Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne (Illustrated) (Delphi Poets Series) Read online

  With multitudinous days and nights and tears

  And many mixing savours of strange years,

  Were no more trodden of them under feet,

  Cast out and spilt about their holy places:

  That life were given them as a fruit to eat

  And death to drink as water; that the light

  Might ebb, drawn backward from their eyes, and night

  Hide for one hour the imperishable faces.

  That they might rise up sad in heaven, and know

  Sorrow and sleep, one paler than young snow,

  One cold as blight of dew and ruinous rain,

  Rise up and rest and suffer a little, and be

  Awhile as all things born with us and we,

  And grieve as men, and like slain men be slain.

  For now we know not of them; but one saith

  The gods are gracious, praising God; and one,

  When hast thou seen? or hast thou felt his breath

  Touch, nor consume thine eyelids as the sun,

  Nor fill thee to the lips with fiery death?

  None hath beheld him, none

  Seen above other gods and shapes of things,

  Swift without feet and flying without wings,

  Intolerable, not clad with death or life,

  Insatiable, not known of night or day,

  The lord of love and loathing and of strife

  Who gives a star and takes a sun away;

  Who shapes the soul, and makes her a barren wife

  To the earthly body and grievous growth of clay;

  Who turns the large limbs to a little flame

  And binds the great sea with a little sand;

  Who makes desire, and slays desire with shame;

  Who shakes the heaven as ashes in his hand;

  Who, seeing the light and shadow for the same,

  Bids day waste night as fire devours a brand,

  Smites without sword, and scourges without rod;

  The supreme evil, God.

  Yea, with thine hate, O God, thou hast covered us,

  One saith, and hidden our eyes away from sight,

  And made us transitory and hazardous,

  Light things and slight;

  Yet have men praised thee, saying, He hath made man thus,

  And he doeth right.

  Thou hast kissed us, and hast smitten; thou hast laid

  Upon us with thy left hand life, and said,

  Live: and again thou hast said, Yield up your breath,

  And with thy right hand laid upon us death.

  Thou hast sent us sleep, and stricken sleep with dreams,

  Saying, Joy is not, but love of joy shall be,

  Thou hast made sweet springs for all the pleasant streams,

  In the end thou hast made them bitter with the sea.

  Thou hast fed one rose with dust of many men;

  Thou hast marred one face with fire of many tears;

  Thou hast taken love, and given us sorrow again;

  With pain thou hast filled us full to the eyes and ears.

  Therefore because thou art strong, our father, and we

  Feeble; and thou art against us, and thine hand

  Constrains us in the shallows of the sea

  And breaks us at the limits of the land;

  Because thou hast bent thy lightnings as a bow,

  And loosed the hours like arrows; and let fall

  Sins and wild words and many a winged woe

  And wars among us, and one end of all;

  Because thou hast made the thunder, and thy feet

  Are as a rushing water when the skies

  Break, but thy face as an exceeding heat

  And flames of fire the eyelids of thine eyes;

  Because thou art over all who are over us;

  Because thy name is life and our name death;

  Because thou art cruel and men are piteous,

  And our hands labour and thine hand scattereth;

  Lo, with hearts rent and knees made tremulous,

  Lo, with ephemeral lips and casual breath,

  At least we witness of thee ere we die

  That these things are not otherwise, but thus;

  That each man in his heart sigheth, and saith,

  That all men even as I,

  All we are against thee, against thee, O God most high,

  But ye, keep ye on earth

  Your lips from over-speech,

  Loud words and longing are so little worth;

  And the end is hard to reach.

  For silence after grievous things is good,

  And reverence, and the fear that makes men whole,

  And shame, and righteous governance of blood,

  And lordship of the soul.

  But from sharp words and wits men pluck no fruit,

  And gathering thorns they shake the tree at root;

  For words divide and rend;

  But silence is most noble till the end.

  ALTHAEA.

  I heard within the house a cry of news

  And came forth eastward hither, where the dawn,

  Cheers first these warder gods that face the sun

  And next our eyes unrisen; for unaware

  Came clashes of swift hoofs and trampling feet

  And through the windy pillared corridor

  Light sharper than the frequent flames of day

  That daily fill it from the fiery dawn;

  Gleams, and a thunder of people that cried out,

  And dust and hurrying horsemen; lo their chief,

  That rode with Oeneus rein by rein, returned.

  What cheer, O herald of my lord the king?

  HERALD.

  Lady, good cheer and great; the boar is slain.

  CHORUS.

  Praised be all gods that look toward Calydon.

  ALTHAEA.

  Good news and brief; but by whose happier hand?

  HERALD.

  A maiden’s and a prophet’s and thy son’s.

  ALTHAEA.

  Well fare the spear that severed him and life.

  HERALD.

  Thine own, and not an alien, hast thou blest

  ALTHAEA.

  Twice be thou too for my sake blest and his.

  HERALD.

  At the king’s word I rode afoam for thine.

  ALTHAEA.

  Thou sayest he tarrieth till they bring the spoil?

  HERALD.

  Hard by the quarry, where they breathe, O queen.

  ALTHAEA.

  Speak thou their chance; but some bring flowers and crown

  These gods and all the lintel, and shed wine,

  Fetch sacrifice and slay, for heaven is good.

  HERALD.

  Some furlongs northward where the brakes begin

  West of that narrowing range of warrior hills

  Whose brooks have bled with battle when thy son

  Smote Acarnania, there all they made halt,

  And with keen eye took note of spear and hound,

  Royally ranked; Laertes island-born,

  The young Gerenian Nestor, Panopeus,

  And Cepheus and Ancaeus, mightiest thewed,

  Arcadians; next, and evil-eyed of these,

  Arcadian Atalanta, with twain hounds

  Lengthening the leash, and under nose and brow

  Glittering with lipless tooth and fire-swift eye;

  But from her white braced shoulder the plumed shafts

  Rang, and the bow shone from her side; next her

  Meleager, like a sun in spring that strikes

  Branch into leaf and bloom into the world,

  A glory among men meaner; Iphicles,

  And following him that slew the biform bull

  Pirithous, and divine Eurytion,

  And, bride-bound to the gods, Aeacides.

  Then Telamon his brother, and Argive-born

  The seer and sayer of visions and of truth,

  Amphiaraus; and a four-fold stre
ngth,

  Thine, even thy mother’s and thy sister’s sons.

  And recent from the roar of foreign foam

  Jason, and Dryas twin-begot with war,

  A blossom of bright battle, sword and man

  Shining; and Idas, and the keenest eye

  Of Lynceus, and Admetus twice-espoused,

  And Hippasus and Hyleus, great in heart.

  These having halted bade blow horns, and rode

  Through woods and waste lands cleft by stormy streams,

  Past yew-trees and the heavy hair of pines,

  And where the dew is thickest under oaks,

  This way and that; but questing up and down

  They saw no trail nor scented; and one said,

  Plexippus, Help, or help not, Artemis,

  And we will flay thy boarskin with male hands;

  But saying, he ceased and said not that he would,

  Seeing where the green ooze of a sun-struck marsh

  Shook with a thousand reeds untunable,

  And in their moist and multitudinous flower

  Slept no soft sleep, with violent visions fed,

  The blind bulk of the immeasurable beast.

  And seeing, he shuddered with sharp lust of praise

  Through all his limbs, and launched a double dart,

  And missed; for much desire divided him,

  Too hot of spirit and feebler than his will,

  That his hand failed, though fervent; and the shaft,

  Sundering the rushes, in a tamarisk stem

  Shook, and stuck fast; then all abode save one,

  The Arcadian Atalanta; from her side

  Sprang her hounds, labouring at the leash, and slipped,

  And plashed ear-deep with plunging feet; but she

  Saying, Speed it as I send it for thy sake,

  Goddess, drew bow and loosed, the sudden string

  Rang, and sprang inward, and the waterish air

  Hissed, and the moist plumes of the songless reeds

  Moved as a wave which the wind moves no more.

  But the boar heaved half out of ooze and slime

  His tense flank trembling round the barbed wound,

  Hateful, and fiery with invasive eyes

  And bristling with intolerable hair

  Plunged, and the hounds clung, and green flowers and white

  Reddened and broke all round them where they came.

  And charging with sheer tusk he drove, and smote

  Hyleus; and sharp death caught his sudden soul,

  And violent sleep shed night upon his eyes.

  Then Peleus, with strong strain of hand and heart,

  Shot; but the sidelong arrow slid, and slew

  His comrade born and loving countryman,

  Under the left arm smitten, as he no less

  Poised a like arrow; and bright blood brake afoam,

  And falling, and weighed back by clamorous arms,

  Sharp rang the dead limbs of Eurytion.

  Then one shot happier; the Cadmean seer,

  Amphiaraus; for his sacred shaft

  Pierced the red circlet of one ravening eye

  Beneath the brute brows of the sanguine boar,

  Now bloodier from one slain; but he so galled

  Sprang straight, and rearing cried no lesser cry

  Than thunder and the roar of wintering streams

  That mix their own foam with the yellower sea;

  And as a tower that falls by fire in fight

  With ruin of walls and all its archery,

  And breaks the iron flower of war beneath,

  Crushing charred limbs and molten arms of men;

  So through crushed branches and the reddening brake

  Clamoured and crashed the fervour of his feet,

  And trampled, springing sideways from the tusk,

  Too tardy a moving mould of heavy strength,

  Ancaeus; and as flakes of weak-winged snow

  Break, all the hard thews of his heaving limbs

  Broke, and rent flesh fell every way, and blood

  Flew, and fierce fragments of no more a man.

  Then all the heroes drew sharp breath, and gazed,

  And smote not; but Meleager, but thy son,

  Right in the wild way of the coming curse

  Rock-rooted, fair with fierce and fastened lips,

  Clear eyes, and springing muscle and shortening limb —

  With chin aslant indrawn to a tightening throat,

  Grave, and with gathered sinews, like a god, —

  Aimed on the left side his well-handled spear

  Grasped where the ash was knottiest hewn, and smote,

  And with no missile wound, the monstrous boar

  Right in the hairiest hollow of his hide

  Under the last rib, sheer through bulk and bone,

  Peep in; and deeply smitten, and to death,

  The heavy horror with his hanging shafts

  Leapt, and fell furiously, and from raging lips

  Foamed out the latest wrath of all his life.

  And all they praised the gods with mightier heart,

  Zeus and all gods, but chiefliest Artemis,

  Seeing; but Meleager bade whet knives and flay,

  Strip and stretch out the splendour of the spoil;

  And hot and horrid from the work all these

  Sat, and drew breath and drank and made great cheer

  And washed the hard sweat off their calmer brows.

  For much sweet grass grew higher than grew the reed,

  And good for slumber, and every holier herb,

  Narcissus, and the low-lying melilote,

  And all of goodliest blade and bloom that springs

  Where, hid by heavier hyacinth, violet buds

  Blossom and burn; and fire of yellower flowers

  And light of crescent lilies, and such leaves

  As fear the Faun’s and know the Dryad’s foot;

  Olive and ivy and poplar dedicate,

  And many a well-spring overwatched of these.

  There now they rest; but me the king bade bear

  Good tidings to rejoice this town and thee.

  Wherefore be glad, and all ye give much thanks,

  For fallen is all the trouble of Calydon.

  ALTHAEA.

  Laud ye the gods; for this they have given is good,

  And what shall be they hide until their time.

  Much good and somewhat grievous hast thou said,

  And either well; but let all sad things be,

  Till all have made before the prosperous gods

  Burnt-offering, and poured out the floral wine.

  Look fair, O gods, and favourable; for we

  Praise you with no false heart or flattering mouth,

  Being merciful, but with pure souls and prayer.

  HERALD.

  Thou hast prayed well; for whoso fears not these,

  But once being prosperous waxes huge of heart,

  Him shall some new thing unaware destroy.

  CHORUS.

  O that I now, I too were

  By deep wells and water-floods,

  Streams of ancient hills; and where

  All the wan green places bear

  Blossoms cleaving to the sod,

  Fruitless fruit, and grasses fair,

  Or such darkest ivy-buds

  As divide thy yellow hair,

  Bacchus, and their leaves that nod

  Round thy fawnskin brush the bare

  Snow-soft shoulders of a god;

  There the year is sweet, and there

  Earth is full of secret springs,

  And the fervent rose-cheeked hours,

  Those that marry dawn and noon,

  There are sunless, there look pale

  In dim leaves and hidden air,

  Pale as grass or latter flowers

  Or the wild vine’s wan wet rings

  Full of dew beneath the moon,

  And all day the ni
ghtingale

  Sleeps, and all night sings;

  There in cold remote recesses

  That nor alien eyes assail,

  Feet, nor imminence of wings,

  Nor a wind nor any tune,

  Thou, O queen and holiest,

  Flower the whitest of all things,

  With reluctant lengthening tresses

  And with sudden splendid breast

  Save of maidens unbeholden,

  There art wont to enter, there

  Thy divine swift limbs and golden.

  Maiden growth of unbound hair,

  Bathed in waters white,

  Shine, and many a maid’s by thee

  In moist woodland or the hilly

  Flowerless brakes where wells abound

  Out of all men’s sight;

  Or in lower pools that see

  All their marges clothed all round

  With the innumerable lily,

  Whence the golden-girdled bee

  Flits through flowering rush to fret

  White or duskier violet,

  Fair as those that in far years

  With their buds left luminous

  And their little leaves made wet

  From the warmer dew of tears,

  Mother’s tears in extreme need,

  Hid the limbs of Iamus,

  Of thy brother’s seed;

  For his heart was piteous

  Toward him, even as thine heart now

  Pitiful toward us;

  Thine, O goddess, turning hither

  A benignant blameless brow;

  Seeing enough of evil done

  And lives withered as leaves wither

  In the blasting of the sun;

  Seeing enough of hunters dead,

  Ruin enough of all our year,

  Herds and harvests slain and shed,

  Herdsmen stricken many an one,

  Fruits and flocks consumed together,

  And great length of deadly days.

  Yet with reverent lips and fear

  Turn we toward thee, turn and praise

  For this lightening of clear weather

  And prosperities begun.

  For not seldom, when all air

  As bright water without breath

  Shines, and when men fear not, fate

  Without thunder unaware

  Breaks, and brings down death.

  Joy with grief ye great gods give,

  Good with bad, and overbear

  All the pride of us that live,

  All the high estate,

  As ye long since overbore,

  As in old time long before,

  Many a strong man and a great,

  All that were.