If Thou in very truth didst burst the tomb
Come down, O Son of Man! and show Thy might
Lest Mahomet be crowned instead of Thee!
Poem: Quantum Mutata
There was a time in Europe long ago
When no man died for freedom anywhere,
But England's lion leaping from its lair
Laid hands on the oppressor! it was so
While England could a great Republic show.
Witness the men of Piedmont, chiefest care
Of Cromwell, when with impotent despair
The Pontiff in his painted portico
Trembled before our stern ambassadors.
How comes it then that from such high estate
We have thus fallen, save that Luxury
With
barrenmerchandise piles up the gate
Where noble thoughts and deeds should enter by:
Else might we still be Milton's heritors.
Poem: Libertatis Sacra Fames
Albeit nurtured in democracy,
And
liking best that state
republican
Where every man is Kinglike and no man
Is crowned above his fellows, yet I see,
Spite of this modern fret for Liberty,
Better the rule of One, whom all obey,
Than to let
clamorous demagogues betray
Our freedom with the kiss of anarchy.
Wherefore I love them not whose hands profane
Plant the red flag upon the piled-up street
For no right cause, beneath whose
ignorant reign
Arts, Culture, Reverence, Honour, all things fade,
Save Treason and the
dagger of her trade,
Or Murder with his silent
bloody feet.
Poem: Theoretikos
This
mighty empire hath but feet of clay:
Of all its ancient
chivalry and might
Our little island is
forsaken quite:
Some enemy hath
stolen its crown of bay,
And from its hills that voice hath passed away
Which spake of Freedom: O come out of it,
Come out of it, my Soul, thou art not fit
For this vile traffic-house, where day by day
Wisdom and
reverence are sold at mart,
And the rude people rage with
ignorant cries
Against an
heritage of centuries.
It mars my calm:
wherefore in dreams of Art
And loftiest
culture I would stand apart,
Neither for God, nor for his enemies.
Poem: The Garden Of Eros
It is full summer now, the heart of June;
Not yet the sunburnt reapers are astir
Upon the
uplandmeadow where too soon
Rich autumn time, the season's usurer,
Will lend his hoarded gold to all the trees,
And see his treasure scattered by the wild and spendthrift breeze.
Too soon indeed! yet here the daffodil,
That love-child of the Spring, has
lingered on
To vex the rose with
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jealousy, and still
The harebell spreads her azure pavilion,
And like a strayed and wandering reveller
Abandoned of its brothers, whom long since June's messenger
The missel-thrush has frighted from the glade,
One pale narcissus loiters fearfully
Close to a
shadowy nook, where half afraid
Of their own
loveliness some
violets lie
That will not look the gold sun in the face
For fear of too much splendour, - ah!
methinks it is a place
Which should be trodden by Persephone
When wearied of the flowerless fields of Dis!
Or danced on by the lads of Arcady!
The
hidden secret of
eternal bliss
Known to the Grecian here a man might find,
Ah! you and I may find it now if Love and Sleep be kind.
There are the flowers which
mourning Herakles
Strewed on the tomb of Hylas, columbine,
Its white doves all a-flutter where the breeze
Kissed them too
harshly, the small celandine,
That yellow-kirtled chorister of eve,
And lilac lady's-smock, - but let them bloom alone, and leave
Yon spired hollyhock red-crocketed
To sway its silent chimes, else must the bee,
Its little bellringer, go seek instead
Some other pleasaunce; the anemone
That weeps at
daybreak, like a silly girl
Before her love, and hardly lets the butterflies unfurl
Their painted wings beside it, - bid it pine
In pale virginity; the winter snow
Will suit it better than those lips of thine
Whose fires would but
scorch it, rather go
And pluck that amorous flower which blooms alone,
Fed by the
pander wind with dust of kisses not its own.
The trumpet-mouths of red convolvulus
So dear to maidens,
creamymeadow-sweet
Whiter than Juno's
throat and odorous
As all Arabia, hyacinths the feet
Of Huntress Dian would be loth to mar
For any dappled fawn, - pluck these, and those fond flowers which
are
Fairer than what Queen Venus trod upon
Beneath the pines of Ida, eucharis,
That morning star which does not dread the sun,
And budding marjoram which but to kiss
Would
sweeten Cytheraea's lips and make
Adonis
jealous, - these for thy head, - and for thy
girdle take
Yon curving spray of
purple clematis
Whose
gorgeous dye outflames the Tyrian King,
And foxgloves with their nodding chalices,
But that one narciss which the startled Spring
Let from her kirtle fall when first she heard
In her own woods the wild tempestuous song of summer's bird,
Ah! leave it for a subtle memory
Of those sweet
tremulous days of rain and sun,
When April laughed between her tears to see
The early
primrose with shy footsteps run
From the gnarled oak-tree roots till all the wold,
Spite of its brown and trampled leaves, grew bright with shimmering
gold.
Nay, pluck it too, it is not half so sweet
As thou thyself, my soul's idolatry!
And when thou art a-wearied at thy feet
Shall oxlips weave their brightest tapestry,
For thee the woodbine shall forget its pride
And veil its tangled whorls, and thou shalt walk on daisies pied.
And I will cut a reed by yonder spring
And make the wood-gods
jealous, and old Pan
Wonder what young
intruder dares to sing
In these still haunts, where never foot of man
Should tread at evening, lest he chance to spy
The
marble limbs of Artemis and all her company.
And I will tell thee why the jacinth wears
Such dread
embroidery of dolorous moan,
And why the
haplessnightingale forbears
To sing her song at noon, but weeps alone
When the fleet
swallow sleeps, and rich men feast,
And why the
laurel trembles when she sees the lightening east.
And I will sing how sad Proserpina
Unto a grave and
gloomy Lord was wed,
And lure the silver-breasted Helena
Back from the lotus
meadows of the dead,
So shalt thou see that awful
lovelinessFor which two
mighty Hosts met fearfully in war's abyss!
And then I'll pipe to thee that Grecian tale
How Cynthia loves the lad Endymion,
And
hidden in a grey and misty veil
Hies to the cliffs of Latmos once the Sun
Leaps from his ocean bed in fruitless chase
Of those pale flying feet which fade away in his embrace.
And if my flute can breathe sweet melody,
We may behold Her face who long ago
Dwelt among men by the AEgean sea,
And whose sad house with pillaged portico
And friezeless wall and columns toppled down
Looms o'er the ruins of that fair and
violet cinctured town.
Spirit of Beauty! tarry still awhile,
They are not dead, thine ancient votaries;
Some few there are to whom thy
radiant smile
Is better than a thousand victories,
Though all the nobly slain of Waterloo
Rise up in wrath against them! tarry still, there are a few
Who for thy sake would give their manlihood
And
consecrate their being; I at least
Have done so, made thy lips my daily food,
And in thy temples found a goodlier feast
Than this starved age can give me, spite of all
Its new-found creeds so sceptical and so dogmatical.
Here not Cephissos, not Ilissos flows,
The woods of white Colonos are not here,
On our bleak hills the olive never blows,
No simple
priest conducts his lowing steer
Up the steep
marble way, nor through the town
Do laughing maidens bear to thee the crocus-flowered gown.
Yet tarry! for the boy who loved thee best,
Whose very name should be a memory
To make thee
linger, sleeps in silent rest
Beneath the Roman walls, and melody
Still mourns her sweetest lyre; none can play
The lute of Adonais: with his lips Song passed away.
Nay, when Keats died the Muses still had left
One silver voice to sing his threnody,
But ah! too soon of it we were bereft
When on that riven night and stormy sea
Panthea claimed her
singer as her own,
And slew the mouth that praised her; since which time we walk
alone,
Save for that fiery heart, that morning star
Of re-arisen England, whose clear eye
Saw from our tottering
throne and waste of war
The grand Greek limbs of young Democracy
Rise mightily like Hesperus and bring
The great Republic! him at least thy love hath taught to sing,
And he hath been with thee at Thessaly,
And seen white Atalanta fleet of foot
In passionless and
fierce virginity
Hunting the tusked boar, his honied lute
Hath pierced the
cavern of the hollow hill,
And Venus laughs to know one knee will bow before her still.
And he hath kissed the lips of Proserpine,
And sung the Galilaean's requiem,
That wounded
forehead dashed with blood and wine
He hath discrowned, the Ancient Gods in him
Have found their last, most
ardent worshipper,