章节正文
And seeing how there crouched upon his right,
Aghast with fear, a black Amalekite,
He called, and said: ``I pray thee, man of pain,
Red from the scourge, and recent from the chain,
Set thou thy face to mine, and stoutly stand
With yonder bloody sword-hilt in thy hand,
And fall upon me.'' But the faltering hind
Stood trembling, like a willow in the wind.
Then further Saul: ``Lest Ashdod's vaunting hosts
Should bear me captive to their bleak-blown coasts,
Page: 98
I pray thee, smite me: seeing peace has fled,
And rest lies wholly with the quiet dead.''
At this a flood of sunset broke, and smote
Keen, blazing sapphires round a kingly throat,
Touched arm and shoulder, glittered in the crest,
And made swift starlights on a jewelled breast!
So, starting forward, like a loosened hound,
The stranger clutched the sword and wheeled it round,
And struck the Lord's Anointed. Fierce and fleet
Philistia came, with shouts and clattering feet;
By gaping gorges and by rough defile,
Dark Ashdod beat across a dusty mile;
Hot Hazor's bowmen toiled from spire to spire,
And Gath sprangupwards, like a gust of fire;
On either side did Libnah's lords appear,
And brass-clad Timnath thundered in the rear.
``Mark, Achish, mark!'' - South-west and south there sped
A dabbled hireling from the dreadful dead!
``Mark, Achish, mark!'' - The mighty front of Saul,
Great in his life and god-like in his fall!
This was the arm that broke Philistia's pride,
Where Kishon chafes his seaward-going tide;
This was the sword that smote till set of sun
Red Gath, from Michmash unto Ajalon,
Low in the dust. And Israel scattered far!
And dead the trumps and crushed the hoofs of war!
Page: 99
So fell the king, as it was said by him
Who hid his forehead in a mantle dim
At bleak Endor, what time unholy rites
Vexed the long sleep of still Samarian heights:
For bowed to earth before the hoary Priest,
Did he of Kish withstand the smoking feast,
To fast, in darkness and in sackcloth rolled,
And house with wild things in the biting cold;
Because of sharpness lent to Gaza's sword,
And Judah widowed by the angry Lord.
So silence came! As when the outer verge
Of Carmel takes the white and whistling surge,
Hoarse hollow noises fill the caves and roar
Along the margin of the echoing shore,
Thus War had thundered! But as evening breaks
Across the silver of Assyrian lakes,
When reapers rest, and through the level red
Of sunset, peace like holy oil is shed,
Thus Silence fell; but Israel's daughters crept
Outside their thresholds, waited, watched, and wept.
Then they that dwell beyond the flats and fens
Of sullen Jordan, and in gelid glens
Of Jabesh-Gilead, chosen chiefs and few,
Around their loins the hasty girdle drew,
And faced the forests huddled fold on fold,
And dells of glimmering greenness manifold,
Page: 100
What time Orion in the west did set
A shining foot on hills of wind and wet:
These journeyed nightly till they reached the capes
Where Ashdod revelled over heated grapes;
And, while the feast was loud and scouts were turned,
From Saul's bound body cord by cord they burned,
And bore the king athwart the place of tombs,
And hasted eastward through the tufted glooms;
Nor broke the cake nor stayed the step till Morn
Shot over Debir's cones and crags forlorn.
From Jabesh then the weeping virgins came;
In Jabesh then they built the funeral flame;
With costly woods they piled the lordly pyre,
Brought yellow oils and fed the perfect fire;
While round the crescentstately Elders spread
The flashing armour of the mighty dead,
With crown and spear, and all the trophies won
From many wars by Israel's dreadful son.
Thence, when the feet of Evening paused and stood
On shadowy mountains and the roaring flood,
(As through a rushing twilight full of rain,
The weak moon looked athwart Gadara's plain),
The younger warriors bore the urn, and broke
The humid turf about a wintering oak,
And buried Saul; and, fasting, went their ways,
And hid their faces seven nights and days.
Page: 101
IN THE VALLEY
SAID the yellow-haired Spirit of Spring
To the white-footed Spirit of Snow,
``On the wings of the tempest take wing,
And leave me the valleys, and go.''
And, straightway, the streams were unchained,
And the frost-fettered torrents broke free,
And the strength of the winter-wind waned
In the dawn of a light on the sea.
Then a morning-breeze followed and fell,
And the woods were alive and astir
With the pulse of a song in the dell,
And a whisper of day in the fir.
Swift rings of sweet water were rolled
Down the ways where the lily-leaves grew,
And the green, and the white, and the gold,
Were wedded with purple and blue.
Page: 102
But the lips of the flower of the rose
Said, ``where is the ending hereof?
Is it sweet with you, life, at the close?
Is it sad to be emptied of love?''
And the voice of the flower of the peach
Was tender and touching in tone,
``When each has been grafted on each,
It is sorrow to live on alone.''
Then the leaves of the flower of the vine
Said, ``what will there be in the day
When the reapers are red with my wine,
And the forests are yellow and grey?''
And the tremulous flower of the quince
Made answer, ``three seasons ago
My sisters were star-like, but since,
Their graves have been made in the snow.''
Then the whispering flower of the fern
Said, ``who will be sad at the death,
When Summer blows over the burn,
With the fierceness of fire in her breath?''
And the mouth of the flower of the sedge
Was opened to murmur and sigh,
``Sweet wind-breaths that pause at the edge
Of the nightfall, and falter, and die.''
Page: 103
TWELVE SONNETS
I.
A MOUNTAIN SPRING.
PEACE hath an altar there. The sounding feet
Of thunder and the 'wildering wings of rain
Against fire-rifted summits flash and beat,
And through grey upper gorges swoop and strain;
But round that hallowed mountain-spring remain,
Year after year, the days of tender heat,
And gracious nights whose lips with flowers are sweet,
And filtered lights, and lutes of soft refrain.
A still bright pool. To men I may not tell
The secret that its heart of water knows -
The story of a loved and lost repose;
Yet this I say to cliff and close-leaved dell:
A fitful spirit haunts yon limpid well,
Whose likeness is the faithless face of Rose.
Page: 104
II.
LAURA
IF Laura - lady of the flower-soft face -
Should light upon these verses, she may take
The tenderest line, and through its pulses trace
What man can suffer for a woman's sake.
For in the nights that burn, the days that break,
A thin pale figure stands in Passion's place,
And peace comes not, nor yet the perished grace
Of youth, to keep old faiths and fires awake.
Ah! marvellous maid. Life sobs, and sighing saith,
``She left me, fleeting like a fluttered dove;
But I would have a moment of her breath,
So I might taste the sweetest sense thereof,
And catch from blossoming, honeyed lips of love
Some faint, some fair, some dim delicious death.''
Page: 105
III.
BY A RIVER
BY red ripe mouth and brown luxurious eyes
Of her I love, by all your sweetness shed
In far fair days, on one whose memory flies
To faithless lights, and gracious speech gainsaid,
I pray you, when yon river-path I tread,
Make with the woodlands some soft compromise
Lest they should vex me into fruitless sighs
With visions of a woman's gleaming head!
For every green and golden-hearted thing
That gathers beauty in that shining place,
Beloved of beams and wooed by wind and wing,
Is rife with glimpses of her marvellous face;
And in the whispers of the lips of Spring
The music of her lute-like voice I trace.
Page: 106
IV.
ATTILA.
WHAT though his feet were shod with sharp fierce flame,
And Death and Ruin were his daily squires,
The Scythian helped by Heaven's thunders came:
The time was ripe for God's avenging fires.
Lo, loose lewd trulls and lean luxurious liars
Had brought the fair fine face of Rome to shame
And made her one with sins beyond a name -
That queenly daughter of imperial sires!
The blood of elders like the blood of sheep
Was dashed across the circus! Once while din
And dust and lightnings, and a draggled heap
Of beast-slain men made lords with laughter leap,
Aghast with fear, a black Amalekite,
He called, and said: ``I pray thee, man of pain,
Red from the scourge, and recent from the chain,
Set thou thy face to mine, and stoutly stand
With yonder bloody sword-hilt in thy hand,
And fall upon me.'' But the faltering hind
Stood trembling, like a willow in the wind.
Then further Saul: ``Lest Ashdod's vaunting hosts
Should bear me captive to their bleak-blown coasts,
Page: 98
I pray thee, smite me: seeing peace has fled,
And rest lies wholly with the quiet dead.''
At this a flood of sunset broke, and smote
Keen, blazing sapphires round a kingly throat,
Touched arm and shoulder, glittered in the crest,
And made swift starlights on a jewelled breast!
So, starting forward, like a loosened hound,
The stranger clutched the sword and wheeled it round,
And struck the Lord's Anointed. Fierce and fleet
Philistia came, with shouts and clattering feet;
By gaping gorges and by rough defile,
Dark Ashdod beat across a dusty mile;
Hot Hazor's bowmen toiled from spire to spire,
And Gath sprangupwards, like a gust of fire;
On either side did Libnah's lords appear,
And brass-clad Timnath thundered in the rear.
``Mark, Achish, mark!'' - South-west and south there sped
A dabbled hireling from the dreadful dead!
``Mark, Achish, mark!'' - The mighty front of Saul,
Great in his life and god-like in his fall!
This was the arm that broke Philistia's pride,
Where Kishon chafes his seaward-going tide;
This was the sword that smote till set of sun
Red Gath, from Michmash unto Ajalon,
Low in the dust. And Israel scattered far!
And dead the trumps and crushed the hoofs of war!
Page: 99
So fell the king, as it was said by him
Who hid his forehead in a mantle dim
At bleak Endor, what time unholy rites
Vexed the long sleep of still Samarian heights:
For bowed to earth before the hoary Priest,
Did he of Kish withstand the smoking feast,
To fast, in darkness and in sackcloth rolled,
And house with wild things in the biting cold;
Because of sharpness lent to Gaza's sword,
And Judah widowed by the angry Lord.
So silence came! As when the outer verge
Of Carmel takes the white and whistling surge,
Hoarse hollow noises fill the caves and roar
Along the margin of the echoing shore,
Thus War had thundered! But as evening breaks
Across the silver of Assyrian lakes,
When reapers rest, and through the level red
Of sunset, peace like holy oil is shed,
Thus Silence fell; but Israel's daughters crept
Outside their thresholds, waited, watched, and wept.
Then they that dwell beyond the flats and fens
Of sullen Jordan, and in gelid glens
Of Jabesh-Gilead, chosen chiefs and few,
Around their loins the hasty girdle drew,
And faced the forests huddled fold on fold,
And dells of glimmering greenness manifold,
Page: 100
What time Orion in the west did set
A shining foot on hills of wind and wet:
These journeyed nightly till they reached the capes
Where Ashdod revelled over heated grapes;
And, while the feast was loud and scouts were turned,
From Saul's bound body cord by cord they burned,
And bore the king athwart the place of tombs,
And hasted eastward through the tufted glooms;
Nor broke the cake nor stayed the step till Morn
Shot over Debir's cones and crags forlorn.
From Jabesh then the weeping virgins came;
In Jabesh then they built the funeral flame;
With costly woods they piled the lordly pyre,
Brought yellow oils and fed the perfect fire;
While round the crescentstately Elders spread
The flashing armour of the mighty dead,
With crown and spear, and all the trophies won
From many wars by Israel's dreadful son.
Thence, when the feet of Evening paused and stood
On shadowy mountains and the roaring flood,
(As through a rushing twilight full of rain,
The weak moon looked athwart Gadara's plain),
The younger warriors bore the urn, and broke
The humid turf about a wintering oak,
And buried Saul; and, fasting, went their ways,
And hid their faces seven nights and days.
Page: 101
IN THE VALLEY
SAID the yellow-haired Spirit of Spring
To the white-footed Spirit of Snow,
``On the wings of the tempest take wing,
And leave me the valleys, and go.''
And, straightway, the streams were unchained,
And the frost-fettered torrents broke free,
And the strength of the winter-wind waned
In the dawn of a light on the sea.
Then a morning-breeze followed and fell,
And the woods were alive and astir
With the pulse of a song in the dell,
And a whisper of day in the fir.
Swift rings of sweet water were rolled
Down the ways where the lily-leaves grew,
And the green, and the white, and the gold,
Were wedded with purple and blue.
Page: 102
But the lips of the flower of the rose
Said, ``where is the ending hereof?
Is it sweet with you, life, at the close?
Is it sad to be emptied of love?''
And the voice of the flower of the peach
Was tender and touching in tone,
``When each has been grafted on each,
It is sorrow to live on alone.''
Then the leaves of the flower of the vine
Said, ``what will there be in the day
When the reapers are red with my wine,
And the forests are yellow and grey?''
And the tremulous flower of the quince
Made answer, ``three seasons ago
My sisters were star-like, but since,
Their graves have been made in the snow.''
Then the whispering flower of the fern
Said, ``who will be sad at the death,
When Summer blows over the burn,
With the fierceness of fire in her breath?''
And the mouth of the flower of the sedge
Was opened to murmur and sigh,
``Sweet wind-breaths that pause at the edge
Of the nightfall, and falter, and die.''
Page: 103
TWELVE SONNETS
I.
A MOUNTAIN SPRING.
PEACE hath an altar there. The sounding feet
Of thunder and the 'wildering wings of rain
Against fire-rifted summits flash and beat,
And through grey upper gorges swoop and strain;
But round that hallowed mountain-spring remain,
Year after year, the days of tender heat,
And gracious nights whose lips with flowers are sweet,
And filtered lights, and lutes of soft refrain.
A still bright pool. To men I may not tell
The secret that its heart of water knows -
The story of a loved and lost repose;
Yet this I say to cliff and close-leaved dell:
A fitful spirit haunts yon limpid well,
Whose likeness is the faithless face of Rose.
Page: 104
II.
LAURA
IF Laura - lady of the flower-soft face -
Should light upon these verses, she may take
The tenderest line, and through its pulses trace
What man can suffer for a woman's sake.
For in the nights that burn, the days that break,
A thin pale figure stands in Passion's place,
And peace comes not, nor yet the perished grace
Of youth, to keep old faiths and fires awake.
Ah! marvellous maid. Life sobs, and sighing saith,
``She left me, fleeting like a fluttered dove;
But I would have a moment of her breath,
So I might taste the sweetest sense thereof,
And catch from blossoming, honeyed lips of love
Some faint, some fair, some dim delicious death.''
Page: 105
III.
BY A RIVER
BY red ripe mouth and brown luxurious eyes
Of her I love, by all your sweetness shed
In far fair days, on one whose memory flies
To faithless lights, and gracious speech gainsaid,
I pray you, when yon river-path I tread,
Make with the woodlands some soft compromise
Lest they should vex me into fruitless sighs
With visions of a woman's gleaming head!
For every green and golden-hearted thing
That gathers beauty in that shining place,
Beloved of beams and wooed by wind and wing,
Is rife with glimpses of her marvellous face;
And in the whispers of the lips of Spring
The music of her lute-like voice I trace.
Page: 106
IV.
ATTILA.
WHAT though his feet were shod with sharp fierce flame,
And Death and Ruin were his daily squires,
The Scythian helped by Heaven's thunders came:
The time was ripe for God's avenging fires.
Lo, loose lewd trulls and lean luxurious liars
Had brought the fair fine face of Rome to shame
And made her one with sins beyond a name -
That queenly daughter of imperial sires!
The blood of elders like the blood of sheep
Was dashed across the circus! Once while din
And dust and lightnings, and a draggled heap
Of beast-slain men made lords with laughter leap,
- bloody [´blʌdi]
a.(流)血的；血腥的 (初中英语单词) - willow [´wiləu] n.柳树 (初中英语单词)
- captive [´kæptiv] n.俘虏；捕获物 (初中英语单词)
- wholly [´həul-li] ad.完全，十足；统统 (初中英语单词)
- sunset [´sʌnset] n.日落；晚霞 (初中英语单词)
- fierce [fiəs] a.残忍的；强烈的 (初中英语单词)
- sprang [spræŋ] spring 的过去式 (初中英语单词)
- dreadful [´dredful] a.可怕的；讨厌的 (初中英语单词)
- forehead [´fɔrid] n.额，前部 (初中英语单词)
- funeral [´fju:nərəl] n.葬礼，丧葬；困难 (初中英语单词)
- costly [´kɔstli] a.昂贵的；费用大的 (初中英语单词)
- armour [´ɑ:mə] (=armor) n.甲胄，盔甲 (初中英语单词)
- twilight [´twailait] n.黎明；黄昏 (初中英语单词)
- whisper [´wispə] v.耳语 n.低语；沙沙声 (初中英语单词)
- purple [´pə:pl] n.紫色 a.紫(红)的 (初中英语单词)
- thunder [´θʌndə] n.雷 vi.打雷 vt.吼出 (初中英语单词)
- gracious [´greiʃəs] a.和蔼可亲的；任慈的 (初中英语单词)
- delicious [di´liʃəs] a.美味的，可口的 (初中英语单词)
- imperial [im´piəriəl] a.帝国的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
- laughter [´lɑ:ftə] n.笑，笑声 (初中英语单词)
- seeing [si:iŋ] see的现在分词 n.视觉 (高中英语单词)
- scourge [skə:dʒ] v.&n.鞭(打)；严惩 (高中英语单词)
- mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
- israel [´izreiəl] n.以色列 (高中英语单词)
- mantle [´mæntl] n.斗蓬 v.覆盖；笼罩 (高中英语单词)
- margin [´mɑ:dʒin] n.边缘；空白；余地 (高中英语单词)
- sullen [´sʌlən] a.不高兴的 (高中英语单词)
- girdle [´gə:dl] n.腰带 vt.用带束(缠) (高中英语单词)
- stately [´steitli] a.庄严的，雄伟的 (高中英语单词)
- shadowy [´ʃædəui] a.有阴影的；模糊的 (高中英语单词)
- tempest [´tempist] n.暴风雨 (高中英语单词)
- straightway [´streitwei] ad.立刻 (高中英语单词)
- ending [´endiŋ] n.结尾，结局 (高中英语单词)
- falter [´fɔ:ltə] vi.蹒跚；犹豫；疲软 (高中英语单词)
- likeness [´laiknis] n.相似；肖像；外表 (高中英语单词)
- sweetness [´swi:tnis] n.甜蜜；芳香；亲切 (高中英语单词)
- kingly [´kiŋli] a.国王的 ad.国王似地 (英语四级单词)
- upwards [´ʌpwədz] ad.=upward (英语四级单词)
- withstand [wið´stænd] vt.抵抗，经得起 (英语四级单词)
- jordan [´dʒɔ:dn] n.约旦 (英语四级单词)
- nightly [´naitli] a.&ad.每夜(的) (英语四级单词)
- eastward [´i:stwəd] a.&ad.向东(的) (英语四级单词)
- crescent [´kresənt] n.月牙 a.新月形的 (英语四级单词)
- wedded [´wedid] a.(已)结婚的；献身的 (英语四级单词)
- touching [´tʌtʃiŋ] a.动人的 prep.提到 (英语四级单词)
- hallowed [´hæləud] a.神圣的，崇高的 (英语四级单词)
- luxurious [lʌg´zjuəriəs] a.奢侈的；豪华的 (英语四级单词)
- biting [´baitiŋ] a.刺痛的；尖利的 (英语六级单词)
- assyrian [ə´siriən] a.亚述人的 n.亚述人 (英语六级单词)
- weeping [´wi:piŋ] a.&n.哭泣(的) (英语六级单词)
- lordly [´lɔ:dli] a.高贵的；高傲的 (英语六级单词)
- tremulous [´tremjuləs] a.发抖的；震颤的 (英语六级单词)
- fierceness [´fiəsnis] n.凶恶，残忍 (英语六级单词)
- nightfall [´nait,fɔ:l] n.黄昏；傍晚 (英语六级单词)
- faithless [´feiθləs] a.不忠的；虚假的 (英语六级单词)
- fleeting [´fli:tiŋ] a.飞逝的，疾驰的 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
章节正文
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