Poems & Ballads Volume I Part 28

THOMYRIS

I am the queen of Scythians.

My strength was like no strength of man's, My face like day, my breast like spring.

My fame was felt in the extreme land That hath suns.h.i.+ne on the one hand And on the other star-s.h.i.+ning.

Yea, and the wind there fails of breath; Yea, and there life is waste like death; Yea, and there death is a glad thing.

HARHAS

I am the queen of Anakim.

In the spent years whose speech is dim, Whose raiment is the dust and death, My stately body without stain Shone as the s.h.i.+ning race of rain Whose hair a great wind scattereth.

Now hath G.o.d turned my lips to sighs, Plucked off mine eyelids from mine eyes, And sealed with seals my way of breath.

MYRRHA

I am the queen Arabian.

The tears wherewith mine eyelids ran Smelt like my perfumed eyelids' smell.

A harsh thirst made my soft mouth hard, That ached with kisses afterward; My brain rang like a beaten bell.

As tears on eyes, as fire on wood, Sin fed upon my breath and blood, Sin made my b.r.e.a.s.t.s subside and swell.

PASIPHAE

I am the queen Pasiphae.

Not all the pure clean-coloured sea Could cleanse or cool my yearning veins; Nor any root nor herb that grew, Flag-leaves that let green water through, Nor was.h.i.+ng of the dews and rains.

From shame's pressed core I wrung the sweet Fruit's savour that was death to eat, Whereof no seed but death remains.

SAPPHO

I am the queen of Lesbians.

My love, that had no part in man's, Was sweeter than all shape of sweet.

The intolerable infinite desire Made my face pale like faded fire When the ashen pyre falls through with heat.

My blood was hot wan wine of love, And my song's sound the sound thereof, The sound of the delight of it.

MESSALINA

I am the queen of Italy.

These were the signs G.o.d set on me; A barren beauty subtle and sleek, Curled carven hair, and cheeks worn wan With fierce false lips of many a man, Large temples where the blood ran weak, A mouth athirst and amorous And hungering as the grave's mouth does That, being an-hungred, cannot speak.

AMESTRIS

I am the queen of Persians.

My b.r.e.a.s.t.s were lordlier than bright swans.

My body as amber fair and thin.

Strange flesh was given my lips for bread, With poisonous hours my days were fed, And my feet shod with adder-skin.

In Shushan toward Ecbatane I wrought my joys with tears and pain, My loves with blood and bitter sin.

EPHRATH

I am the queen of Rephaim.

G.o.d, that some while refraineth him, Made in the end a spoil of me.

My rumour was upon the world As strong sound of swoln water hurled Through porches of the straining sea.

My hair was like the flag-flower, And my b.r.e.a.s.t.s carven goodlier Than beryl with chalcedony.

PASITHEA

I am the queen of Cypriotes.

Mine oarsmen, labouring with brown throats, Sang of me many a tender thing.

My maidens, girdled loose and braced With gold from bosom to white waist, Praised me between their wool-combing.

All that praise Venus all night long With lips like speech and lids like song Praised me till song lost heart to sing.

ALACIEL

I am the queen Alaciel.

My mouth was like that moist gold cell Whereout the thickest honey drips.

Mine eyes were as a grey-green sea; The amorous blood that smote on me Smote to my feet and finger-tips.

My throat was whiter than the dove, Mine eyelids as the seals of love, And as the doors of love my lips.

ERIGONE

I am the queen Erigone.

The wild wine shed as blood on me Made my face brighter than a bride's.

My large lips had the old thirst of earth, Mine arms the might of the old sea's girth Bound round the whole world's iron sides.

Within mine eyes and in mine ears Were music and the wine of tears, And light, and thunder of the tides.

_Et hc exeant, et dicat Bersabe regina_;

Alas, G.o.d, for thy great pity And for the might that is in thee, Behold, I woful Bersabe Cry out with stoopings of my knee And thy wrath laid and bound on me Till I may see thy love.

Behold, Lord, this child is grown Within me between bone and bone To make me mother of a son, Made of my body with strong moan; There shall not be another one That shall be made hereof.

KING DAVID

Lord G.o.d, alas, what shall I sain?

Lo, thou art as an hundred men Both to break and build again: The wild ways thou makest plain, Thine hands hold the hail and rain, And thy fingers both grape and grain; Of their largess we be all well fain, And of their great pity: The sun thou madest of good gold, Of clean silver the moon cold, All the great stars thou hast told As thy cattle in thy fold Every one by his name of old; Wind and water thou hast in hold, Both the land and the long sea; Both the green sea and the land, Lord G.o.d, thou hast in hand, Both white water and grey sand; Upon thy right or thy left hand There is no man that may stand; Lord, thou rue on me.

O wise Lord, if thou be keen To note things amiss that been, I am not worth a sh.e.l.l of bean More than an old mare meagre and lean; For all my wrong-doing with my queen, It grew not of our hearts clean, But it began of her body.

For it fell in the hot May I stood within a paven way Built of fair bright stone, perfay, That is as fire of night and day And lighteth all my house.

Therein be neither stones nor sticks, Neither red nor white bricks, But for cubits five or six There is most goodly sardonyx And amber laid in rows.

It goes round about my roofs, (If ye list ye shall have proofs) There is good s.p.a.ce for horse and hoofs, Plain and nothing perilous.

For the fair green weather's heat, And for the smell of leavs sweet, It is no marvel, well ye weet, A man to waxen amorous.

This I say now by my case That spied forth of that royal place; There I saw in no great s.p.a.ce Mine own sweet, both body and face, Under the fresh boughs.

In a water that was there She wesshe her goodly body bare And dried it with her owen hair: Both her arms and her knees fair, Both bosom and brows; Both shoulders and eke thighs Tho she wesshe upon this wise; Ever she sighed with little sighs, And ever she gave G.o.d thank.