The Poetical Works Of Robert Bridges Part 12

HER. Mighty Demeter, lo! I execute The will of Zeus and here restore thy daughter.

DEM. I have won.

PER. Sweet Mother, thy embrace is as the welcome Of all the earth, thy kiss the breath of life.

DEM. Ah! but to me, Cora! Thy voice again...

My tongue is trammel'd with excess of joy.

PER. Arise, my nymphs, my Oceanides!

My Nereids all, arise! and welcome me!

Put off your strange solemnity! arise! 850

CH. Welcome! all welcome, fair Persephone!

(1) We came to welcome thee, but fell abash'd Seeing thy purple robe and crystal crown.

PER. Arise and serve my pleasure as of yore.

DEM. And thou too doff thy strange solemnity, That all may see thee as thou art, my Cora, Restor'd and ever mine. Put off thy crown!

PER. Awhile! dear Mother--what thou say'st is true; I am restor'd to thee, and evermore Shall be restor'd. Yet am I none the less 860 Evermore Queen of Hades: and 'tis meet I wear the crown, the symbol of my reign.

DEM. What words are these, my Cora! Evermore Restor'd to me thou say'st ... 'tis well--but then Evermore Queen of Hades ... what is this?

I had a dark foreboding till I saw thee: Alas, alas! it lives again: destroy it!

Solve me this riddle quickly, if thou mayest.

PER. Let Hermes speak, nor fear thou. All is well.

HER. Divine Demeter, thou hast won thy will, 870 And the command of Zeus have I obey'd.

Thy daughter is restor'd, and evermore Shall be restor'd to thee as on this day.

But Hades holding to his bride, the Fates Were kind also to him, that she should be His queen in Hades as thy child on earth.

Yearly, as spring-tide cometh, she is thine While flowers bloom and all the land is gay; But when thy corn is gather'd, and the fields Are bare, and earth withdraws her budding life 880 From the sharp bite of winter's angry fang, Yearly will she return and hold her throne With great Aidoneus and the living dead: And she hath eaten with him of such fruit As holds her his true bride for evermore.

DEM. Alas! alas!

PER. Rejoice, dear Mother. Let not vain lament Trouble our joy this day, nor idle tears.

DEM. Alas! from my own deed my trouble comes: He gave thee of the fruit which I had curs'd: 890 I made the poison that enchanted thee.

PER. Repent not in thy triumph, but rejoice, Who hast thy will in all, as I have mine.

DEM. I have but half my will, how hast thou more?

PER. It was my childish fancy (thou rememb'rest), I would be G.o.ddess of the flowers: I thought That men should innocently honour me With bloodless sacrifice and spring-tide joy.

Now Fate, that look'd contrary, hath fulfill'd My project with mysterious efficacy: 900 And as a plant that yearly dieth down When summer is o'er, and hideth in the earth, Nor showeth promise in its wither'd leaves That it shall reawaken and put forth Its blossoms any more to deck the spring; So I, the mutual symbol of my choice, Shall die with winter, and with spring revive.

How without winter coud I have my spring?

How come to resurrection without death?

Lo thus our joyful meeting of to-day, 910 Born of our separation, shall renew Its annual ecstasy, by grief refresht: And no more pall than doth the joy of spring Yearly returning to the hearts of men.

See then the accomplishment of all my hope: Rejoice, and think not to put off my crown.

DEM. What hast thou seen below to reconcile thee To the dark moiety of thy strange fate?

PER. Where have I been, mother? what have I seen?

The downward pathway to the gates of death: 920 The skeleton of earthly being, stript Of all disguise: the sudden void of night: The spectral records of unwholesome fear:-- Why was it given to me to see these things?

The ruin'd G.o.dheads, disesteem'd, condemn'd To toil of deathless mockery: conquerors In the reverse of glory, doom'd to rule The mult.i.tudinous army of their crimes: The naked retribution of all wrong:-- Why was it given to me to see such things? 930

DEM. Not without terror, as I think, thou speakest, Nor as one reconcil'd to brook return.

PER. But since I have seen these things, with salt and fire My spirit is purged, and by this crystal crown Terror is tamed within me. If my words Seem'd to be tinged with terror, 'twas because I knew one hour of terror (on the day That took me hence) and with that memory Colour'd my speech, using the terms which paint The blindfold fears of men, who little reckon 940 How they by holy innocence and love, By reverence and gentle lives may win A t.i.tle to the fair Elysian fields, Where the good spirits dwell in ease and light And entertainment of those fair desires That made earth beautiful ... brave souls that spent Their lives for liberty and truth, grave seers Whose vision conquer'd darkness, pious poets Whose words have won Apollo's deathless praise, Who all escape h.e.l.l's mysteries, nor come nigh 950 The Cave of Cacophysia.

DEM. Mysteries!

What mysteries are these? and what the Cave?

PER. The mysteries of evil, and the cave Of blackness that obscures them. Even in h.e.l.l The worst is hidden, and unfructuous night Stifles her essence in her truthless heart.

DEM. What is the arch-falsity? I seek to know The mystery of evil. Hast thou seen it?

PER. I have seen it. Coud I truly rule my kingdom Not having seen it?

DEM. Tell me what it is. 960

PER. 'Tis not that I forget it; tho' the thought Is banisht from me. But 'tis like a dream Whose sense is an impression lacking words.

DEM. If it would pain thee telling ...

PER. Nay, but surely The words of G.o.ds and men are names of things And thoughts accustom'd: but of things unknown And unimagin'd are no words at all.

DEM. And yet will words sometimes outrun the thought.

PER. What can be spoken is nothing: 'twere a path That leading t'ward some prospect ne'er arrived. 970

DEM. The more thou holdest back, the more I long.

PER. The outward aspect only mocks my words.

DEM. Yet what is outward easy is to tell.

PER. Something is possible. This cavern lies In very midmost of deep-hollow'd h.e.l.l.

O'er its torn mouth the black Plutonic rock Is split in sharp disorder'd pinnacles And broken ledges, whereon sit, like apes Upon a wither'd tree, the hideous sins Of all the world: once having seen within 980 The magnetism is heavy on them, and they crawl Palsied with filthy thought upon the peaks; Or, squatting thro' long ages, have become Rooted like plants into the griping clefts: And there they pullulate, and moan, and strew The rock with fragments of their mildew'd growth.

DEM. Cora, my child! and hast thou seen these things!

PER. Nay but the outward aspect, figur'd thus In mere material loathsomeness, is nought Beside the mystery that is hid within. 990

DEM. Search thou for words, I pray, somewhat to tell.

PER. Are there not matters past the thought of men Or G.o.ds to know?

DEM. Thou meanest wherefore things Should be at all? Or, if they be, why thus, As hot, cold, hard and soft: and wherefore Zeus Had but two brothers; why the stars of heaven Are so innumerable, constellated Just as they are; or why this Sicily Should be three-corner'd? Yes, thou sayest well, Why things are as they are, nor G.o.ds nor men 1000 Can know. We say that Fate appointed thus, And are content.--