Ballads, Lyrics, and Poems of Old France Part 9

We seek a city splendid, With light beyond the sun; Or lands where dreams are ended, And works and days are done.

A BALLAD OF DEPARTURE. {110}

FAIR white bird, what song art thou singing In wintry weather of lands o'er sea?

Dear white bird, what way art thou winging, Where no gra.s.s grows, and no green tree?

I looked at the far off fields and grey, There grew no tree but the cypress tree, That bears sad fruits with the flowers of May, And whoso looks on it, woe is he.

And whoso eats of the fruit thereof Has no more sorrow, and no more love; And who sets the same in his garden stead, In a little s.p.a.ce he is waste and dead.

THEY HEAR THE SIRENS FOR THE SECOND TIME.

THE weary sails a moment slept, The oars were silent for a s.p.a.ce, As past Hesperian sh.o.r.es we swept, That were as a remembered face Seen after lapse of hopeless years, In Hades, when the shadows meet, Dim through the mist of many tears, And strange, and though a shadow, sweet.

So seemed the half-remembered sh.o.r.e, That slumbered, mirrored in the blue, With havens where we touched of yore, And ports that over well we knew.

Then broke the calm before a breeze That sought the secret of the west; And listless all we swept the seas Towards the Islands of the Blest.

Beside a golden sanded bay We saw the Sirens, very fair The flowery hill whereon they lay, The flowers set upon their hair.

Their old sweet song came down the wind, Remembered music waxing strong, Ah now no need of cords to bind, No need had we of Orphic song.

It once had seemed a little thing, To lay our lives down at their feet, That dying we might hear them sing, And dying see their faces sweet; But now, we glanced, and pa.s.sing by, No care had we to tarry long; Faint hope, and rest, and memory Were more than any Siren's song.

CIRCE'S ISLE REVISITED.

AH, Circe, Circe! in the wood we cried; Ah, Circe, Circe! but no voice replied; No voice from bowers o'ergrown and ruinous As fallen rocks upon the mountain side.

There was no sound of singing in the air; Failed or fled the maidens that were fair, No more for sorrow or joy were seen of us, No light of laughing eyes, or floating hair.

The perfume, and the music, and the flame Had pa.s.sed away; the memory of shame Alone abode, and stings of faint desire, And pulses of vague quiet went and came.

Ah, Circe! in thy sad changed fairy place, Our dead Youth came and looked on us a s.p.a.ce, With drooping wings, and eyes of faded fire, And wasted hair about a weary face.

Why had we ever sought the magic isle That seemed so happy in the days erewhile?

Why did we ever leave it, where we met A world of happy wonders in one smile?

Back to the westward and the waning light We turned, we fled; the solitude of night Was better than the infinite regret, In fallen places of our dead delight.

THE LIMIT OF LANDS.

BETWEEN the circling ocean sea And the poplars of Persephone There lies a strip of barren sand, Flecked with the sea's last spray, and strown With waste leaves of the poplars, blown From gardens of the shadow land.

With altars of old sacrifice The sh.o.r.e is set, in mournful wise The mists upon the ocean brood; Between the water and the air The clouds are born that float and fare Between the water and the wood.

Upon the grey sea never sail Of mortals pa.s.sed within our hail, Where the last weak waves faint and flow; We heard within the poplar pale The murmur of a doubtful wail Of voices loved so long ago.

We scarce had care to die or live, We had no honey cake to give, No wine of sacrifice to shed; There lies no new path over sea, And now we know how faint they be, The feasts and voices of the Dead.

Ah, flowers and dance! ah, sun and snow!

Glad life, sad life we did forego To dream of quietness and rest; Ah, would the fleet sweet roses here Poured light and perfume through the drear Pale year, and wan land of the west.

Sad youth, that let the spring go by Because the spring is swift to fly, Sad youth, that feared to mourn or love, Behold how sadder far is this, To know that rest is nowise bliss, And darkness is the end thereof.

VERSES ON PICTURES.

COLINETTE.

For a sketch by Mr. G. Leslie, A.R.A.

FRANCE your country, as we know; Room enough for guessing yet, What lips now or long ago, Kissed and named you-Colinette.

In what fields from sea to sea, By what stream your home was set, Loire or Seine was glad of thee, Marne or Rhone, O Colinette?

Did you stand with 'maidens ten, Fairer maids were never seen,'

When the young king and his men Pa.s.sed among the orchards green?

Nay, old ballads have a note Mournful, we would fain forget; No such sad old air should float Round your young brows, Colinette.

Say, did Ronsard sing to you, Shepherdess, to lull his pain, When the court went wandering through Rose pleasances of Touraine?

Ronsard and his famous Rose Long are dust the breezes fret; You, within the garden close, You are blooming, Colinette.

Have I seen you proud and gay, With a patched and perfumed beau, Dancing through the summer day, Misty summer of Watteau?

Nay, so sweet a maid as you Never walked a minuet With the splendid courtly crew; Nay, forgive me, Colinette.

Not from Greuze's canva.s.ses Do you cast a glance, a smile; You are not as one of these, Yours is beauty without guile.

Round your maiden brows and hair Maidenhood and Childhood met Crown and kiss you, sweet and fair, New art's blossom, Colinette.

A SUNSET OF WATTEAU.

LUI.