SELECTIONS IK ENGLISH POETRY
Because thou hast forgotten utterly
What things she taught thee that men call divine,
Or will thy measures but lead folk to wine,
And scented beds, and not to noble deeds ? 95
Or will they fail as fail the shepherd's reeds
Before the trumpet, when these sea-witches
Pipe shrilly to the washing of the seas?
I am a man, and these but beasts, but thou
Giving these souls, that all were men ere now 100
Shall be a very God and not a man !'
So spake he: but his fingers Orpheus ran
Over the strings, and sighing turned away
From that fair ending of the sunny bay ;
But as his well-skilled hands were preluding 105
What his heart swelled with, they began to sing
With pleading voices from the yellow sands.
Clustered together, with appealing hands
Reached out to Argo as she turned away,
While o'er their white limbs flew the flakes of spray,
Since they spared not to set white feet among 111
The cold waves heedless of their honied song.
Sweetly they sung, and still the answer came
Piercing and clear from him, as bursts the flame
From out the furnace in the moonless night; 115
Yet, as their words are no more known aright
Through lapse of many ages, and no man
Can any more across the waters wan
Behold those singing women of the sea,
Once more I pray you all to pardon me, 120
If with my feeble voice and harsh I sing
From what dim memories may chance to cling
About men's hearts, of lovely things once sung
Besides the sea, while yet the world was young.
319