The little fauns have left the hill,
Even the tired daffodil
Has closed its gilded doors, and still
My lover comes not back to me.
False moon! False moon! O waning moon!
Where is my own true lover gone,
Where are the lips vermilion,
The
shepherd's crook, the
purple shoon?
Why spread that silver pavilion,
Why wear that veil of drifting mist?
Ah! thou hast young Endymion,
Thou hast the lips that should be kissed!
Poem: La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente
My limbs are wasted with a flame,
My feet are sore with travelling,
For,
calling on my Lady's name,
My lips have now forgot to sing.
O Linnet in the wild-rose brake
Strain for my Love thy melody,
O Lark sing louder for love's sake,
My gentle Lady passeth by.
She is too fair for any man
To see or hold his heart's delight,
Fairer than Queen or courtesan
Or
moonlit water in the night.
Her hair is bound with
myrtle leaves,
(Green leaves upon her golden hair!)
Green grasses through the yellow sheaves
Of autumn corn are not more fair.
Her little lips, more made to kiss
Than to cry
bitterly for pain,
Are
tremulous as brook-water is,
Or roses after evening rain.
Her neck is like white melilote
Flushing for pleasure of the sun,
The throbbing of the linnet's
throatIs not so sweet to look upon.
As a pomegranate, cut in twain,
White-seeded, is her
crimson mouth,
Her cheeks are as the fading stain
Where the peach reddens to the south.
O twining hands! O delicate
White body made for love and pain!
O House of love! O desolate
Pale flower
beaten by the rain!
Poem: Chanson
A ring of gold and a milk-white dove
Are
goodly gifts for thee,
And a hempen rope for your own love
To hang upon a tree.
For you a House of Ivory,
(Roses are white in the rose-bower)!
A narrow bed for me to lie,
(White, O white, is the
hemlock flower)!
Myrtle and jessamine for you,
(O the red rose is fair to see)!
For me the
cypress and the rue,
(Finest of all is rosemary)!
For you three lovers of your hand,
(Green grass where a man lies dead)!
For me three paces on the sand,
(Plant lilies at my head)!
Poem: Charmides
I.
He was a Grecian lad, who coming home
With pulpy figs and wine from Sicily
Stood at his galley's prow, and let the foam
Blow through his crisp brown curls unconsciously,
And
holding wave and wind in boy's despite
Peered from his dripping seat across the wet and stormy night.
Till with the dawn he saw a burnished spear
Like a thin thread of gold against the sky,
And hoisted sail, and strained the creaking gear,
And bade the pilot head her lustily
Against the nor'west gale, and all day long
Held on his way, and marked the rowers' time with measured song.
And when the faint Corinthian hills were red
Dropped
anchor in a little sandy bay,
And with fresh boughs of olive crowned his head,
And brushed from cheek and
throat the hoary spray,
And washed his limbs with oil, and from the hold
Brought out his linen tunic and his sandals
brazen-soled,
And a rich robe stained with the
fishers' juice
Which of some
swarthytrader he had bought
Upon the sunny quay at Syracuse,
And was with Tyrian broideries in
wrought,
And by the questioning merchants made his way
Up through the soft and silver woods, and when the labouring day
Had spun its tangled web of
crimson cloud,
Clomb the high hill, and with swift silent feet
Crept to the fane unnoticed by the crowd
Of busy
priests, and from some dark retreat
Watched the young swains his
frolic playmates bring
The firstling of their little flock, and the shy
shepherd fling
The crackling salt upon the flame, or hang
His studded crook against the
temple wall
To Her who keeps away the ravenous fang
Of the base wolf from
homestead and from stall;
And then the clear-voiced maidens 'gan to sing,
And to the altar each man brought some
goodly offering,
A beechen cup brimming with milky foam,
A fair cloth
wrought with
cunning imagery
Of hounds in chase, a waxen honey-comb
Dripping with oozy gold which
scarce the bee
Had ceased from building, a black skin of oil
Meet for the wrestlers, a great boar the
fierce and white-tusked
spoil
Stolen from Artemis that
jealous maid
To please Athena, and the dappled hide
Of a tall stag who in some mountain glade
Had met the shaft; and then the
herald cried,
And from the pillared
precinct one by one
Went the glad Greeks well pleased that they their simple vows had
done.
And the old
priest put out the waning fires
Save that one lamp whose
restless ruby glowed
For ever in the cell, and the
shrill lyres
Came fainter on the wind, as down the road
In
joyous dance these country folk did pass,
And with stout hands the warder closed the gates of polished brass.
Long time he lay and hardly dared to breathe,
And heard the cadenced drip of spilt-out wine,
And the rose-petals falling from the wreath
As the night breezes wandered through the shrine,
And seemed to be in some entranced swoon
Till through the open roof above the full and brimming moon
Flooded with sheeny waves the
marble floor,
When from his nook up leapt the venturous lad,
And flinging wide the cedar-carven door
Beheld an awful image saffron-clad
And armed for battle! the gaunt Griffin glared
From the huge helm, and the long lance of wreck and ruin flared
Like a red rod of flame, stony and steeled
The Gorgon's head its leaden eyeballs rolled,
And writhed its snaky horrors through the shield,
And gaped
aghast with bloodless lips and cold
In
passion impotent, while with blind gaze
The blinking owl between the feet hooted in
shrill amaze.
The
lonelyfisher as he trimmed his lamp
Far out at sea off Sunium, or cast
The net for tunnies, heard a
brazen tramp
Of horses smite the waves, and a wild blast
Divide the folded curtains of the night,
And knelt upon the little poop, and prayed in holy fright.
And
guilty lovers in their venery
Forgat a little while their
stolen sweets,
Deeming they heard dread Dian's bitter cry;
And the grim watchmen on their lofty seats
Ran to their shields in haste precipitate,
Or strained black-bearded
throats across the dusky parapet.
For round the
temple rolled the clang of arms,
And the twelve Gods leapt up in
marble fear,
And the air quaked with dissonant alarums
Till huge Poseidon shook his
mighty spear,
And on the
frieze the prancing horses neighed,
And the low tread of hurrying feet rang from the cavalcade.
Ready for death with parted lips he stood,
And well content at such a price to see
That calm wide brow, that terrible maidenhood,
The
marvel of that
pitiless chastity,
Ah! well content indeed, for never wight
Since Troy's young
shepherdprince had seen so wonderful a sight.
Ready for death he stood, but lo! the air
Grew silent, and the horses ceased to neigh,
And off his brow he tossed the clustering hair,
And from his limbs he throw the cloak away;
For whom would not such love make desperate?
And nigher came, and touched her
throat, and with hands violate
Undid the cuirass, and the crocus gown,
And bared the breasts of polished ivory,
Till from the waist the peplos falling down
Left
visible the secret mystery
Which to no lover will Athena show,
The grand cool flanks, the
crescent thighs, the bossy hills of
snow.
Those who have never known a lover's sin
Let them not read my ditty, it will be
To their dull ears so musicless and thin
That they will have no joy of it, but ye
To whose wan cheeks now creeps the lingering smile,
Ye who have
learned who Eros is, - O listen yet awhile.
A little space he let his
greedy eyes
Rest on the burnished image, till mere sight
Half swooned for surfeit of such luxuries,
And then his lips in hungering delight
Fed on her lips, and round the towered neck
He flung his arms, nor cared at all his
passion's will to check.
Never I ween did lover hold such tryst,
For all night long he murmured honeyed word,
And saw her sweet unravished limbs, and kissed
Her pale and argent body undisturbed,
And paddled with the polished
throat, and pressed
His hot and
beating heart upon her chill and icy breast.
It was as if Numidian javelins
Pierced through and through his wild and whirling brain,
And his nerves thrilled like throbbing violins
In
exquisite pulsation, and the pain
Was such sweet
anguish that he never drew
His lips from hers till
overhead the lark of
warning flew.
They who have never seen the
daylight peer
Into a darkened room, and drawn the curtain,