Hymen Part 2

Now they are wrought of iron to wrest from earth secrets; strong to protect, strong to keep back the winter when winter tracks too soon blanch the forest: strong to break dead things, the young tree, drained of sap, the old tree, ready to drop, to lift from the rotting bed of leaves, the old crumbling pine tree stock, to heap bole and knot of fir and pine and resinous oak, till fire shatter the dark and hope of spring rise in the hearts of men.

_What of her-- mistress of Death-- what of his kiss?_

Ah, strong were his arms to wrest slight limbs from the beautiful earth, young hands that plucked the first buds of the chill narcissus, soft fingers that broke and fastened the th.o.r.n.y stalk with the flower of wild acanthus.

Ah, strong were the arms that took (ah evil, the heart and graceless,) but the kiss was less pa.s.sionate!

SIMAETHA

Drenched with purple, drenched with dye, my wool, bind you the wheel-spokes-- turn, turn, turn my wheel!

Drenched with purple, steeped in the red pulp of bursting sea-sloes-- turn, turn, turn my wheel!

(Ah did he think I did not know, I did not feel-- what wrack, what weal for him: golden one, golden one, turn again Aphrodite with the yellow zone, I am cursed, cursed, undone!

Ah and my face, Aphrodite, beside your gold, is cut out of white stone!)

Laurel blossom and the red seed of the red vervain weed, burn, crackle in the fire, burn, crackle for my need!

Laurel leaf, O fruited branch of bay, burn, burn away thought, memory and hurt!

(Ah when he comes, stumbling across my sill, will he find me still, fragrant as the white privet, or as a bone, polished in wet and sun, worried of wild beaks, and of the whelps' teeth-- worried of flesh, left to bleach under the sun, white as ash bled of heat, white as hail blazing in sheet-lightning, white as forked lightning rending the sleet?)

THETIS

I

On the paved parapet you will step carefully from amber stones to onyx flecked with violet, mingled with light, half showing the sea-gra.s.s and sea-sand underneath, reflecting your white feet and the gay strap crimson as lily-buds of Arion, and the gold that binds your feet.

II

You will pa.s.s beneath the island disk (and myrtle-wood, the carved support of it) and the white stretch of its white beach, curved as the moon crescent or ivory when some fine hand chisels it: when the sun slips through the far edge, there is rare amber through the sea, and flecks of it glitter on the dolphin's back and jewelled halter and harness and bit as he sways under it.

CIRCE

It was easy enough to bend them to my wish, it was easy enough to alter them with a touch, but you adrift on the great sea, how shall I call you back?

Cedar and white ash, rock-cedar and sand plants and tamarisk red cedar and white cedar and black cedar from the inmost forest, fragrance upon fragrance and all of my sea-magic is for nought.

It was easy enough-- a thought called them from the sharp edges of the earth; they prayed for a touch, they cried for the sight of my face, they entreated me till in pity I turned each to his own self.

Panther and panther, then a black leopard follows close-- black panther and red and a great hound, a G.o.d-like beast, cut the sand in a clear ring and shut me from the earth, and cover the sea-sound with their throats, and the sea-roar with their own barks and bellowing and snarls, and the sea-stars and the swirl of the sand, and the rock-tamarisk and the wind resonance-- but not your voice.

It is easy enough to call men from the edges of the earth.

It is easy enough to summon them to my feet with a thought-- it is beautiful to see the tall panther and the sleek deer-hounds circle in the dark.

It is easy enough to make cedar and white ash fumes into palaces and to cover the sea-caves with ivory and onyx.

But I would give up rock-fringes of coral and the inmost chamber of my island palace and my own gifts and the whole region of my power and magic for your glance.

LEDA

Where the slow river meets the tide, a red swan lifts red wings and darker beak, and underneath the purple down of his soft breast uncurls his coral feet.

Through the deep purple of the dying heat of sun and mist, the level ray of sun-beam has caressed the lily with dark breast, and flecked with richer gold its golden crest.

Where the slow lifting of the tide, floats into the river and slowly drifts among the reeds, and lifts the yellow flags, he floats where tide and river meet.

Ah kingly kiss-- no more regret nor old deep memories to mar the bliss; where the low sedge is thick, the gold day-lily outspreads and rests beneath soft fluttering of red swan wings and the warm quivering of the red swan's breast.

HIPPOLYTUS TEMPORIZES

I wors.h.i.+p the greatest first-- (it were sweet, the couch, the brighter ripple of cloth over the dipped fleece; the thought: her bones under the flesh are white as sand which along a beach covers but keeps the print of the crescent shapes beneath: I thought: between cloth and fleece, so her body lies.)

I wors.h.i.+p first, the great-- (ah, sweet, your eyes-- what G.o.d, invoked in Crete, gave them the gift to part as the Sidonian myrtle-flower suddenly, wide and swart, then swiftly, the eye-lids having provoked our hearts-- as suddenly beat and close.)

I wors.h.i.+p the feet, flawless, that haunt the hills-- (ah, sweet, dare I think, beneath fetter of golden clasp, of the rhythm, the fall and rise of yours, carven, slight beneath straps of gold that keep their slender beauty caught, like wings and bodies of trapped birds.)

I wors.h.i.+p the greatest first-- (suddenly into my brain-- the flash of sun on the snow, the fringe of light and the drift, the crest and the hill-shadow-- ah, surely now I forget, ah splendour, my G.o.ddess turns: or was it the sudden heat, beneath quivering of molten flesh, of veins, purple as violets?)

CUCKOO SONG

Ah, bird, our love is never spent with your clear note, nor satiate our soul; not song, not wail, not hurt, but just a call summons us with its simple top-note and soft fall;

not to some rarer heaven of lilies over-tall, nor tuberose set against some sun-lit wall, but to a gracious cedar-palace hall;