
 We would spray-seated watch them glancing 
 
 wide, 
 A sylphic pageant, till their fates were spun ! 
 
6o CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS, [part ii. 
 
 " ' And next in secret fastness disappear 
 When forests slumber under shadowing night ; 
 
 And wearied things asleep 
 May sleep and dread no predatory flight 
 
 O'er water dark and deep, 
 Where fallen, drowned, the rounded moon lies 
 
 sheer ; 
 Slipt down with all her glory from the sphere. 
 Her clouds about her in a shining heap ! 
 
 " ' Amid vast branches, blissful then to rest. 
 Where sighs the whispering hush of solitude. 
 
 When flowers their beauty close 
 And dream in sweetness, when no fingers rude 
 
 Can pluck their drooped repose. 
 Rejoicing then in an unburthened breast, 
 I'd sing how hearts that love are most unblessed 
 When hordes of doubt their loving hopes oppose ! 
 
 " ' Of worship, would I sing, that laughs at time. 
 And, winning gracious worth by added years. 
 
BOOK I.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 6i 
 
 Is loveliest in age ! 
 By shouts would I disperse insidious fears 
 
 That deadly battle wage, 
 And swarm the hazards of a longed-for prime ; 
 For love shouts loudest in our happy clime 
 When flowers of spring wear greenest equipage ! '" 
 
 " Now tell me what the rival sang, who ceased 
 Long ere the loudest plained his final notes." 
 
 " He sang of boundless food at his command, 
 That he would barter in exchange for love ; 
 And sang of freshets overhung with boughs 
 So dense in leaves they offered safe retreat 
 When danger down in drenching torrents fell. 
 To keep her fledgelings plump and satisfied, 
 He promised labour while the day endured, 
 When fondness kept her prisoner on the nest ! " 
 
 " Thus sings no slender graceful nightingale, 
 But some wag bullfinch, in a stolen disguise. 
 Fat, plain, and round, and justly prosperous ! " 
 
62 CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. [PART ll. 
 
 " Birds varying, O Mother, each from each. 
 As other two-legged beings of this world, 
 The poet nightingales are not exempt. 
 One sings the nuptials of the earth and air ; 
 The other praises forage without stint : 
 Proving an old saw, ' Many make a world ' ; 
 And most are busiest in their own concerns. 
 As this near wren now twittering in the twigs. 
 
 " ' In and out the boughs about. 
 
 Every leaf to scan ; 
 Dot and tittle, large and little, 
 
 Peck I what I can. 
 
 " ' Neat and small, the pirates all. 
 
 Hunting pass me over ; 
 Brisk and shy, alert and sly. 
 
 Tricked the hungry rover ! 
 
 " ' Oft she, when my pretty hen 
 Sits upon her nest, 
 
BOOK I.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 63 
 
 Hints to me, tho' I am free, 
 Basking there is best ! 
 
 " ' Then in and out the boughs about, 
 
 Every leaf we scan ; 
 Dot and tittle, large and little. 
 
 Pecking what we can.' " 
 
 " The wren is saved by insignificance. 
 And safe as humble-bees from stoop of kite. 
 Tell me, Tiresias, what yon throstle sings ; 
 Whose rich, soft-throated notes are pacifying, 
 And reach us thro' the stillness winged with 
 peace ! " 
 
 " He cheers his sitting partner with a tale 
 
 Of how her thrushlets will, when dauntless grown, 
 
 Outsing their rivals in the strife of song ! " 
 
 " ' I laud, I laud my speckle-bosomed Love ! 
 O tawny-tinted, swart, and bounteous breast 
 
64 CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS, [part ii. 
 
 Sheltering our blue delights! In their warm nest 
 
 Unbroken, pure ; fair as the noon above 
 
 The world of shadowy leaves that whisper and 
 
 play, 
 Where I. beside her sitting, sing alway ; 
 A heart unburthening that never tires 
 In grateful utterance of fulfilled desires ; 
 And passionate longing not. to be betrayed, 
 Onwardly urged, enjoyably delayed ! 
 
 " 'I laud, I laud in tenderest strain, and trill 
 The rapture in thy rounded eyes, that fill 
 My fond heart full, such lustrous orbs are thine 
 To beam upon me with their love divine ! 
 Divinest love : in silent transport there 
 Patiently brooding on thy treasured care ; 
 Each warmly cherished fivefold counterpart 
 Concentred safe beneath thy happy heart. 
 That soon astir, will feel the throbbing beat 
 Thro' broken walls, responsive and complete ! 
 
BOOK I.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 65 
 
 " O bliss to eager breasts ! The bliss, when first 
 From riven and shattered azure mansions burst 
 Our long-loved hoped-for joys ! Starkly in view 
 Pale-pink, and shuddering 'mid the fragments 
 
 blue! 
 How brief the yearning glance thou wilt allow. 
 In thy fluff-feathered, fostering zeal, I know 
 Truly, O Love ! But when thy callow brood 
 Stretch wide their yellow mouths agape for food, 
 My fondness then will overhanging doat 
 While filling wistfully each tittering throat. 
 
 " ' When flush and fashioned they have outgrown 
 
 home; 
 And duly feathered fit for enterprise ; 
 Luring them craftily with thrilling cries 
 To trial of their timorous wings, we roam 
 Hushed unfrequented hollows, hour by hour ; 
 Then, as their little limbs wax lithe in power, 
 Thro' dewy grass we follow shining trails, 
 And finding, pounce upon the wanderer snails, 
 
 F 
 
66 CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS, [part ii. 
 
 Then crush their spiral palaces, and slay 
 The rich inhabitants, our unctuous prey. 
 
 " When strong and capable, they seek to dare 
 Whatever chances fly 'twixt dawn and night, 
 We drive them from our haunts to forage, where 
 Conquering the risks of danger with delight. 
 They shape to comely creatures. When wild 
 
 spring 
 Bursts into bright innumerable green, 
 Thro' silvery showers and sunshine widening 
 On wood and copse throughout the boundless 
 
 scene ; 
 Impassioned then clear from the gathered crowd 
 Of flitting wings, shall rise their voices loud ! 
 
 " Apart on loftiest boughs we'll hear them sing. 
 Pouring their rivalries from dulcet throats. 
 Sustained in long successive throbbing notes. 
 Liquid and flashing ; while the woodlands ring 
 With flattered leaves playing choral minstrelsy ; 
 
BOOK 1.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 67 
 
 When many a sidelong ear, a glancing eye 
 Will scan the singers while they list their lays ; 
 And then, in prompt unhesitating praise, 
 Fluttering around they all alight anear 
 For sweet selection of the mates most dear. 
 
 " As both, O Darling, in the days agone. 
 
 Were pleased and fluttered, when, becoming one, 
 
 The sun for us threw wonder in the leaves ; 
 
 And winds blew sweeter thro' the swifter day. 
 
 My heart then filled with love, on summer eves. 
 
 Thy charms in music running thro' my lay, 
 
 Feeling far lovelier things than I could say, 
 
 I sang no rising sun could ever see 
 
 In tangled greenwood or on noblest tree 
 
 A bird so beautiful to rival thee ! ' " 
 
 " His lay confined to praises of his dame, 
 
 And what she loves : what fitter theme for song ! 
 
 With what high argument, Tiresias, 
 
68 CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS, [part ii. 
 
 Rend they the air, yon cloud of heavy rooks. 
 Now holding troubled session in the sky ? " 
 
 "Driven by mischance from wonted feeding- 
 ground, 
 They shout and boast their prudent management 
 And rearrange some disconcerted plans. 
 
 " ' Car-r, caw-w, we live by law ; 
 Caw-w, car-r, a toiling crowd 
 Seeking grubs, or eating grain, 
 Haunting hollows, over plain. 
 And flocking furrows ploughed. 
 
 " ' Arisen from darkness when the sun adorns 
 Awakened earth on dewy summer moms. 
 Our penetrated feathers gleam and glow 
 In purple splendour shifting, like the bow 
 Born of bright showers all little children know. 
 
 " ' When our battalions load the darkened air. 
 And clouds are turbulent, dull herdsmen stare. 
 
BOOK 1.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 69 
 
 To weave our movements into prophecies, 
 What time in fury gloomy storms shall rise 
 And plunge with fire and thunder thro' the skies. 
 
 " ' Simple are hinds ; O, often have we laughed 
 To see them slowly creep with bow and shaft 
 To end our need of feeding while we fed ; 
 Unwitting any watcher overhead 
 Had made a signal when away we fled ! 
 
 " ' But evil are they ; oft some dreadful sin 
 Charging against each other, they begin 
 By hurling curses from their haughtiest breath, 
 Ere each with sword or axe encountereth 
 And hacks and hews his opposite to death. 
 
 " ' We live by law. We punish evil tricks, 
 As they discover who purloin the sticks 
 From nest of neighbour ; for, the theft made plain. 
 Warned are the sinners once ; but if again 
 They're caught while sinning straightway they 
 are slain. 
 
70 CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. [PART n, 
 
 " • When for debate at eventide we rise 
 Should eagles gaze down from the tranquil skies 
 Upon us purposeful while hovering high ; 
 Clamorous, and yelling with concerted cry, 
 We mass our forces on them rapidly, 
 
 " ' Till flustered and confounded, they, affright, 
 Escape our uproar in precipitate flight ! 
 Victorious, we float on our homeward quest. 
 Sublimely sailing upper regions blest 
 ta the enjoyment of approaching rest. 
 
 " ' Car-r, caw-w, we live by law ; 
 Caw-w, car-r, a toiling folk, 
 Closing eyes but in the night. 
 Labouring ever thro' the light, 
 As oxen under yoke.' " 
 
 " 'Tis clear to man they pay scant reverence, 
 Tho' round his homes they ever congregate." 
 
BOOK I.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 71 
 
 " Yes, they despise but never scorn to use 
 The toil of men, born but to turn the soil 
 And lay exposed the luscious worms for them ! 
 Strange notions move them : singly, each conceives 
 Himself a cypher ; but the commonwealth. 
 Ardent and daring, will they all uphold, 
 And their awakened anger in assault. 
 As they have boasted, even eagles flee ! " 
 
 " These shrewd substantial feeders will we 
 leave : 
 A more engaging Hfe, Tiresias, 
 Yon lark, whose shrill rejoicing in the sky 
 Flatters attention with attuned reproach, 
 Singing in ears dulled by continual care : 
 The purport of his warbling would I know ! " 
 
 " As you may well divine, O Chariclo, 
 Few are the cares lodged in that buoyant breast : 
 His mate, the sunshine, and his little ones ; 
 His transport in the light when ether-poised, 
 The cadences that alternate his song ! 
 
72 CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS, [part ii. 
 
 " • Farewell awhile, O earth, my gladness 
 Rising in delicious madness 
 Thro' the sunshine deigns no pause 
 Because 
 The wells of joy rise faster than my flight, 
 And overflow in sparkles of delight, 
 Around the air 
 And every where. 
 Till quivering downward tremblingly they fall 
 On gazing listeners, and their hearts enthrall. 
 
 " ' She watches me, my mate, admiring 
 While higher yet I soar untiring. 
 Till evanishing in day's 
 Bright rays. 
 She can but hear a rapturous voice she knows 
 Her praises tuning, and with praising grows 
 Prouder, and sings 
 The tender things 
 Of her first shyness, my approaches keen ; 
 She best loves hearing as I sing unseen. 
 
BOOK I.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 73 
 
 " ' But love is lost in loftiest air, 
 The scenes of earth however fair ! 
 Where, as often they distress 
 As bless. 
 I range the blue illimitable dome, 
 Smiling familiarity of home ; 
 Here I forget 
 The fowler's net. 
 And by immortal longing flushed, aspire 
 To ever mount, urged onward winged with fire ! 
 
 " ' But no ; tho' very heaven is near. 
 Temptations of the earth are dear ! 
 I must take the pleasant heed 
 To feed 
 The mouths agape so wide and frequently. 
 With her cool sheltered under canopy 
 Of playful sheen 
 Where grasses lean 
 Over the little nest that rings her scope 
 Of happiness anear, and steadfast hope. 
 
74 CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS, [part II. 
 
 " ' Now sing I downward and behold 
 Her wings our callow young enfold. 
 In suspense I poise above 
 My Love, 
 Her soft contented eye upon me fixt ; 
 As shaking trills of exultation mixt 
 With plainings lone 
 Of something gone, 
 I chant of glory that may never come ; 
 Or come when wings are closed and utterance 
 dumb! 
 
 " ' So peacefully she sits her nest, 
 Alighting would her calm molest ; 
 Therefore now again aloft, 
 Where oft 
 Have I beheld the sinking sun, I rise ! 
 I bathe my being in these golden skies. 
 Where fire and gloom 
 Announce the doom 
 
BOOK I.] CHARICLO, TIRESIAS, AND BIRDS. 75 
 
 Of yet another day to sink in night, 
 Bequeathing traces of celestial light. 
 
 " ' Now pallid gleams of twilight shrink 
 In dusk beyond the ocean's brink ; 
 And from the ocean gloom assails 
 The vales, 
 And lies a level blank on tended crops, 
 And masses mountains to their wooded tops. 
 So I will cease 
 And, deep in peace 
 Nestle beside my Love to rest, and dream 
 My flight to-morrow hails the morning beam ! ' " 
 
BOOK II. 
 TIRESIAS. SONG OF IMAGINATION. 
 
 A MIGHTY God, untouched of mortal pain, 
 I feel immortal youth within me glow ; 
 And Time, my servitor, commands the 
 Hours, 
 
 And their attendant powers 
 To sprinkle rarest beauty on my brow. 
 
 That wanes and blooms again 
 In splendour multitudinously .bright. 
 Wonders of earth and air in circles of delight 
 
 Boreas I mark on yonder rolling world 
 Awake and goad old Ocean till he raves, 
 And climbs in maddened masses from the deep. 
 Deluded ships, asleep, 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 77 
 
 One moment crested quivering on the waves, 
 
 Are pitilessly hurled 
 Thro' dismal darkness, and stupendous roar. 
 And cast, unheeded wreckage, on some lonely 
 shore. 
 
 Anon the boisterous God assails a town, 
 Driving the altar-fires in deadly streams 
 That rush and burst against the palace walls. 
 
 And char the kingly halls ! 
 While furnace-splendours mount in startling 
 
 gleams. 
 And, opal-tinted, crown 
 The temple flaming high, ere, with a flash, 
 All drops a huddled ruin, loud groaning in the 
 
 crash. 
 
 Destruction forges sport for Gods at ease : 
 The rampant water, plunging leap of fire. 
 Welcome varieties that sate our gaze ! 
 Unless attention strays 
 
78 TIRESIAS. [part ii. 
 
 Where Fortune, promptly flattering our desire 
 
 For other sights to please, 
 Heaps up more treasure than our eyes may scan, 
 The plunder of all time encompassed in a span ! 
 
 Alone. Unstirred by either hope or fear, 
 While past the teeming generations fly, 
 I will be God no more ! Again I feel 
 
 Soft pity thro' me steal. 
 As mounts that shipwreck-yell of agony 
 
 From hopeless death so near. 
 And shrink in horror as that molten flood 
 Enwraps the shrivelled crowd while shrieking in 
 their blood. 
 
 Now, as a king, I love my people well. 
 
 And mom by mom implore the Gods for grace 
 
 To lead them duly by continual care 
 
 To brightest issuer where 
 Contentment smiles a life-long resting-place. 
 
 And every one shall quell 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 79 
 
 The zest for vantage at another's cost, 
 That tells, tho' great the gain, of something 
 greater lost. 
 
 Their sunny faces smile along the street ; 
 And in my palaces I often list 
 Whisper of women, " Child, here comes the 
 king ! " 
 
 And one will boldly bring 
 Her curly-headed Eros to be kissed ; 
 
 Or, worn-out warrior greet, 
 And I, remembering his strong days of yore, 
 Make smile his wrinkled cheeks in tears be- 
 dabbled o'er. 
 
 Again I change, that I may feast on crime. 
 And breatlie an evil king ; but love my slaves 
 As stoat the rabbits, and a wolf his sheep. 
 
 I count before I sleep 
 How many vessels on the bounding waves 
 
 Support my state sublime ; 
 
8o TIRESIAS. [PART II. 
 
 And throb with joy that multitudes must strain, 
 Their utmost famished strength to swell my 
 regal gain. 
 
 I move in splendour ; shrinking figures bend, 
 Awe-stricken by the glancing polished arms 
 Of my stern guard ; when, should I haply spy 
 
 Among them standing by. 
 One of rare beauty in her maiden charms, 
 
 I smile, they apprehend ; 
 And, loth or willing, she is haled away 
 To wonder, pretty trembler, what a king may 
 say! 
 
 Man's blood alone ; blood only can appease 
 My thirst for drinking to the depths of power. 
 I make selection from the rich I hate. 
 
 And prove by legjil prate 
 They violated in some secret hour 
 
 Immutable decrees ; 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 8i 
 
 When swiftly executed judgments bring 
 The wealth and wished-for ease ; sure proofs 
 that I am king ! 
 
 Go, kings ! I blaze a hero great in might, 
 And treasure gathered of unnumbered foes. 
 Astounded powers fall doting at my feet, 
 
 Whom graciously I greet, 
 And, as a gardener plucks a tended rose, 
 
 I take command by right ; 
 Direct their marches on unconquered lands. 
 And, shouting, back return fresh banners in our 
 hands ! 
 
 Sweet is repose ; and slumber yet more soft. 
 After the onslaught of an angry day ; 
 But sweeter still the Dionysian cup. 
 
 When filled and bubbling up 
 Fuller than brim, till golden streamlets spray 
 
 The ruddy hand aloft 
 G 
 
82 TIRESIAS. [part II. 
 
 To hail the vineyard-toilers' noble craft, 
 And, deeply breathing, drink a vineyard at a 
 draught ! 
 
 But what are shoutings of victorious strife. 
 
 Or golden bowls of red and golden wine, 
 
 If matched with throbbing of a woman's heart. 
 
 When eyelids brightly start, 
 And lips, divinely soft, own love divine ; 
 
 Enrapturing our life. 
 To loftiest eminence of honour won, 
 The glory on our way outshining moon and sun ! 
 
 Whatever dwells within created bounds 
 Am I, or have been, or I dream to be ! 
 The sullen monster haunting river slime ! 
 
 In laughing summer time. 
 Among the flowers the fair one fluttering free ! 
 
 Or, where great ocean sounds. 
 The watchful seamew winging sapphire day 
 In ceaseless airy circles plaining for her prey ! 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 83 
 
 Now, a male serpent, beauty's warmth I clasp 
 
 In coils so lovingly around her grace, 
 
 My tightened pressure stays her failing breath, 
 
 And hints approaching death ; 
 Then, ere the blushing roses leave their place. 
 
 And she escape my grasp, 
 Storming, my rapture thro' her faintness burns 
 In maddened kisses hers with quickened breath 
 returns. 
 
 I am a Nymph ; I love a God, and saw 
 
 Him kiss a river Naiad tenderly. 
 
 Smiling more brightly than the sun on snow. 
 
 I heard him whisper low 
 Unto her, shameless ! Timid, meek, and shy. 
 
 And melting as the thaw, 
 When noontide-smitten over pasturing hills 
 The loosened snow slips down, flushed to a 
 thousand rills, 
 
 I would have crouched at his immortal feet. 
 
84 TIRESIAS. [PART II. 
 
 Writhing resplendent gleamings, fold on fold, 
 Around his shapely limbs in gradual slide, 
 
 His fast-united bride ! 
 And quick in ecstasy had clenched mine hold, 
 
 Till both our bosoms beat 
 One measure, as I crushed his strength in mine. 
 When, tho' he moaned for pain, my triumph 
 was divine. 
 
 Serpent, away ! Relax thy gorgeous wiles, 
 Nor prey on unsuspecting innocence. 
 Now would I woo disdainful quietude. 
 
 That face-averting prude, 
 Who truest lover ever shuns, or hence 
 
 Mocks him with fleeting smiles ! 
 But, scorned, I doubt her countenance, and range 
 Free as the wind of heaven in never-ceasing 
 change. 
 
 Then come, O joyous Freedom ! Fold thy wings, 
 To lay thy face on this too-happy breast, 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 85 
 
 That I may lull thee mine with tenderest song 
 
 As quietly along 
 We glide together where the molten West, 
 
 Wealth-overburdened, flings 
 Largess of burnished gold my wavelets leap. 
 And catch to drop again down wasteful in the 
 deep. 
 
 For now a River pleasantly I pause 
 Awhile within a deep pellucid pool, 
 Whereon a sunlight-star flickers and burns. 
 
 Or, vanishing, returns. 
 To flash aslant and gild green sedges cool 
 
 In momentary flaws. 
 Then murmuring on between my banks I slide 
 Greeting the stately rushes ranked on either 
 side. 
 
 Aglow, illuminating meadow green. 
 Naked as new-born, wind-tossed flowers, are 
 thronged 
 
86 TIRESIAS. [part n. 
 
 Loveliest of frolic maidens chattering loud, 
 
 In youthful beauty proud ; 
 Who, by delay, thro' golden warmth prolonged. 
 
 Are favourably seen 
 As they, each other pushing, laugh and urge 
 To the first plunge while lingering on the grassy 
 verge; 
 
 Till, in my waters plunging, one and all 
 Tingle my very depths. I clasp, surround 
 Their shapely forms, round throats to dainty 
 feet. 
 
 With hold so closely sweet, 
 I know a lover's transport never found 
 
 But sweets transitional 
 Compared with my delight, while in mine arms 
 Their every grace enjoyed of all their varied 
 charms. 
 
 My tide must flow, or lingering still would I 
 Enjoy their beauty, ere the beauties don 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 87 
 
 Their daily garments and deflower the light. 
 
 While some blushed rosy bright, 
 Or golden-tinted, or tall lilies shone, 
 
 Some gleamed like ivory ; 
 And others had in smouldering summer grown 
 Brown as autumnal tones when nuts come pat- 
 tering down. 
 
 Broadly and strong I run my destined course, 
 Thro' wooded gloom where prowling creatures 
 
 roar; 
 Crags, vast and lofty, eagles only scale. 
 
 And weaker pinions fail ; 
 I near at length the ocean's sounding shore 
 
 Where, wrathful billows hoarse. 
 Frothed by vain howling would devour the 
 
 land. 
 But shriek and fall abashed with frantic stones 
 
 and sand. 
 
 Thro' the mad waters rushing, mine compact, 
 
88 TIRES IAS. [part II. 
 
 Maintain their penetrating underflow 
 And sound the solemn dells of mystery. 
 
 Meanwhile in dreams I lie 
 Uniting languidly with brine below, 
 
 My very being slacked 
 And drifted thro' a wilderness of caves ; 
 But with the morn I wake and dance on sunlit 
 waves ! 
 
 I rise, I quiver, I exhale in clouds ! 
 
 Our bright ascension silvering woos the sun. 
 
 And trembles into vagueness at his gaze. 
 
 His ardent scorching rays, 
 And unendurably keen darts to shun. 
 
 We huddle close in crowds 
 And bid the winds, our coureers, speed to land. 
 Our cheeks, back-turned aglow, touched by his 
 farewell hand 
 
 Transcending fertile valleys in my flight ; 
 
BOOK II.] TiRESIAS. 89 
 
 And over woodland heights to wind-swept 
 
 plain, 
 Where men and beasts uncounted plod and toil 
 
 To overcome the soil, 
 With scythe and plough ; their daily needs to 
 gain. 
 Wage life-long stubborn fight ; 
 There hang I resting spread abroad in one 
 Far-reaching veil of mist between the earth and 
 sun. 
 
 The march of thunder-tempest rolling nigh 
 
 Precipitates me shattering to the ground 
 
 A drenching downpour, for a moment hushed 
 
 And lost in yielding dust 
 That chokes each gurgling crevice, muttering 
 sound 
 
 As tho' complainingly, 
 The soaking wet, they longed for oft in vain. 
 Now, like an angry God, o'erwhelms them with 
 disdain. 
 
90 TIRESIAS. [part ii. 
 
 Glazed by mysterious moonshine in the night. 
 My waters sob for joy thro' every slope, 
 But linger on the level stretching wide 
 
 Till from the sheer cragside 
 They rush, as compassing divinest hope, 
 
 And dash in mad delight 
 Commingling with the mountain-torrents' force 
 That plunges mightily along its rocky course. 
 
 The heavens are bare. I am a myriad rills, 
 Rillets, and streamlets hastening all adown : 
 I fall in eyedrops on the shepherd's brow 
 
 When forth he ventures slow, 
 Hoping perchance, untended and alone. 
 
 His sheep among the hills 
 Had taken shelter in an ancient cave 
 Deep-clefted in the rock, their timid lives to 
 save. 
 
 By countless tributary courses fed 
 
 My waters wash the rushes shoulder-high. 
 
BOOK 11.] TIRESIAS. 91 
 
 And bend their graceful heads where wavelets 
 surge 
 Lapping the sodden verge. 
 Down my loved channel yet again might I, 
 
 By other fancies led, 
 Watch other pictures as their beauties gleam 
 Bright from my peopled banks and glorify my 
 stream. 
 
 But farewell river ! Once agaiin with men ! 
 My dimpled fingers on my mother pressed, 
 I drain the primal nourishment of strength 
 
 A satisfying length. 
 Crooning old tunes she fondles me to rest 
 
 In gentle slumber, when 
 She fondly smiles to watch me dream and smile, 
 And oft down her fair cheeks are trickling tears 
 the while. 
 
 Anon her hest, or terrifying threat. 
 Promise of apples or a longed-for toy. 
 
92 
 
 TIRESIAS. [part II. 
 
 Proscribes the fishpool, and forbids the trees 
 
 That I can climb with ease ; 
 And every gambol I would fain enjoy, 
 
 By her concern is met 
 With kisses undesired, and shown, if done. 
 As some unheard-of wickedness that shames the 
 sun. 
 
 But O the rapture when my father cries 
 
 " Boy, take my shortest bow and hunt with me ! " 
 
 I am another than myself; my pride 
 
 Bounds in a bolder stride ; 
 My beard is curling ! I already see 
 
 Strong men, without surprise. 
 With bluff familiarity demand 
 That I should leave my home to join their hunter 
 band! 
 
 There lies a hollow in the hills, where sound, 
 However sweetly trilled, would stir the calm 
 And silent noon, and come unbidden there 
 To wake the sleeping air : 
 
BOOK n.] TIRESIAS. 93 
 
 And worship, breathing an unspoken psalm, 
 
 Absorbed in gazing round 
 The domed refulgence of a summer day. 
 Would hoard the glory time could never take 
 away. 
 
 The solemn splendour, when at eve I roam 
 A lonely way above our purple vale, 
 Wraps me in curious musing how the Fates 
 
 Control the course of states ; 
 Until perplexed assumptions halt and fail. 
 
 When, bending footsteps home 
 At close of day, in the sad light of stars 
 I feel their tender beauty shine reproach on mortal 
 jars! 
 
 I love the young Dione, and, alas, 
 
 I cannot say she loves ! Where might I find 
 
 One whose well-studied c&meliness could vie 
 
 With her simplicity ? 
 Gracious is she to me ; low-voiced, and kind ; 
 
 And flowery summer grass. 
 
94 TIRESIAS. [part ii. 
 
 Beloved of all, grows not more innocent 
 Of lofty downcast looks where cold disdain is 
 meant ! 
 
 I hold her unresisting hand in mine. 
 Lingering in hope a maiden dawn will rise, 
 To show the folded flower has raised its head 
 
 And blossomed rosy red. 
 Ah no ! yet lily pure her cheeks ! Her eyes 
 
 In steady candour shine, 
 Tho' my warm kisses tremble on her mouth, 
 Sweeter than jasmine bloom, or roses of the 
 South ! 
 
 Playing I sit where shadows interlace. 
 And time the pauses of my oaten stem 
 In varying mecisure, as the song she sings 
 
 Melodiously rings 
 And quivers ; when, like an engraven gem 
 
 She stands in clear-cut grace, 
 Against the calm of an inviolate sky, 
 Whom thus to see again I feel that I could die ! 
 
BOOK II.]' TIRESIAS. 95 
 
 Her hands against an oak, that overspread 
 
 A quiet water, I behold her lean 
 
 To watch her pictured self. " No form divine 
 
 Could be compared with thine, 
 Save that, Dione, there beneath thee seen !" 
 
 She sidewise lifts her head ; 
 But ah, the rippling laughter is but play 
 Of freely flowing streamlets glittering and 
 away! 
 
 How can I win Dione .' Hear my prayer 
 Ye powers above, ye wise ones of the earth ! 
 So nearly mine she seems ; yet shines on high 
 
 Cold as the morning sky ! 
 What can I do to win her ? What of worth ? 
 
 For grimly would I dare 
 Encounter foulest dragon her to please ; 
 A monster huge as any slain by Heracles ! 
 
 She still withholds her love against my sighs, 
 A love whereon I brood as birds at rest ! 
 
96 TIRESIAS. [PART II. 
 
 My arms entwining her perfected shape, 
 
 She does not me escape, 
 But drops her own arms folded on my breast. 
 
 Looking with tender eyes ; 
 But in their droop bums no bright answering fire, 
 No liquid flash or sparkle soothing my desire ! 
 
 Once on a day we two together sped 
 Across the coppice outskirt where a wood 
 Bore heavy crops of wild autumnal fruit ; 
 
 Both diligent and mute. 
 We brimmed our baskets full of forest food ; 
 
 When ceasing toil, I said 
 ' Behold yon sapphire mountains drowned in 
 
 crowds 
 Of mimic mountains floating upward clouds on 
 clouds ! ' 
 
 And while I spake a cold damp gust of wind 
 Smote us with passing chill ; and whence it came 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 97 
 
 Was dim and darkened, and I knew the sign. 
 
 " A storm, Dione mine, 
 Comes fast upon us filled with flood and flame ; 
 
 And scant the time to find 
 A shelter for our lives ! " I found a knoll 
 Thick grown with saplings, ere we heard the 
 
 thunder roll. 
 
 And felt a few sharp drops. Then, bending low 
 Some young trees, twisting their lithe branches 
 
 tight, 
 I bound them fast in withes Dione made 
 
 With serviceable aid ; 
 Then promptly drew my shcU-pened blade to fight 
 
 Our danger. At each blow 
 A graceful sapling fell ; and as they fell 
 She bore and piled them close around our hasty 
 cell. 
 
 No king, to save his kingdom, could have hewn 
 His foes more stoutly than I felled my friends ! 
 
 H 
 
98 TIRESIAS. [part li. 
 
 But hints, unneeded, urge the need of haste, 
 
 For thundering up the waste 
 The storm rolls nearer, and the forest bends 
 
 Like windy grass in June ; 
 Hither and thither wild gleams hunt the plain. 
 And swirls between long moanings bright- 
 teethed hissing rain. 
 
 Tree-tops I interlaced, and forced their stocks, 
 
 As if for growing, in the solid ground ; 
 
 Then bent them down aslant against the stress, 
 
 That now began to press 
 And charge with fierce assault our little mound, 
 
 Where held the hut, as rocks 
 Whereon the waves run free and burst in foam ; 
 The tempest tight'ning more our tree-protected 
 home. 
 
 Scarce had Dione cowered beneath the leaves, 
 Before the distance vanished in a glare. 
 With roar stupendous full the horror burst. 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 99 
 
 As tho' the earth accurst, 
 Were being shattered into blackened air ! 
 
 Reverberating heaves 
 Of weightier thundering threatened instant 
 
 doom, 
 And intermingled lightnings fiercely lit the 
 gloom. 
 
 Safe in close shelter at Dione's feet, 
 Her terror so exultingly I cheered 
 By proud recital how we beat the foe, 
 
 She could but smile. When lo. 
 Past flew a meteor, with a flaming beard 
 
 Of swift sulphureous heat ; 
 And struck afar one solitary oak. 
 That, in a blinding instant, flashed to fiery 
 smoke ! 
 
 A staring desolation splintered lay 
 
 That ancient oak, whose branches overspread 
 
 The water where sometime Dione leant 
 
loo TIRESIAS. [PART II. 
 
 To watch her picture, bent 
 Answering her gaze ; before she raised her head 
 
 A merry sidewise way. 
 Laughing to naught my laudatory words, 
 As any brooklet might the singing of the birds. 
 
 " Behold Dione, thine own honoured oak 
 
 Thy both hands pressed, when looking down 
 
 below 
 
 i 
 
 The beauty of thy smiling face to see ! 
 
 Then let me, loved one, be 
 Thy sure support ; ah, let me, dearest, know 
 
 At length I have awoke 
 Thy sleeping love, that has slept overlong, 
 Tho' summon'd to my joy in many a sorrowing 
 song ! " 
 
 Down with a drench the rain like mountain 
 
 streams 
 Dashed on our refuge, fluttering from the sides ; 
 Sluiced to an island shrank our little knoll ; 
 
BOOK n.} TIRESIAS. 101 
 
 We saw the waters roll. 
 And saw the vapours pass with giant strides, 
 
 Where transitory gleams 
 In cold dull sadness broke the vaulted air 
 That showed the land, rain-covered, lit with sullen 
 glare. 
 
 Dione clung to me ; her maiden heart 
 Beat like a fluttered bird's. I held her fast. 
 She dropped her trustful face upon my breast, 
 
 And closed her eyes in rest. 
 " Ah, could this bliss for ever, ever last ! " 
 
 I sighed : when, wide astart, 
 Her eyes were fire ; she gazed into mine eyes 
 Liquid with passionate light that stormed me 
 with surprise. 
 
 " Thou canst not ask me what I will not grant. 
 For I am thine, O love, as thou art mine ; 
 My love has ripened in the lightning fire, 
 And all thou wouldst desire 
 
I02 TIRESIAS. [part II. 
 
 Bows to thy feet, as to a sacred shrine ; 
 
 And shouid'st thou, dear Love, want 
 My breast for shield against a fatal dart, 
 Then smiling would I welcome death into my 
 heart! 
 
 " I cleave to thee O loved one, true and strong ; 
 And tender as a summer dawn when dews 
 Soften the full-blown rose! My heart beii^ 
 thine, 
 
 As thine so dearly mine. 
 Shouid'st thou now ask of me ' Why then refuse 
 
 What was my due so long ? ' 
 I would reply ' It was not I, not I 
 Could give its sweetness to the apple hanging 
 high ! 
 
 " ' For apples bom of blossom on the bough 
 Swell day by day and wane not in the night. 
 But ripen not for longing. As the sun 
 Doth glowing courses run, 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 
 
 103 
 
 By showers increased, by sunshine burnished 
 bright 
 They blush in beauty ; now 
 Fragrant and ripe, unneeding hasty clutch. 
 But mellowed sweet and soft are taken with a 
 touch ! ' " 
 
 " O more than music are thy words to me ! 
 And should they warble nought then nought 
 
 were well, 
 And gracious songs that still should make me 
 glad! 
 
 O my Dione, sad 
 Had been my fate hadst thou lacked grace to tell 
 
 The love I failed to see. 
 And why so long in sorrow doomed to wait 
 The melody of triumph that sings my happy fate ! 
 
 " Like coupled birds together, wing to wing. 
 Breathing the incense of the flowers below. 
 
I04 TIRESIAS. [PART II. 
 
 Now will we watch the shining clouds on high 
 
 Unite the earth and sky. 
 While songs of rapture shall the vale o'erflow, 
 
 And make the woodland ring, 
 Telling a wonder that outshines the sun, 
 Two lovers warmed by love inseparably one ! " 
 
 What fired the rapture of my tremulous kiss ; 
 Or, when warm kisses faltering ceased in sighs. 
 Cheek fast to cheek, inspired the murmurous 
 moan 
 
 For deeper joys unknown ; 
 But joy exhaustless that I saw arise, 
 
 So rich in promise, this 
 Blessed hour but played a prelude to the song 
 That my delight would hear full-voiced my whole 
 life-long ! 
 
 Absorbed, remembering olden days gone by, 
 We shaped futurity as both desired ; 
 
BOOK 11.] TIRESIAS. los 
 
 Then, as from far-off dreams awoke, amazed 
 
 To see, as forth we gazed. 
 Where soaring slow a wide-winged falcon gyred 
 
 A pure transparent sky, 
 And eyed, where dusky on the cloudless West 
 A line of following fowls beat homeward to their 
 rest. 
 
 The world awake in lustre laughed and shone ; 
 And brilliant topaz every growth bestrung. 
 In sudden lusty simultaneous voice 
 
 All singing throats rejoice ; 
 For overhead no more the falcon swung. 
 
 To fatter regions gone ; 
 While balmy lispings in cool silence cease, 
 As sweets on sweetness passing pause to whisper 
 ' peace.' 
 
 Unwillingly we left our cherished nest, 
 Where love was kindled in Dione's heart. 
 And mine augmented in Dione's flame. 
 
io6 TIRESIAS. - [part II. 
 
 But nimblest words are lame, 
 And fail or stumble when they would impart 
 
 How deeply we were blessed ; 
 How vast and wondrous lay the world around 
 As lingering home we paced its glory on the 
 ground ! 
 
 In fire and tempest was Dione won. 
 But had Dione, issuing from the morn, 
 Stepped from Aurora's golden chariot, where 
 
 I stood expectant, there 
 In soft commingled sweetness newly born 
 
 Of blossoms breathing sun. 
 Exhaling odour and collected dew. 
 Her advent had not shone more wonderful and 
 true. 
 
 Thus I Dione won. Recasting o'er 
 My life of labour, mixed in battle grim 
 With cruel foes ; I feel my wedded time 
 Has been one lengthened prime 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 
 
 107 
 
 Of ample measure rising to the brim, 
 
 O'er-lapping either shore ; 
 By many a freshet fed, by many a rill 
 Thro' misty upland drawn from many a trickling 
 hill. 
 
 Our sons are stalwart; daughters tall and 
 
 fair; 
 And all brisk harvesters of ripened corn. 
 Sons, subtle in pursuit and certain, bring 
 
 Abundant offering 
 Of slaughtered creatures in the forest born. 
 
 Our toil their sisters share. 
 And deftly weave the spun wool-yarn, inwrought 
 To varied comely garments prankt with graceful 
 thought. 
 
 After the garnering, when prudence sleeps 
 One-eyed, and breaks in boundless merriment ; 
 Gaily our shepherd lads and hinds advance 
 With vineyard girls, and dance 
 
io8 TIRESIAS. [part II. 
 
 In nimble intricate confusion blent, 
 
 That even footfall keeps 
 To clash of cymbals and the screaming pipe ; 
 Sly kisses meanwhile snatched from willing lips 
 and ripe. 
 
 The dances ended, thronging round the feast. 
 All to the gracious Gods libation pour ; 
 Demeter first, great Dionysus next } 
 
 But any make pretext 
 To fill their bowls to fullness running o'er ; 
 
 Then, filled with flesh of beast, 
 And garrulous with vintage, man and maid 
 Wander away to boast and carol in the shade. 
 
 Dione's stately daughters, young and tall, 
 And graceful as the slenderest grass that bends 
 An airy head in bloom, are ever seen 
 
 Of less majestic mien 
 Than her, for when with thedi Dione wends 
 
 She beams above them all. 
 
BOOK n.] TIRESIAS. 
 
 109 
 
 As morning on a bed of daffodils 
 When first her mighty rays throw lustre on the 
 hills. 
 
 Dione's gentle greatness I alone 
 
 Duly can sing, and pluck the quivering chords 
 
 That kindle listeners in united strain 
 
 To shout and shout again, 
 With ringing voices and exulting words. 
 
 Till thrilling pulses own 
 No lovelier presence, and no loftier worth 
 Have ever beamed in such immortal light on earth ! 
 
 Not till this beating heart lies still and cold 
 
 Shall I cease singing of Dione's care 
 
 When 'mid remorseless slaughter on the hills, 
 
 Where crimson ran the rills. 
 And arrow flights bore darkness thro' the air, 
 
 Where, thronging overbold, 
 Strove ruthless hordes to reach our peaceful plain. 
 There, pierced by grisly wounds, I fell among the 
 slain : 
 
no 
 
 TIRESIAS. [part II. 
 
 They brought me dying home, or thought me 
 
 dead, 
 Their haste not knowing ashy swoon from death. 
 And at Dione's feet me lifeless laid. 
 
 Dione, firm and staid, 
 Heard not their argument, but held her breath 
 
 And laid her anxious head 
 Fast listening to my heart. At length a sound 
 Murmured " He lives, my Ares, lift him from the 
 ground ! " 
 
 Tho' scarcely heedful, dearly well I know 
 How lightly, airily her equal hands 
 Passed over cleansing my deep wounds, and 
 pressed 
 Them closely to arrest 
 The danger threatening; and with softened 
 bands, 
 Staunched strait the vital flow, 
 And swathed my mangled form ; then softly 
 smoothed 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. in 
 
 My forehead till I passive sank in slumber 
 soothed. 
 
 So steadfastly she nursed me, all my pain 
 Was poorest payment for the secret force 
 Of rare and hitherto untested worth 
 
 My deep distress brought forth, 
 Continuous and unresting. In due course 
 
 It dawned upon my brain, 
 Her love heroically stifled grief 
 Through my long helpless state to give me full 
 relief! 
 
 For, bravely fighting by my side, he fell. 
 Our eldest born, her darling, her delight. 
 His savage slaughterer, and every son 
 
 Who fought beside him, one 
 By one I slew, each in his manhood's might. 
 
 Strange to both feel and tell. 
 But, as they dropt, each at a single blow, 
 I thought of that great day, when saplings I laid 
 low 
 
112 TIRESIAS. [part ii. 
 
 As the great storm approached. When all were 
 
 slain, 
 Chieftain and kin alike ; turning my glance 
 To gaze an instant on my son in death, 
 
 I scarcely drew a breath 
 Ere my quick foes took vantage of their chance, 
 
 And where my son was lain 
 Their barbarous weapons gashed my limbs and 
 
 breast, 
 And falling by the boy I lay like one at rest. 
 
 Then like a whirlwind raged my people's wrath ; 
 And flashed their falchions like the driven hail 
 Battering down summer's herbage into Wciste, 
 
 In vehement fierce haste, 
 Borne by the summertide's tempestuous gale. 
 
 Till, like to swathes of math. 
 In ranks their hordes lay tumbled cold and 
 
 still. 
 And our men triumphed, shouting victory on the 
 hill. 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 
 
 113 
 
 Half conscious, unresisting, as in dreams, 
 A wasted remnant from the strife I lay. 
 Till Time, unheeded with Dione near. 
 
 Made glimmering hope appear 
 To gild my dull stagnation day by day ; 
 
 And as milk, quiet, creams 
 Its virtue on the surface, so my strength 
 Rose outward from within and healed my wounds 
 at length. 
 
 Noiseless herself she kept all sound aloof, 
 Save that bright music sung outside our walls ; 
 Her constant tendance and the household calm 
 
 Were to my spirit balm, 
 And gave me quietude to hear those calls, 
 
 'Twixt neighbouring boughs and roof, 
 The little twitterers to each other made 
 While darting to and fro from sunlight into shade. 
 
 Urged by her fond desire, Dione thought 
 My strength returning one bright summer morn, 
 I 
 
\ 
 
 114 TIRESIAS. [part II. 
 
 And led me faltering to the outside air. 
 
 Amazement filled me where 
 Hope's widest vision shining newly born, 
 
 With primal glory fraught, * 
 Flashed in wild splendour thro' the earth and skyl 
 While beat the viewless wings of zephyrs passing 
 by! 
 
 She dared not weep for our beloved boy, 
 
 Never again, ah, never to be seen 
 
 Radiant with features deepened by the sun ; 
 
 The daily labour done. 
 Forward, with folded arms on knees, to lean 
 
 Describing in his joy, 
 Some merry jesting, or an awkward wile 
 Of shepherd wit, he told to make his parents 
 smile ! 
 
 But when at length my strength returned, and I 
 Was mine own self again ; when I could bend 
 My stoutest bow, and hurl my weightiest spear. 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. US 
 
 And on her lay no fear 
 My health might once more fail ; this was the end. 
 
 In one long painful cry 
 She threw herself upon me, and she sobbed 
 And moaned, accusing fate of what she had been 
 robbed. 
 
 Of never-ending sorrow in the blank 
 Where beauty beamed so bountiful and fair ! 
 Of gaps in daily life where never more 
 
 Can time the lost restore. 
 Of steady misery whose Gorgon stare 
 
 From places foul and rank. 
 With ever-present, ever-watchful eyes, 
 Now lowered a constant dread, an ever-fixed sur- 
 prise. 
 
 As lapsing time advanced Dione's grief 
 From anguish softened tenderly in pride, 
 And sang the morning stars as heretofore ! 
 She loving, evermore 
 
ii6 TIRESIAS. [part ii. 
 
 Wandered away at quiet eventide, 
 
 Where, for our heart's relief. 
 Our people raised a mound to bear his fame ; 
 Their simple way to grace and consecrate his 
 name. 
 
 Every sweet plant and flower of special hue, 
 His favourites there enriched his honoured grave. 
 In odorous profusion trail and twine 
 
 Bright blossoms argentine 
 Whose hearts are golden ; rosy flashes lave 
 
 In sunset fire ; and blue 
 Stars there are drinking heaven the whole daylong. 
 And lulled to evening slumber by the linnet's song. 
 
 In sacred hours we loiter by him there. 
 And feel his presence not so far away 
 When brought before us in the stories told 
 
 Telling his ways of old. 
 His forest wanderings by the light of day ; 
 
 How, when the moon shone bare 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 117 
 
 And clianged the stream to silver, he would stride 
 Along its craggy banks to watch the flowing tide. 
 
 Our youngest boy touching responsive strings, 
 Can strike the lyre in concert with his lay. 
 Too young to wield the sword, on battle fields 
 
 He stands behind our shields. 
 And safely there his nimble fingers play 
 
 A deathly tune that rings 
 In dreadful shrieks throughout the maddened 
 
 strife, 
 For every loosened twang sings to a foeman's life. 
 
 Tuning, he gazed as one who saw the dead. 
 Our daughters and their brethren resting near ; 
 Dione with her hand in mine apart. 
 
 But ere he tried his art 
 He craved of all there an indulgent ear, 
 
 " If it should chance," he said. 
 His " words should falter with the weighty theme 
 Of his great brother lost who vanished like a 
 dream." 
 
ii8 TIRESIAS. [PART II. 
 
 " His eyes were like a falcon's in the field 
 Burning above his shield ; 
 No dove who softly coos 
 Bowing to wife he woos, 
 When shining iris-bosomed in the sun. 
 Tenderer than our loved one ! 
 
 " Impetuous and vehement in fight ; 
 
 He thought no more of flight 
 
 From arrows than from rain 
 
 That beats a thirsting plain 
 And soaks the herb^e to their famished roots 
 
 And cheers the languid shoots ! 
 
 " He the grim mountain king assailed and fought, 
 
 And into measure brought 
 
 His youthful with his foe's 
 
 War-hardened strength, that rose 
 To fullest fury as he struck the blow 
 
 That laid our dearest low ! 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 119 
 
 " He should have shunned the king and faced the 
 brood, 
 
 When there his father stood 
 
 So near ! For he alone 
 
 Could hew the giant down. 
 Not dauntless cubs, but full-grown lions pull 
 
 To earth the mighty bull ! 
 
 " But when our dear one's bones in dust were laid, 
 
 With him went every shade 
 
 Who paid the debt of fate. 
 
 And entered Hades' gate : 
 Where now they pay the ghostly homage due 
 
 To him their leader slew. 
 
 " But ghostly fealty can please no more 
 
 On Lethe's sullen shore. 
 
 If ancient love remain 
 
 And he desire again, 
 In blank despair, the faces loved of old 
 
 He may once more behold ! 
 
120 TIRESIAS. [part II. 
 
 " But if the dead, -by sight to us unknown, 
 
 Can range the earthly zone ; 
 
 Our loved one's vision bright 
 
 Would watch the sacred light 
 That beams from all now gathered here to praise 
 
 His deeds in mortal days. 
 
 " Too mortal then, alas ! immortal now, 
 
 With glory on his brow 
 
 That will not pass or fade 
 
 With memory into shade ! 
 But glory ripening with our ripened years, 
 
 And nourished by our tears 5 
 
 " Lyres yet unfashioned shall grow dark with 
 time, 
 
 Ere cease the golden rhyme 
 
 To ring the rapid pace 
 
 At which he ran the race ; 
 Ere struck down bleeding by his father's side 
 
 And passing in his pride. 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 121 
 
 "The drifting showers leave token o'er his bones; 
 
 And, as some creature moans 
 
 About the wilderness, 
 
 Seeking in dire distress 
 Her vanished mate; so sorrowing, moan and 
 sigh 
 
 The winds that travel by." 
 
 Our eyes were full, the singer's music done ! 
 
 Dione calmly folded him in arms 
 
 That, might be Hera's for their grace and size. 
 
 Kissing his mouth and eyes, 
 She soothed his cheeks, and told him her 
 alarms ; 
 
 And bitter sorrows shone 
 Away in time remote, so lone and far. 
 They lay beyond her now in beauty like a star. 
 
 The moons and seasons flourish, change and 
 
 wane; 
 And duties ever following duties fast 
 
122 TIRESIAS. [PART II. 
 
 Bear us along resistless to the close, 
 
 No mortal ever knows, 
 Till in an instant, lo, his life is past ; 
 
 And he no longer fain 
 To seek the blessing he coiUd never find. 
 Or shun the plague of ills that prey on human 
 kind! 
 
 Our daughters now have left the parent stem. 
 And dwell in wedlock with their chosen lords ; 
 Our sons have likewise homes apart and live 
 
 Blessed with all toil can give 
 In compensating grace. Their kingly swords 
 
 Maintain the diadem 
 Of gracious rule and plenty where they dwell : 
 Joy to their father's pride, as sign he taught them 
 well ! 
 
 Our youngest son who bends the dreaded bow. 
 Yet animates the house that hailed his birth. 
 " Leave me one apple hanging on the bough ; " 
 Dione asked ; " for now 
 
BOOK 11.] TIRESIAS. 123 
 
 The rest are sped, wide-sprinkled o'er the earth ; 
 
 My firstborn lying low, 
 Rathe smitten in the morning of his prime ; 
 Leave me the latest darling in my waning time ! " 
 
 His children's laughter is our daily joy : 
 Their imitative ways our constant pride ; 
 They know so little, yet they look so wise ! 
 
 With what a grand surprise, 
 At perilous favour asked, perforce denied. 
 
 Gazes the pouting boy 
 Who would be man, and scorns the reason why 
 He must not bend the bow and let the arrows fly ! 
 
 Sweet the soft pressure of their finger tips 
 
 On aged cheeks, when they would coax from age 
 
 Some boon, erewhile withholden, by strong wiles 
 
 Of pretty pleading smiles ; 
 Neck bound by arms that will not disengage ; 
 
 Warm, kissing, flower-bud lips ; 
 
124 TIRESIAS. [part ii. 
 
 When yielding, half-reluctant, comes a gust 
 Of potent argument, " We must 1 We must ! We 
 must ! " 
 
 Sweet when their little ways have gone awry. 
 To wind them gently from their sidelong course 
 By plain example shown, and lure of praise. 
 
 How proudly every phrase 
 Significant of growth and watchful force 
 
 Enriches memory! 
 And pride to know two generations wear 
 Abundance on their boughs when now our own 
 are bare. 
 
 So many battles have we fought, our foes 
 Are beaten back ; such numbers have we slain. 
 Their weakened tribes, grown weary of the sport 
 
 Against themselves, resort 
 To other outlets on some other plain, 
 
 Where they adventure blows 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 125 
 
 In hope of better welcome than they found 
 When we on them bestowed their fortunes under- 
 ground. 
 
 Therefore our waning days are days of peace, 
 And plenty beyond need. How gladly we, 
 When toil releasing them our children come, 
 
 Behold them enter home ! 
 With talk of crops, and what we know to be 
 
 Assurance of increase, 
 We quicken maxims by familiar jests. 
 And edge our saws with laughter, sacrificing 
 rest. 
 
 When all are gone, how hke a long-past dream ! 
 And oft I wonder whether living things 
 Are living things beheld, or fancies thrown 
 
 From out ourselves alone : 
 For clear, remote, on visionary wings. 
 
 Bright beings often beam 
 In fuller splendour than the loved ones by. 
 However warm and rich the sunbeams on them lie ! 
 
126 TIRESIAS. [PART II. 
 
 Yet more than ever is Dione dear ! 
 
 And as, both hands out-stretching, one when 
 
 blind 
 Walks bent with timid knees to feel his way 
 
 In the fair light of day ; 
 So forward wend my thoughts whene'er I find 
 
 Dione wanting near ! 
 But often, back to youth, my memory strays 
 To woo Dione in unwilling maiden days. 
 
 / 
 
 Again I see her laving at the spring, 
 
 And, bright in sparkling drops, she smiles and asks 
 
 If like a Naiad she should sink and dream, 
 
 Within the flowing stream, ' 
 And float and drown where the sweet lily basks 
 
 In many a silvery ring 
 Would he her faithful lover then bewail 
 Her loss, lamenting to thelarge-eyed nightingale .' 
 
 Within the cavern of an ancient tree 
 I saw her beauty gleaming in the shade 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 
 
 127 
 
 So perfect, that when loftily she spoke 
 
 " I, Dryad of this oak, 
 Command this mighty king that awes the glade. 
 
 Kneel therefore, worship me ! " 
 My native reverence the charge obeyed. 
 And humbly at her feet for gracious favour 
 prayed. 
 
 I watch Dione's stately footfalls now ; 
 The great Olympian calm that dignifies 
 Each movement, and I wonder if 'tis she 
 
 Whom, with lighted eyes, I see 
 Capturing the swift fawn as it wildly flies ! 
 
 Yes, I remember how 
 Forward she sprang and clasped its eager neck ; 
 Then tamed it to obey her smile and lightest 
 beck ! 
 
 But whether calm in tender grace as now, 
 Or wild and laughter-loving as of yore. 
 She ever seems to me a perfect flower 
 
128 TIRESIAS. [PART II. 
 
 Seen at its sweetest hour ! 
 Her affluent delights enrich with more 
 
 Than kingdoms could endow ; 
 And I, her lord, the guardian of her fate. 
 Enjoy Elysian bliss ere entering the gate. 
 
 I waver towards my setting. Well-loved friends 
 Come oftener than their wont, and soon askance 
 Talking of chill and damp, will deftly turn 
 
 Their questions how to learn 
 If sudden changes touch my health perchance. 
 
 Their tranquil language lends 
 Considerate gentleness to all they say ; 
 Or they in silence linger, wondering why they 
 stay! 
 
 Around my shoulders and my slackened knees 
 They wrap soft folds when rawness threatens 
 
 chill 
 From winds or rainy flaws. I sit and dream 
 Of old delights that seem 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 129 
 
 Like some afar-ofif battle on the hill, 
 
 To one who only sees 
 The striving figures flicker without sound ; 
 And yet they nearer seem than all beheld around . 
 
 Between the lapses of my dreams I hear 
 Myself addressed by voices of our home, 
 That sound as spoken from a land unknown. 
 
 And sometimes odours blown 
 Fresh and delightful from the garden come. 
 
 When instantly appear 
 The flowers of childhood in celestial light ; 
 And I there hesitate between the gold and 
 white ! 
 
 Outside our walls I sometimes pause and lean 
 Upon my staff, and think the monstrous sphinx. 
 With mystic riddles rambling thro' her thought. 
 
 Indeed had wonders wrought, 
 Had she connected the mysterious links 
 
 Of now and what has been ; 
 K 
 
I30 TIRESIAS. [PART II. 
 
 Shown us the boy a man of ancient years, 
 The man again a boy, fame ringing in his ears ! 
 
 When strength I see confederate with guile 
 Seize and make prey of helpless innocence ; 
 When brutal wrong wreaks vengence on the 
 right; 
 
 Such deeds swim past my sight 
 As primal bom antagonisms, whence 
 
 Issue the groan and smile ; 
 A seesaw balance of content and strife, 
 The common lot we share with all of mortal life ! 
 
 Sweeter than triumph over beaten foes, 
 Plenty in store, or comfort round the hearth, 
 Are peace, and undisturbed tranquility. 
 
 Oft creeps the feeling nigh 
 Only adown low in the silent earth 
 
 Can we escape the woes 
 That hard beset us from our earliest breath. 
 And wage unceasing wars that end not till our 
 death. 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 
 
 131 
 
 Sitting alone where our dear first-born lies, 
 I heard a murmur when the sun went down 
 Whisper dark meanings as it shivered by, 
 
 With languid moan and sigh, 
 Calling those joys our loved one might have 
 known 
 
 Impossibilities ! 
 Questioning whither had flown that fiery zeal ! 
 What could the heat inspire ! and after, what 
 anneal ! 
 
 Well I recall that cry, " Hail, hail, a son ! " 
 For strange emotion wrapped me as in flame : 
 And when our first-bom in these arms I took 
 
 Strange bliss throughout me shook ; 
 And scarcely nearer rapture thrilled my frame, 
 
 When I Dione won. 
 Than when, a gift divine, against my heart 
 The new-bom wonder lay in vi^hich we both had 
 part. 
 
132 
 
 TIRESIAS. [PAST II. 
 
 Merciful tears can sooth me never more ; 
 Too dry with age and weary worn-out days ; 
 Or, weeping, I should see his youthful prime 
 
 Falling in flowery time. 
 And I fast by unable then to raise 
 
 My blade to cleave the boar 
 Whose dreadful tusk ripped out the life I gave, 
 Until too late, alas ; alas, too late to save ! 
 
 But in the wind I heard my first-bom cry ; 
 And in my heart I felt his voice appeal ! 
 Impetuous as of old, when he would bend 
 
 More forward to attend 
 My legends, and I saw the interest steal 
 
 In his unwavering eye ; 
 While on his face, whatever I might say. 
 As in a mirror, I could see the story play. 
 
 I now feel ever near, and, since that hour. 
 Nearer to him than unto either child 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 133 
 
 Of later birth, borne by the wings of force 
 
 Beyond mine outspent course. 
 In quietude, by tranquil hope beguiled, 
 
 I contemplate their power 
 As toil and turmoil of an eager chase ; 
 A trouble to behold, a weariness to trace ! 
 
 My sight tho' waning sees uncertain shapes 
 Moving mute-footed o'er my chamber floor. 
 Where muffled voices answer questions strange 
 
 Of "shortened breath," and "change." 
 Then thro' the stillness breaks a mellowed roar ! 
 
 Darkness suddenly gapes. 
 And sucks me down unfathomably deep, 
 When I know nothing more than sinking into 
 sleep ! 
 
 Awakening in glory newly born, 
 I would have darted toward some glorious star ; 
 But memory gently hinting of the past. 
 Reluctantly I cast 
 
134 
 
 TIRESIAS. [PART II. 
 
 My glances downward on the earth afar, 
 
 And saw the golden mom 
 Gilding the silent tenement of clay 
 Whereby my life performed the part I had to play. 
 
 There lay my form as happily at rest ; 
 
 Calmly triumphant, unassailable ! 
 
 Dione there kissing the cheeks and brow ; 
 
 The lips that smile not now ; 
 Holding the hand, whose clasp she knew so well. 
 
 Her headfalls on the breast 
 Sorrow alone is her's ; and heavy moan 
 Against malignant Fate she never may condone. 
 
 The mourners now march slowly to the place 
 Prepared for burial rites : our dismal claim 
 On those we love. Bearing the sacred bier, 
 
 First those of mine most near. 
 Fast followed by all offspring of my name. 
 
 And others of my race ; 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 135 
 
 Dione's kinsmen next. A rugged band 
 Stride the tall shepherds from the uplands crook 
 in hand. 
 
 With grass-bound sickles trudge the husbandmen, 
 ^nd foresters, their axes glittering ; throng 
 The vineyard toilers, man and girl, in pairs, 
 
 And each a thyrsis bears ; 
 Bluff metal-men, the mixed array prolong, 
 
 Nursing their hammers j then 
 Their workmen, ranking by my children's years, 
 And last appear a crowd with brightly shining 
 spears. 
 
 In reverence kneel the solemn multitude. 
 Like summer wind that ruffles summer's leaf 
 And stirs the ocean, heave their breasts around, 
 
 When slowly in the ground 
 They lay the armed form of their vanished Chief: 
 
 For, ancient custom rude 
 
136 TIRES IAS. [part ii. 
 
 Decrees that he, who as a conqueror died, 
 Shall keep his bow and spear for ever by his 
 side; 
 
 His strongest bow his hands alone could hold 
 And bend with ease, with many a chosen shaft ; 
 His weightiest spear, and balanced falchion blade 
 
 Are duly by him laid ; 
 His leathern belt, inwrought with subtlest craft, 
 
 Buckled and bossed with gold ; 
 Then spread they over arms, broad chest, and face 
 A wolf-hound's skin, an ancient favourite in the 
 chase. 
 
 Then past he in a twinkle from their gaze. 
 In clouds of glorious dust, that sunlit, spread 
 Upward to nothing in the trembling blue. 
 
 As those appointed threw 
 The covering earth upon the mighty dead. 
 
 Whereon their love will raise, 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 
 
 137 
 
 Beside his first-born slain, another mound 
 That following ages may his echoing praise 
 resound. 
 
 But when the dreaded archer with his lyre, 
 Stood sad and lingering by his father's bones, 
 Then, as expectant of some hoped event 
 
 All eyes on him were bent. 
 And, when the prelude rose in ringing tones. 
 
 Fulfilling their desire 
 To laud their chief for ever fled away, 
 All sank upon the ground to list the singer's lay. 
 
 " Death alone, no mortal foe 
 Has struck the mightiest of our people low. 
 Tho' ruthless foes that feat had often tried, 
 So surely did his might bring down their 
 vaunting pride. 
 
 " He left us, but has left a store 
 Of splendid memories whereupon we pore 
 
138 TIRESIAS. [part ii. 
 
 With warmly-cherished grief and throbbing breast, 
 The^lory he achieved ere yet he sank in rest. 
 
 " Whose cleanly tilth enriched the plain 
 With constant crops of such abundsint grain ; 
 Such loaded clusters of the tempting grape ; 
 Whose numerous herds so throve and moved in 
 goodly shape ! 
 
 " His happy flocks, the signs of peace. 
 Clad in the downiest and whitest fleece. 
 Would lift their homely heads and cease to graze 
 To bleat a clamorous choral welcome in his praise ! 
 
 " Herdsmen, and toilers on the land. 
 Walked with the stride of men used to command. 
 Whose lives accordant with their leader's will 
 Ran singing on as sings a pleasant inland rilL 
 
 " Their children, nestling in the grass. 
 Would lie in ambush where he wont to pass, 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 
 
 139 
 
 And rush upon him with a storm of flowers 
 That burst about his head in gold and azure 
 showers. 
 
 " What man has known a stauncher friend, 
 To weight his purposes, or rights defend, 
 Than he whose welcome as the midday shone, 
 When summer sapphire smiles and every cloudlet's 
 
 " When swept a din adown the vale 
 That chilled our women's hearts and turned them 
 
 pale; 
 When mountain marchers made their barbarous 
 
 clang, 
 And dreadful echoes thro' the rocky passes rang ; 
 
 " All ye who knew him best can say 
 How in his lion might he marched away 
 To dash the savage danger, and restrain 
 Their hordes from making way within our peace- 
 ful plain. 
 
I40 TIRESIAS. [part II. 
 
 "He met them and he beat them back 
 In ceaseless slaughter up their mountain track ; 
 For those who stood and fought were smit and 
 
 slain ; 
 The rest in terror fled, or hope of future gain. 
 
 " Thus fell their chieftains time on time. 
 Till frequent carnage swept away their prime ; 
 Whose wan successors lived in cautious dread 
 Of one who had the boldest blood among them 
 shed. 
 
 " Therefore in peace and wholesome ease 
 We laugh and labour when and how we please ; 
 We watch our children grow to man and maid. 
 And, nimble-footed, dance at even in the shade. 
 
 " United let us sing and praise 
 The greatness of our Chief who fought to raise 
 His people from the gnaw of constant care. 
 To smiling plenty now, and future prospects fair ! " 
 
BOOK II.] TIRESIAS. 141 
 
 Dione in her sorrow weeps alone ; 
 Wandering enthralled along the golden past, 
 She dreams the melodies of days to come, 
 
 That never could be dumb ! 
 But wakens into consciousness aghast, 
 
 When some familiar tone 
 Displays her garden desolate with blight, 
 The chambers of her mansion emptied of delight. 
 
 great eternal Gods, for ever just ! 
 
 1 supplicate for grace with lowly breath. 
 Let now your gaze, in tender fall divine, 
 
 Bend once again to mine ; 
 Bring my Dione from the chance of death. 
 
 The drift of fleeting dust ; 
 Bring her immortal with her mortal charms, 
 O place her once again within these longing 
 
 arms! 
 
 I • 
 
 CHISWICK PRESS : C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, 
 CHANCERY LANE. 
 
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 is one likely to enhance Mr. Woolner's reputation among his con- 
 temporaries, and to gain for itself a wide circle of appreciative 
 readers." 
 
 The Academy says : — " Of the care displayed in the workman- 
 ship of the poem it would be difScult to speak too highly. Mr. 
 Woolner writes blank verse of a singular grace and sweetness." 
 
 The Times says : — ^The poetry of Mr. Woolner partakes very 
 largely of the characteristics of his art — ^it is graceful, refined, and 
 imaginative. Equally with his more concrete creations in marble, 
 the verse is evidently the outcome of a highly organized and 
 sensitive mind, and one fiiUy alive to the influence of beauty in all 
 its forms. A few pages taken anywhere at random from the 
 work now before us would be sufficient to establish this. In 
 some respects, notably in breadth of treatment and comprehen- 
 siveness, the poem is an advance upon its predecessors 'My 
 Beautiful Lady ' and ' Pygrrralion,' while it loses -nothing in com- 
 parison with them on score of execution, rhythm, or imagery." 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., LONDON.