The Argive Women[2][bb]!!!! CHTHONOE MYRTILLA RHODOPE PASIPHASSA GORGO SITYS [bb]* * * * * SCENE The women’s house in the House of Paris in Troy. TIME.–The Tenth year of the War. * * * * * Helen’s women are lying alone in the twilight hour. Chthonoe presently rises and throws a little incense upon the […]

Since green earth is awakeLet us now pastime take,Not serving wantonnessToo well, nor niggardness,Which monks of men would make. But clothed like earth in green,With jocund hearts and clean,We will take hands and goSinging where quietly blowThe flowers of Spring’s demesne. The cuckoo haileth loudThe open sky; no cloudDoth fleck the earth’s blue tent;The land […]

Lai of Gobertz[1] Of courteous Limozin wight,Gobertz, I will indite:From Poicebot had he his rightOf gentlehood;Made monk in his own despiteIn San Leonart the white,Withal to sing and to writeCoblas he could. Learning had he, and rareMusic, and gai saber :No monk with him to compareIn that monast’ry.Full lusty he was to bearCowl and chaplet […]

Hearken, O passers, what thingFortuned in Hellas. A maid,Lissom and white as the roe,Lived recess’d in a glade.Clytie, Hamadryad,She was called that I sing–Flower so fair, so frail, that to bring her a woe,Surely a pitiful thing! A wild bright creature of trees,Brooks, and the sun among leaves,Clytie, grown to be maid:Ah, she had eyes […]

Oreithyia, by the North Wind carriedTo stormy Thrace from Athens where you tarriedDown by Ilissus all a blowy dayAmong the asphodels, how rapt awayThither, and in what frozen bed wert married? “I was a King’s tall daughter still unwed,Slim and desirable my locks to shedFree from the fillet. He my maiden beltUndid with busy fingers […]

Queen of the shadows, Maid and Wife,Twifold in essence, as in life,The lamp of Death, the star of Birth,Half cradled and half mourned by Earth,By Hell half won, half lost! aid meTo sing thy fond Hypsipyle,Thy bosom’s mate who, unafraid,Renounced for thee what part she hadIn sun and wind upon the hill,In dawn about the […]

That day–it was the last of many days,Nor could we know when such days might be givenAgain–we read how Dante trod the waysOf utmost Hell, and how his heart was rivenBy sad Francesca, whose sin was forgivenSo far that, on her Paolo fixing gaze,She supt on his again, and thought it Heaven,She knew her gentler […]

Long loving, all our love was husbandedUntil one morning on the brown hillside,One misty Autumn morn when Sun did hideHis radiance, yet was felt. No words we said,But in one flash transfigured, glorified,All her heart’s tumult beating white and red,She fell prone on her face and hid her wideOver-brimmed eyes in dewy fern.I prayed,Then spake, […]

That hour when thou and Grief were first acquaintedThou wrotest, “Come, for I have lookt on death.”Piteous I held my indeterminate breathAnd sought thee out, and saw how he had paintedThine eyes with rings of black; yet never faintedThy radiant immortality underneathSuch stress of dark; but then, as one that saith,“I know Love liveth,” sat […]

When winds blow high and leaves begin to fall,And the wan sunlight flits before the blast;When fields are brown and crops are garnered all,And rooks, like mastered ships, drift wide and fast;Maid Artemis, that feeleth her young bloodLeap like a freshet river for the sea,Speedeth abroad with hair blown in a floodTo snuff the salt […]

Not that dull spleen which serves i’ the world for scorn,Is hers I watch from far off, worshippingAs in remote Chaldaea the ancient kingAdored the star that heralded the morn.Her proud content she bears as a flag is borneTincted the hue royal; or as a wingIt lifts her soaring, near the daylight spring,Whence, if she […]

Sun and Moon, shine upon me;Make glad my days and clear my nights! O Earth, whose child I am,Grant me thy patience! O Heaven, whose heir I may be,Keep quick my hope! Your steadfastness I need, O Hills;O Rain, thy kindness! Snow, keep me pure;O Fire, teach me thy pride! From you, ye Winds, I […]

Gnatho, Satyr, homing at dusk,Trotting home like a tired dog,By mountain slopes ‘twixt the junipersAnd flamed oleanders near the sea,Found a girl-child asleep in a fleece,Frail as wax, golden and rose;Whereat at first he skipt asideAnd stayed him, nosing and peering, wheretoNext he crept, softly breathing,Blinking his fear. None was thereTo guard; the sun had […]

Meseems thine eyes are two still-folded lakesWherein deep water reflects the guardian sky,Searching wherein I see how Heaven is nighAnd our broad Earth at peace. So my Love takesMy soul’s thin hands and, chafing them, she makesMy life’s blood lusty and my life’s hope highFor the strong lips and eyes of Poesy,To hold the world […]

Oh, I am weak to serve thee as I ought;My shroud of flesh obscures thy deity,So thy sweet Spirit that should embolden meTo shake my wings out wide, serves me for nought,But receives tarnish, vile dishonour, wroughtBy that thou earnest to bless–O agonyAnd unendurable shame! that, loving thee,I dare not love, fearing my poisonous thought! […]

I thank all Gods that I can let thee go,Lady, without one thought, one base desireTo tarnish that clear vision I gained by fire,One stain in me I would not have thee know.That is great might indeed that moves me soTo look upon thy Form, and yet aspireTo look not there, rather than I should […]

Before you pass and leave me gaunt and chillAlone to do what I have joyed in doingIn your glad sight, suffer me, nor take illIf I confess you prize and me pursuing.As the rapt Tuscan lifted up his eyesWhither his Lady led, and lived with her,Strong in her strength, and in her wisdom wise,Love-taught with […]

My thought of thee is tortured in my sleep–Sometimes thou art near beside me, but a cloudDoth grudge me thy pale face, and rise to creepSlowly about thee, to lap thee in a shroud;And I, as standing by my dead, to weepDesirous, cannot weep, nor cry aloud.Or we must face the clamouring of a crowdHissing […]

When she had left us but a little while,I still could hear the ringing of her voice,Still see athwart the dusk her shy half-smileAnd that sweet trust wherein I most rejoice. Then in her self-same tones I heard, “Go thou,Set to that work appointed thee to do,Remembering I am with thee here and now,Watchful as […]

The snow lies deep, ice-fringes hem the thatch;I knock my shoes, my Love lifts me the latch,Shows me her eyes–O frozen stars, they shineKindly! I clasp her. Quick! her lips are mine.