A Legend of Old Persia and Other Poems Part 3

"Oh! who can drink at the world's brink, Or reach the twilight star?

It's a long sail where the winds wail, And the great waters are.

"Or who can say at the parting day That he will see once more His children's faces in happy places, His true wife at the door?"

Snorro the Viking, his thigh striking, Laughed in his big red beard.

"Some are bound by sight and sound.

While some have wished and feared.

"Their days dream as a droning stream Or moonlight in a wood.

Now who can sate his love or hate, And the tumult of his blood?

"Then cast the die for the open sky When the great sun beats abroad, For the foam-fleck and the narrow deck, The life of oar and sword.

"Life and limb for the wind's hymn, And all the fears that be, The ghost-races with ghastly faces, The phantoms of the sea.

"Mine is the morrow," shouted Snorro, "I longed and have not feared."

And his great laughter followed after And rumbled in his beard.

The Island.

Once (was it long ago, dear?

Oh! hark to the sighing seas.) We sailed to a wonderful Island In the golden Antipodes, Where the waves wore an azure mantle, The winds were ever at rest, For we'd left the Old World behind us A thousand leagues to the West.

We came to that wonderful Island; Girt by a ring of foam It lay in the sea like a jewel Under an azure dome.

The cliffs were all gold in the sunlight, The strand was a floor of gold, So we knew we'd come to the Island We'd read of in tales of old.

Was it long we stayed in our Island?

(Dear, I can never say) I know we walked on the mountains Which looked far over the bay.

I know that we laughed for pleasure (Were we wise or a couple of fools?) As we gazed at the painted fishes Which swam in the shallow pools.

And night drew over our Island The purple pall of the skies, The air was heavy with fragrance And soft with the breath of sighs, And voices out of the forest, Voices out of the sea, Told the eternal secret....

Told it to you and me.

And the stars came down from the heavens, And the magical tropic moon, To dance a measure together Over the still lagoon; And the whisper of distant forests, The noise of the surf in our ears, Seemed like the song of the ages Sung by the pa.s.sing years.

But we said "farewell" to our Island Which we had discovered alone....

The sand ... and the palms ... and the headland....

The westering wind ... and the sun.

We said "farewell" to our Island (Oh! hark to the sullen rain!) ... And I knew as it fell behind us We should not see it again.

For only a few may go there And they but once may go, With glamour of stars above them And the swinging seas below.

But I still hear its forests whisper, The noise of the surf on the sh.o.r.e, In that far-off wonderful Island Which I shall see no more.

Fair Filamelle.

Fair Filamelle is my distress With all her cruel backwardness.

She will not listen to my pain, But turneth from me in disdain.

That fair Filamelle, Her disdain is now my h.e.l.l.

She hath bewitched me with her eyes, As Circe did the sailor wise, Or Egypt did the Roman Prince, Two thousand years agone.

I've little else but weeping since, My heart is like a stone.

If you like laughter's silver sound Why have you dealt me such a wound, If youth and beauty look askance At glum and heavy countenance, Why is it coy and cruel, Adding to my fire more fuel?

Alas! Alas! it has no care, Free as the birds which flit in air, Nor heedfulness has any, Else were its kindness not so rare, Its victims then so many.

Ah! fair Filamelle, have pity on my moan, Else must I die alone, My heart is like a stone.

The Song of Kisses.

I have no skill in Love's soft war, Nor am I bold to woo In the same sort that conquerors are When they are lovers too.

Tho' pa.s.sion thunders in my brain Like ocean on a beach, My tongue is bounden with a chain And manacled my speech.

Yet, could I let one word go free To touch your chords with fire, Become the wind upon the sea The plectrum of the lyre, Then, my Althea, should we be Two lovers without shame, All things in their epitome, The Universe our name.

Then should we bow to Love's command As the waves kiss the sh.o.r.e And the rain falls upon the land That it may thirst no more.

Then should we kiss, with time at bay As in the Ajalon valley, A score--two score--two hundred--nay We would not keep the tally-- A hundred thousand in one bout, Ten myriads ere we slumbered, And the stars winked and all went out To find themselves out-numbered.

The Song of Odysseus.

Out of the dark I return-- The abode of the shades; The words which they said Were the strengthless words of the Dead, Meaningless, nothing importing.

Out of the dark I return And the House of the Dead; The endless regions of gloom Deep sepulchred in the womb Of Earth, the mother of all things.

Out of the dark I return, From the stream of the Dead; I slew a goat on the brink And they pressed around me to drink Their shadowy twittering legions.

Out of the dark I return, From the speech of the Dead; I asked them for counsel and word, They twittered like bats when they heard And wailed for the warm blood flowing.

Out of the dark I return; (Ye are baffled, Oh! Dead); Lost hopes, lost hearts, lost loves, Hollow-eyed, hollow-cheeked are your droves, I drew my sword and ye vanished.

Out of the dark I return And the dust of desire; My ears are still filled with the shrieks Of the pitiful Dead and my cheeks Still pale with the paleness of Hades.

Out of the dark I return For the day, for the deed; And now to Apollo, the slayer, I stand and utter a prayer Humbly, first making obeisance.