Collected Poems Volume II Part 24

Faintly thou heardst us calling thee afar As Hylas heard, swooning beneath the wave, Girdled with glowing arms, while wood and glen Echoed his name beneath that rosy star; And thy farewell came faint as from the grave For very bliss; but we Could neither hear nor see; And all the hill with _Hylas! Hylas!_ rang again.

XI

But there were deeper love-tales for thine ears Than mellow-tongued Theocritus could tell: Over him like a sea two thousand years Had swept. They solemnized his music well!

Farewell! What word could answer but farewell, From thee, O happy spirit, that couldst steal So quietly from this world at break of day?

What voice of ours could break the silent spell Beauty had cast upon thee, or reveal The gates of sun and dew Which oped and let thee through And led thee heavenward by that deep enchanted way?

XII

Yet here thou mad'st thy choice: Love, Wisdom, Power, As once before young Paris, they stood here!

Beneath them Ida, like one full-blown flower, Shed her bloom earthward thro' the radiant air Leaving her rounded fruit, their beauty, bare To the everlasting dawn; and, in thy palm The golden apple of the Hesperian isle Which thou must only yield to the Most Fair; But not to Juno's great luxurious calm, Nor Dian's curved white moon, Gav'st thou the sunset's boon, Nor to foam-bosomed Aphrodite's rose-lipped smile.

XIII

Here didst thou make the eternal choice aright, Here, in this hallowed haunt of nymph and faun, They stood before thee in that great new light, The three great splendours of the immortal dawn, With all the cloudy veils of Time withdrawn Or only glistening round the firm white snows Of their pure beauty like the golden dew Brushed from the feathery ferns below the lawn; But not to cold Diana's morning rose, Nor to great Juno's frown Cast thou the apple down, And, when the Paphian raised her l.u.s.trous eyes anew,

XIV

Thou from thy soul didst whisper--_in that heaven Which yearns beyond us! Lead me up the height!

How should the golden fruit to one be given Till your three splendours in that Sun unite Where each in each ye move like light in light?

How should I judge the rapture till I know The pain?_ And like three waves of music there They closed thee round, blinding thy blissful sight With beauty and, like one roseate orb a-glow, They bore thee on their b.r.e.a.s.t.s Up the sun-smitten crests And melted with thee smiling into the Most Fair.

XV

Upward and onward, ever as ye went The cities of the world nestled beneath Closer, as if in love, round Ida, blent With alien hills in one great bridal-wreath Of dawn-flushed clouds; while, breathing with your breath New heavens mixed with your mounting bliss. Deep eyes, Beautiful eyes, imbrued with the world's tears Dawned on you, beautiful gleams of Love and Death Flowed thro' your questioning with divine replies From that ineffable height Dark with excess of light Where the Ever-living dies and the All-loving hears.

XVI

For thou hadst seen what tears upon man's face Bled from the heart or burned from out the brain, And not denied or cursed, but couldst embrace Infinite sweetness in the heart of pain, And heardst those universal choirs again Wherein like waves of one harmonious sea All our slight dreams of heaven are singing still, And still the throned Olympians swell the strain, And, hark, the burden, of all--_Come unto Me!_ Sky into deepening sky Melts with that one great cry; And the lost doves of Ida moan on Siloa's hill.

XVII

I gather all the ages in my song And send them singing up the heights to thee!

Chord by aeonian chord the stars prolong Their pa.s.sionate echoes to Eternity: Earth wakes, and one orchestral symphony Sweeps o'er the quivering harp-strings of mankind; Grief modulates into heaven, hate drowns in love, No strife now but of love in that great sea Of song! I dream! I dream! Mine eyes grow blind: Chords that I not command Escape the fainting hand; Tears fall. Thou canst not hear. Thou'rt still too far above.

XVIII

Farewell! What word should answer but farewell From thee, O happy spirit, whose clear gaze Discerned the path--clear, but unsearchable-- Where Olivet sweetens, deepens, Ida's praise, The path that strikes as thro' a sunlit haze Through Time to that clear reconciling height Where our commingling gleams of G.o.dhead dwell; Strikes thro' the turmoil of our darkling days To that great harmony where, like light in light, Wisdom and Beauty still Haunt the thrice-holy hill, And Love, immortal Love ... what answer but farewell?

THE ELECTRIC TRAM

I

Bluff and burly and splendid Thro' roaring traffic-tides, By secret lightnings attended The land-s.h.i.+p hisses and glides.

And I sit on its bridge and I watch and I dream While the world goes gallantly by, With all its crowded houses and its colored shops a-stream Under the June-blue sky, Heigh, ho!

Under the June-blue sky.

II

There's a loafer at the kerb with a sulphur-coloured pile Of "Lights! Lights! Lights!" to sell; And a flower-girl there with some lilies and a smile By the gilt swing-doors of a drinking h.e.l.l, Where the money is rattling loud and fast, And I catch one glimpse as the s.h.i.+p swings past Of a woman with a babe at her breast Wrapped in a ragged shawl; She is drinking away with the rest, And the sun s.h.i.+nes over it all, Heigh, ho!

The sun s.h.i.+nes over it all!

III

And a barrel-organ is playing, Somewhere, far away, _Abide with me_, and _The world is gone a-maying_, And _What will the policeman say?_ There's a glimpse of the river down an alley by a church, And the barges with their tawny-coloured sails, And a grim and grimy coal-wharf where the London pigeons perch And flutter and spread their tails, Heigh, ho!

Flutter and spread their tails.

IV

O, what does it mean, all the pageant and the pity, The waste and the wonder and the shame?

I am riding tow'rds the sunset thro' the vision of a City Which we cloak with the stupor of a name!

I am riding thro' ten thousand thousand tragedies and terrors, Ten million heavens that save and h.e.l.ls that d.a.m.n; And the lightning draws my car tow'rds the golden evening star; And--They call it only "riding on a tram,"

Heigh, ho!

They call it only "riding on a tram."

SHERWOOD

PERSONS OF THE DRAMA

ROBIN Earl of Huntingdon, known as "Robin Hood."

LITTLE JOHN } FRIAR TUCK } WILL SCARLET } Outlaws and followers of "Robin Hood."

REYNOLD GREENLEAF } MUCH, THE MILLER'S SON } ALLAN-A-DALE }

PRINCE JOHN.

KING RICHARD, Coeur de Lion.

BLONDEL King Richard's minstrel.

OBERON King of the Fairies.

t.i.tANIA Queen of the Fairies.

PUCK A Fairy.