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fnW^lif 



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1 



SILENUS 



\ 




T 



S I L E N U S 



H 27 V a 



BY 

THOMAS WOOLNER 



MACMILLAN AND CO. 

1884 

T^ ri^hi ofiramhUion is rfsetvftL 



•I 



I 



f 



CONTENTS. 



PART FIRST. 



Book I. Pan. Death of Syrinx 

II. Return of Silenus 

III. Punishment of Pan . 

IV. Sorrow of Silenus . 
V. Dionysus 



FAGS 
I 

17 
25 

43 
54 



PART SECOND 

Book I. Silenus Fallen 

II. Pallas Athena 

III. Call of Silenus 

IV. Death of Silenus 
V. Threnody. Lament of Women 



71 
92 

105 

114 

127 



o 



PART FIRST 



;r 



BOOK I. 

SiLENUS, radiant as a summer morn, 
Smiling exultant in the might of youth, 
Loved of the loveliest, Syrinx ; in her grace 
Surpassing swallows turning on the wing 
At even over water brimmed with gold. 

And Syrinx loved Silenus. Never yet 
Until he loved her had the nymph been moved 
By other than the love of tranquil streams ; 
The witchery of birds ; flowers, and the growth 
Of woodlands wild, and woodland happiness. 

But they must part; these lovers fair and 
true ; 
For he with Dionysus now must range 

B 



Tt 



2 SILENUS. [parti. 

Far Indian lands to bear the pregnant vine ; 
Compelled by prime affection's ancient bond 
To labour for the God wherever led. 
Self-thwarting, therefore, in his love content 
The dear delight awaiting him delayed 
Till his return. 

And Syrinx drooped not tho' 
No more beholding at the dewy dawn 
Her lover's advent thro' the morning sun 
To take her in his arms. Tho' now no more 
She felt his living kisses drain her soul ; 
The memory of his presenqe and his love. 
Made every day a wonder full of joy, 
And gave the darkness such auroral dreams 
She fain on waking sank again to sleep. 

Ofttinies beside a solitary pool 
She looked down laughing to her face within. 
Wondering what passages of grace it bore 
Beyond the grace of other forest nymphs 
That won her Demigod to gaze entranced 1 



BOOK I.] SILENUS. 3 

One summer noon in idle bliss she lay 
Fingered by slender grass, and flower-bekissed, 
Her glances wandering daintily adown 
Those undulating beauties half concealed, 
He ever likened unto all things fair ! 
Pleased with his similes, she stretched her limbs 
Their utmost gleaming length, and moving tossed 
Aside her garment that her beauty lay 
Open and perfect to the wistful wind. 

Enfolded arms behind her resting head 
Eyes half-way closed, she dreamed of gladness 

past 
And joy to come, when she should hold her 

Love 
Safe in her arms, and lose him nevermore. 
Tho' fair the dream she felt her will enthralled. 
And some uncertain fear of danger nigh 
That hovered thro' the changes of her bliss. 
With all too broad a gaze shone the bright day ; 
From overhanging branches little birds 
Pried curiously ; and hovering butterflies, 



4 SILENUS. [PAST L 

Familiarly descending on her channs, 
Outspread thdr glimmering splendours ; while 

the spell 
Held her fast bound as Cepheus' chain held fast 
Andromeda's white beauty, whereon glared 
Poseidon's dreadful monster of the sea. 
Thus tranced she lay in durance, till a flush 
Of twittering birds, dived in the neighbouring 

shade, 
And in the leaves a rustling near, unlike 
The peaceable soft wind, lifted her gaze 
Where stared two brilliant goat-eyes ; cheeks 

agrin. 
Ruddy and strained ; and long white clashii^ 

teeth! 

" O tempting nymph ; fairly and plainly done ; 
I saw thee spurn the foolish folds away ; 
Well conscious they were not the charm I sought, 
In that I munch the kernel not the shell. 
Praise thou shall have, for rarely can be seen 



BOOK I.] SILENUS. 5 

Temptation in more captivating shape. 
More softly moulded to ensure my joy ! 
Then why delay ? If hungry, and the fruit 
Hang ripe before us, why not pluck and eat? 
Thou canst not ripening more richly blush. 
Nor I more hungered wax. Ah, then be 

wise. 
Frankly embrace the offering of Fate, 
And pass with me to immortality." 

" Away, thou evil-spoken, misformed God ! 
Who thief-like crouched and slyly watched to 

gloat 
In stolen espial on my quietude. 
Swine that crunch acorns and that grunt are 

tuned 
As much to clemency and tender care 
For purity of earthly maid or nymph 
As thou art, God of goats insatiate ! 
Know thou this beauty, that excites thy hope 
To hateful grinning leer, shall never know 



6 SILENUS. [PART I. 

The touch of even an Olympian God, 

Nay, not if mighty Zeus himself should smile, 

To thwart Silenus, who commands my love." 

" Prettily spoken, O voluptuous nymph ! 
Another wile to fan the flame yet higher 
By coy resistance irresistible ! 
Erewhile I said rarely had beauty been 
Temptation in more captivating shape ; 
But now so glowingly hath passion's fire 
Inspired its blushes to the full-blown rose, 
No other fruit can blush so ripe and sweet 
To quench with sweetness lips of God athirst. 
Then heed the speeding chance ; in forest 

shade 
Let us away to regions unexplored." 

"You may perversely close your eyes from 
light. 
In feigning bluntness to a plain intent ; 
But now my meaning you shall not mistake. 



BOOK I.] SILENUS. 7 

An easier task it were to make a doe 

Feed upon garbage than to spirit me 

By flatteries rank within thy loathly arms. 

A nymph am I perfect in life ; and pure 

As any flower breathing its native air. 

The wind and streams, the sparkling summer 

showers 
That waken laughter in delighted leaves, 
And music from the flowery grass, have been 
Companions I have loved from infancy ; 
And tuneful songsters from my fingers feed. 
Why should I leave this fair Elysian world 
For horror, darkness, and my own contempt ? " 

"Nay, Syrinx, mine, by conquest justified, 
Gazing unhindered on thy beauty thrown 
Consentingly wide open to the day ! 
If I sagaciously can scent my game 
And track to capture, must I then forego 
My natural recompense because the prize 
Loves freedom better than fair forfeiture ? 



8 SILENUS. [PART I. 

What can thy beauty do against my strength ? 

Merely increase itself in vain aflfray, 

Making my strength grow stronger with the 

strife ! 
Unwisely rash, shouldst thou 'attempt escape, 
And flutter uselessly thy milky breath ; 
What could outstrip my rapid-leaping hoofs. 
Whose clatter calls the nymph and satyr 

throngs, 
Hands spread, to admiration as I flit : 
One hoof drawn tight to ' ham, down click ; 

anon 
The other up, down click ; and then along 
The rocky river margin click on click ; 
Till envious birds would interchange their wings 
For hoofs whose nimble play outspeeds the 

wind ! " 

Whereat, high -puffed in pride, the goat- 
legged God 
Crying to Syrinx, " Now, behold ! Behold ! " 



BOOK I.] SILENUS. 9 

Went at a rate to prove no wily boast 
His threat of certain capture in the chase. 
As she beheld afar his goat-limbs wane, 
And vanishing, his upper man-shaped form 
Seemed moved by will alone ; suddenly then 
Hope smiled and beckoned her the other way ; 
And, like a creature hunted for its life, 
She flew toward the sheltering river sedge ; 
But scarce had started ere the crafty God 
Caught her intent and, as on pivot, turned ; 
And had he been a prey-bent vulture winged 
He had not grown more rapidly to view 
While leaping over the dividing space. 

Tho' fleeing at her utmost swiftness she 
Back glancing saw his fiery eyes astart. 
And hands, tho' shut and fast against his sides, 
That might at any moment snatch and seize. 
Shone near, gloomed far those waters of de- 
spair ! 
Twice doubling she was headed from her course, 



lo SILENUS. [part l 

Hard followed by the hoofs' terrific click 

At length the river! Breathing smote her 

cheeky 
And one red claw clutching her bosom tore 
Its tender beauty as she swerving plunged 
Deep in its water to escape the God. 

The Demon waited by the water's edge, 
Until for lack of breath she should arise, 
When easy pastime then for him to bear 
Her unresisting, to the woodland shade, 
And leisurely devour the passive fruit. 

But Syrinx, sinking to the river bed, 
Anchored her fingers in the rooted sedge. 
Devoted to Silenus she resolved 
To hold them till she died, rather than live 
And glance again at those red eyes of hell. 
While thus against her own young life she 

strove, 
Great Artemis, loving the forest nymph. 



BOOK I.] SILENUS. II 

In pity flashed a brightness thro* her brain, 
And smote her agony to sudden peace ! 

From that deep river-bed dream-borne she 
passed 
Straightway again to happy infancy, 
When danced the butterflies to laughing flowers ; 
When merry music in tumultuous froth 
The maidens milked from kine at evenfall ; 
When cheery reapers sheared the standing corn. 
And danced at twilight in the jocund hour 
When sunshine waned into the harvest moon 
Lighting the chase, the capture, and the kiss ! 

Then shone that day of glory when her 
fate 
Surrendered to Silenus on the hills ! 

That day when tempted by the forest gloom 
She rambled where huge over-clambered trees 
Immeshed in trailers showered bright blossoms 

down 
In odorous stars at every passing breeze. 



12 SILENUS. [parti. 

Where twisting freshets sparkled from the rock, 
And birds atwitter by the shallow pools 
Curtseyed and sipped, or bathed their fluttering 

wings. 
Where brooding splendour lay athwart the grass 
Her feet must traverse ere she could ascend 
The blessed pathway winding through the cliff 
Toward regions trodden by Immortals' feet ! 

O what a far-off world in one long stretch 
Of lustrous mist and azure mountain-range 
Floating on foam of oceanic light ! 

Heedless of distance, onward eagerly 
She drank new joy with every quickened breath, 
And every breath winged onward her desire 
Beyond the beauty seen ; transcending all 
She hitherto had known. 

But hark ! Alarmed, 
Her sense awoke to harsh reality ; 
Hearing hard by a roaring, as of clouds 
Bursting in horror. Lo, a raging bull. 
Stupendous, tearing the scorned earth to dust. 



BOOK I.] SILENUS. 13 

Lowering his horns, made at the nymph direct ; 
When, conscious was she of a shadowy hand 
Casting her swiftly on a heap of bines 
That sinking bounded with her as in sport ; 
Of some great mighty Shape hurling a spear 
Slantwise against the brute, that checked, then 

turned. 
And charged again : and thereupon the Shape, 
Lifting a splintered fragment of the rock. 
Struck his curled brow and crushed the mon- 
ster's life ; 
And dragging the dark carcase to a cliff 
He thrust it down among the crags below. 
Then calmly smiling on her thus he spoke, 

** How came a nymph so young in these rough 
wilds 
With no protection rambling here alone ? \J^ 

" Syrinx am I ; I dwell in lower lands : 
The forest wonders opening as I came 



14 SILENUS. [part i. 

Lured me from space to space to ramble here. 
But whence art thou who saved me, slaying 

death 
With snatched-up fragment of the splintered 

rock ? " 

" Silenus I ; Olympian Hermes* son, 
Of Dionysus friend and follower. 
That splintered fragment saved thy lovely self 
From gored defacement and from mangled limbs ; 
And need of swiftness held the taint of chance. 
Else slaying bulls I count but lightsome play, 
As breaking necks of hares to puny man. 

** Approving once my strength Athena smiled. 
For when the banded Titans made assault 
To overthrow the dreaded power of Zeus ; 
Pallas, the winged one, soared, and gloaring 

down 
Alit before the mighty Virgin's feet. 
And strove to clutch Her garment She with- 
drew 



BOOK I.] SILENUS. 15 

A pace, and raised Her spear, and cleaved his 

brain. 
Knowing the Goddess would abhor the sight, 
Kindled to tenfold strength, grappling the 

bulk 
I dragged the mountain-monster to the edge 
And rolled his carcase down the Olympian wall. 
This bull that chilled thy blood to white 

dismay 
Had seemed a fuming pigmy alongside 
That evil Titan by Athena slain. 

** Let us now waive ungracious memories. 
And cherish what is near. Ah, were it dear 
To both as dear to me ! I never loved 
A Goddess, nymph, or mortal maid till now : 
And now, O Syrinx, my whole soul is thine ; 
Yield me thyself and let me know of love !" 

" I cannot else than love thee, Demigod ! 
To gaze on lovely ; gentle as the doves 
Taking the food I offer from my lips !" 



i6 SILENUS. [PART I. 

" If like thy doves, then like thy doves I take 
The food I long for from thy offering lips !" 

Ah, then the wild delight of clasp and kiss 
And drowning in forgetfulness ! The thrall 
Of mazed enchantment in those saving arms ; 
And rapture on the music of his heart 
Beating a lullaby to blessed sleep ! 

Thus happy died fair Syrinx ; in the flow 
Of never-ceasing water thro' the land 
Of pleasant shade that gave her beauty birth. 



BOOK II. 

From Indian heat where silent noons ablaze 
Dwarf men's dark shadows on the smouldering 

earth, 
And burn each aspect to the hue of shade, 
With Dionysus great Silenus came. 
Full of the starry light he knew would beam 
In rosy lustre from her countenance 
When he rejoicing should his Syrinx meet 
And babble wonders to her wondering ears. 

But when he heard how many a time the 
flowers 
Had bloomed and faded since his Love was 

seen ; 
And found no tongue to syllable a word ; 

C 



i8 SILENUS. [part i. 

No trace or sign whereby her lonely fate 
Might be pursued, he wandered wearily ; 
While gloom came over him like darkening 

clouds 
When gathered into storm they blot the day. 

" None breathed," he mused, '* whose cruelty 
would harm 
A nymph so tuned responsive to delight ! 
And had she been by bear or wolf devoured, 
Some ravelled scrap of raiment had been left, 
Caught in a thorn or blown against the sedge ; 
Something had told a tale or pointed clue !" 

Conjecture, weary, faltered in the trail ; 
And could not picture Syrinx sunk and drowned 
In water native to her limbs as heaven's 
Translucent azure to the flight of birds. 

But never more was Syrinx seen of nymph, 
Or mortal maid, or shepherd, as he loosed 
His bleating charges from the trampled fold. 
No longer from a lifted rock her voice 



BOOK n.] SILENUS. 19 

Was heard to hush the warblers of the wood ; 
While timid creatures sidling crept anear. 
Never more she with sprightly sister nymph 
Glode in the river, diving swiftly down 
To seize on twinkling fins of fish affright, 
Or from the surface flashed in lovely gleams. 
The deer she loved at wonted places stood, 
Waiting, expectant, for her hand's caress ; 
And all who knew her looks and gentle ways 
Lacked some contentment common to the day. 

Followed by forest shades that grew apace, 
Silenus, moving by the shining stream 
Listless, awoke to music, piercing, strange. 
Melodious wailing pitiful, that smote 
His heart to sorrowing for Syrinx lost. 
And coming near the sound, he saw where Pan 
Half lost in reeds, sat by the water's edge. 
Blowing pipes fastened side by side, in length 
Beyond a human span. 

So rapt was Pan 



20 SILENUS. [part i. 

In those wild notes he gave the listening wind, 
Silenus stood unmarked by him awhile ; 
But when their glances met, Pan, as if caught 
In crime, upstarting, stretched his arms and 
fled. 

'* Why flies he thus ?" Silenus mused. " What 
meant 
That guilty cringe, and glittering in his eyes ? 
Why should his music smite this heart with pain 
For my lost Syrinx? Syrinx loved him not 
Alas, how vain is thought ! Where may I find 
The voice to tell me where is Syrinx gone ?" 

While sighing thus, the reeds before him 
sighed, 
Swaying in easy motion to and fro. 
And every tongue told something to the breeze. 
'* Ah, lovely reed !" he moaned ; **thy grace 
accords 
With my beloved Syrinx when she lived ; 



BOOK II.] SILENUS. 21 

Ah, now she lives in my sad heart alone. 
I must away ; away. Too much, too well, 
Thou tellest me of grace for ever fled 1 " 

Then as he left, the long leaves sighed forlorn, 
" Silenus, O Silenus ! wherefore leave 
Thy Syrinx, as thou didst in times agone?" 

He turned again. Sitting beside the reeds 
He saw a tremble shivering thro* their leaves. 
And every leaf became a tongue that talked 
In multitudinous whispering. He strove, 
But could not understand; and sat, hands clasped, 
Agaze and hopeless. 

Darkness hugged the land. 
And both together slumbered deep in peace. 
Save where great Artemis, kissing the cliffs. 
Beamed smiles along the river, whose response 
Quivered in laughter-light from every reach. 
Till hidden by soft winding far away. 






\ 



22 SILENUS. [part l 

Why prattled still the reeds? Pan's guilty 
stare, 
Why should it bum his memory with pain ? 
And why should music of these river-stems 
So sadly wail to him of Syrinx gone ? 
Alas, he knew not, and must waive the cause ; 
When, as the moonlight suddenly went out, 
A flash within revealed the dreadful tale ! 

Syrinx he saw hard chased by nimble Pan, 
And flushed with terror, his devoted nymph. 
Plucked at by demon claws, plunge in the 

stream 
And her young spirit pass into the reeds 
That now were whispering her sad well-away. 

Taking them in his lonely arms he sighed, 
" O loveliest of the loved, is this now all 
Left of thee, once so pure and beautiful ? 
Must thou be now frail debtor to the wind 
For voice to tell me thy dark sorrowing ? 
I sitting by thee with no power to soothe. 



BOOK II.] SILENUS. 23 

" How harsh and terrible the Fates ! That I 
Should live my life, and never taste of love 
Till thine came on me like the risen sun 
After a dreaming night. And then awake, 
The great round glory shining on me full, 
That I should turn and leave to fickle chance 
This new delightful kingdom where I reigned ; 
Straightway invaded by remorseless Pan ! 

" Twere idle waste to raise a feeble arm 
Aga,inst the measure of eternal doom. 
But must he free, and safe, and scathless go ? 
And must I live, for ever in my gaze 
His grinning goatish leer, and unavenged ? 
Nay, I will front the thief My spear ! my 

spear! 
Farewell, my Syrinx ; one more last farewell." 

Then lifting up his weighty spear, whereby 
Had fallen lions and striped tigers fierce, 
And wide-homed monsters with dark eyes of fire, 



24 SILENUS. [part i. 

And others that seemed mountains as they 

moved, 
With noses used as hands, and legs like trees 
In girth, Silenus left the river-side 
And slowly paced into the forest gloom. 



BOOK III. 

The sun had set the mountain-tops afire, 
And every thicket singing for deh'ght ; 
And brought shy creatures, dainty-paced, abroad 
To graze the open, gray with nightly dew. 
Aloft the eagle in gigantic sweeps 
Winged thro' the dazzled air, or pausing, pierced 
The vaporous world beneath with dire intent, 
Throughout awe-stricken woods gasting a hush. 

Near his thatched hovel in the dewy mom 
Blowing his cheerful pipes sat Pan the God. 
Late partner of his night, a woman faun. 
Lay near him dead, he having wrung her neck 
Because the goat she milked had overturned 
The bowl he waited for just brimmed and frothed. 



26 SILENUS. [PART I. 

And baulked him of his draught He meant 
her flesh 

To feed some favourite panthers caged and tame. 

While straggling round him herds of satyrs 
thronged, 

Their ruddy bodies glowing in the beams 

Of early day. Some milked ; some slaughtered 
goats ; 

And some their playful flocks drove pasture- 
ward ; 

While the God laughed to count the rich increase. 

But ha ! the great Silenus spear in hand. 
Advancing by colossal strides he fronts 
The cowering God, who drops his music pipes. 
And bends to steal away. 

Silenus cries, 
" Move but a hoof and my impetuous spear 
Goes thro' thy body in the solid earth. 
Fixing thee there till thou hast heard thy 
doom." 



BOOK III.] SILENUS. 27 

For the first time in Pan's gay history 
The grinning comers of his mouth fell down : 
To ashy-pale his fiery visage waned ; 
And his goat eyes stared vacantly^ around. 
Shuddering with terror, writhed his shrinking 

frame 
And hanging feebly jarred his cloven feet 

'' Demon accursed ! Doomed as I was to leave 
My helpless Syrinx, thou didst count it safe 
Unpityingly to hunt the nymph to death. 
Silenus absent ; no protector by ; 
No eye to see ; no tongue to tell the tale ! 

** And when the Goddess Artemis for love 
Transformed the murdered nymph to river reeds, 
Thou must go cut and fashion them forsooth 
To music-pipes, and sate thy pampered self 
In making wail for thy defeated hope ! 
In wanton deed and unrelenting spite, 
Since crime began no crimes have equalled 
thine. 






28 SILENUS. [PART I. 

And thou ; unable to conceal thy crime ! 
Else wouldst thou not have shown that guilty eye 
Glittering aslantwise when we met, and shrugged, 
And slunk away, vile thief, in abject fear. 
Thou didst not know the river reeds would talk 
And tell thy crime, commingled lust and death, 
Thy pastime, grinning lust and death, ^ot far, 
The naked proof! There sprawled a victim lies, 
Fair in her woman's form ; her cloven feet 
Twisted aside in death's sharp agony. 
Does all Olympus sleep, such ruthless crime 
Can rage unhindered in the open day?" 

His clear voice rang, and echoing thro' the 
vale, 

Startled the fauns and satyrs with amaze. 

Quitting their toil they crowded eagerly, 

Wondering their God, low-crouched and pallor- 
struck. 

Should quiver cringing like a beast chastised ! 

Silenus cried. 



BOOK in.] SILENUS. 29 

^ Behold that murdered thing ! 
Was there not one of all you dastard crew 
To stand between her and those strangling claws? 
Had she no lover by ; or father near ; 
No one of kin to stretch an angry arm 
To shield and save her from this monstrous fate?" 

*' His favourite daughter," every voice replied, 
*' By forest maiden captured in the wood, 
And hither brought When the babe due was 

born 
Its little goat limbs smote her heart to tears, 
And hating tears Pan slew her ; penned the babe 
For nursing with a young fuU-uddered goat ; 
Where she grew strong, well-loved throughout 

our woods ; 
And until now we knew not of her death. " 

And all the satyrs raised a doleful howl. 
Roaring a loud continuous wrathful storm ; 
Beating their breasts they stamped their cloven 
hoofs. 



so SILENUS. [part i. 

Then shrank the demon, horror-struck, appalled. 
.More than the spear these voices made him quail. 

'* Are thy bolts spent, O Zeus ? Athena, where 
Thy dreadful spear the irresistible ? 
Is Justice dead ; or, angered, has She left 
This earth to chance and cold malignity ? 

" I pierce the savage future, and behold 
A world without Olympian government, 
Wherefrom the Gods have vanished into night : 
The memories of them fled, save what remain 
As statues sunk in fragments thro' the land ; 
Unearthed by prying creatures bent on gain, 
Or patching pieces of the Gods to shrines 
Whereon to rear their naked vanities ; 
Knowing no more of Gods and their decrees 
Than thou canst know of love and purity, 
Or kindliness to gentle weaklier things. 
Tho* fled the highest Gods from that dark 
world, 



BOOK III.] SILENUS. 31 

I see, far-shadowing in times to come, 

The Gods of gloom triumphant there, and thou 

By darker evil in ascendency ; 

Nations and Powers, vast peoples falling down 

In grovelling baseness abject at thy feet. 

" Yea, grin and brighten at the prophecy 
Till thou hast heard the whole ; await the 
end ! 

" Cheaters and thieves, thy worshippers, con- 
trive 
And build strong places to maintain their spoil, 
Forged into power for greater plundering. 
These robbers wage remorseless war and seize 
Countries by industry wrought into wealth ; 
When, proud of pillage, blood-dyed criminals, 
Tricking themselves in gauds and blazoned 

pomp, 
With' hope of gold, device, and phrases deft, 
Trail the lured many, till the dupes betrayed 



32 SILENUS. [PART I. 

Rise goaded to despair and pluck them down. 
Then rush the vacant palaces to rule 
By force and guile, as ruled their former lords. 
" Dearly thy worshippers love hoarded gold ; 
This will their laws most zealously protect ; 
Harsh in enactment, prompt in punishment : 
But outraged honour, insult, mangled life, 
Shall lightly be condoned, or lightly passed 
With empty forfeiture and formal frown. 
But tho' thy worshippers control mankind 
Their adoration brings thee no content 

" This then thy burning doom : 

Tho' Lord of all, 
No one who breathes, from the proud king 

enthroned 
To beggar whining at his guarded gates. 
But will deny tho' fast he worship thee ! 

" When the great Gods have fled, and hap- 
less men 
In gloom are left with thee, some lofty few. 



BOOK III.] SILENUS. 33 

By agony such as Prometheus bore ; 
By looks of mute entreaty, eloquent ; 
By fixed endurance till the fibres snap ; 
And watch determined creeping ever on ; 
By resolution's armed assail and shock 
Doing vast slaughter on embattled foes, 
Shall raise triumphantly their cherished Gods 
In splendid temples, forcing every knee 
To bend in reverence before their shrines. 

" The righteous will in every age bend low 
For very truth and very love to truth. 
While these thyself and demon ways abhor, 
The multiplying millions will be thine 
In unacknowledged secret worshipping ; 
A myriad-mass of hopeless hypocrites 
Who feign the worship custom bids them 

hold; 
And nourish evil they perforce decry. 
Whose blameless language hides fell purposes ; 
Transacting crime while lauding righteousness, 
They feast on what they outwardly eschew ; 

D 



[PAKTI. 

Soaked thro' with falsehood, winked at; under- 
stood. 
Till ondcrstood nnaidrd by a hint 

^The king, so screened firom eveiy wholesome 



The air he breathes so dragged with flattery. 
So poisoned source and flow of eveiy rill 
That brings him knowledge, the proud gold he 



Circles a living lie. His influence 
Comipts more deeply those corrupting him ; 
Gendering hatred and confusion where 
His kingly duty and high privil^;e 
Had tolled the blessing of a people's love. 

^ Exalted priests well recompensed to serve 
The latter Gods shall warmly worship thee : "' 
Denouncing wealth and every fleshly lust, 
They vie together in superfluous pomp ; i« 
The lees of luxury in purple stains 
Stagnant upon their cheerful visages ; 
While wrangling with each other over spoil, 



BOOK III.] SILENUS. 35 

Tempted by promises, or wrenched by threats 
From weakling followers in sickness cast 

"Skilled masters of the lyre, that sacred 
boon 
Whereby my Father, Hermes, challenged man 
To sing of heroes and immortal Gods, 
Leaving the vantage of their sunlit heights, 
Shall grovel with thy multitude and touch 
Light tuneful music for their revelry : 
Each cadence measured to the tune of gold. 
Lavishly jingled in their raptured ears. 

** Thus shall this earth, halved between night 
and day. 
Whose loveliness brings kisses down from heaven 
In flashing fire, sunshine, and singing showers. 
Be as a desolation to his eyes 
Who sees thee undisguised and dominant ! 
And him thy worshippers will hate, tho* bound 
By the same oaths, at the same altar shrines ; ^ 
But hate in secret working fell despite 
They whisper not to kin or nearest friend. 



56 SILENUS. [PARTI. ^ 

** In public adoration parents kneel 
Before the Gods their nation owns divine, 
What time their prayers slip covertly to thee 
To load their progeny with opulence ; 
And warriors ask to fight thro' fame to wealth 
That they may stalk in decorated pride. 
Some with full granaries call famine down 
That they may pare starvation to the bone ; 
And beauty prays that her embellished charms, 
Warming the market, may command full price 

^ Each slave will love thee, vowing that he 
hates ; 
But, should some strange exception boast the 

truth, 
He will be seized for madness, bound in chains, 
And fastened in a dungeon till his death. 

*' This then thy doom ; tho' thou shalt aid 
thy slaves 
By every shift dark cunning can devise, 
In fostering their desires' accomplishment ; 
Thine own desire, the naked pomp of power. 



BOOK III.] SILENUS. 37 

Shall fly thee ever, and for all thy toil 
Never shalt thou taste glow o£ victory." 

Silenus ceased, and stood alo0e with Pan. 
For every shepherd, satyr, faun, and goat 
Had fled and left the God for evermore. 
His features ashy pale ; its fire extinct 
In that grim visage never glowed again ; 
Pinched now his shape, close shrunken like a 

corpse. 
Two birds of prey Wheeling in air swept by 
With cough and scream, baffled of some intent, 
Silenus marked, " Those evil wings," he cried, 
" Carry a sign 1 The very vultures shun 
Thy guilty carrion for their empty maws. 
The swift Erinyes, unappeasable, 
Dreading some ill unknown, pause in the chase. 
Shrinking aflTrighted from thy loneliness." 

Now, as the upward grin fell lax for dread> 
When Pan beheld Silenus spear in hand 



It SILEXUSu [PAKT L 

Aiwanang towaid him with colossal stzides. 
The 6ay bent of his insatiate sdf 
Ounged stndghtwsQr into fierce malicioas hate 
Haid set on wrealdae vengeance ni^;ht and 
main. 

Again Silenos cried, * Acairsed go. 
Lost in tby solitude thoa never more 
Shalt taste the freshness of the summer wind ; 
Shalt know but hate in ever-bumii^ fafain ; 
Rage and destruction bearing no delight 
Thy bitterest disgust, that life's increase 
Surpasses thy persistence to destroy. 

^Faithful, unshrinking Death, whose out- 
stretched handy 
Soothing with soft inevitable touch. 
Quenches the agony of humankind, 
Cannot be known by thee. 

•* Thy worshipper. 
Who sees the compassed object of his pains 
Smitten; collapse and vanish into nought. 



■ Ml' W'-^'mwr- ■■.! 



BOOK III.] SILENUS. 59 

Dying in yells of wrath, and gnashing jaws. 
From smouldering fire within, shall blast thy 

hate 
In envious despair ; and thou wouldst crawl 
A sheathless worm parched under blazing skies, 
If, after torture, thou like him couldst rest 1" ^ 

Head bending low, feet draggling, now 
accurst 
Pan thro' the forest wandered to his fate. 
Never seen more goat-homed and goat-behoofed 
With shaggy thighs, and flesh of ruddy glow ; 
But infinite in strange distinctive shapes 
And livery shifting with the changing time. 

Now voluble and sly he blandly soothes 
Honour alarmed to ignominious peace, 
Precursor of contempt and watchful hate 
Biding a vantage for the grievous stroke. 
Or aptly chosen honied phrases fire 
Ravin for neighbouring land, madness for more ; 
Till plunderers reeking weighted by their wealth 



40 SILEKUa [fakt l 

Coomumt in lodolaioeL Now saufii^ ooe^ 
Sledc and gro«m bloat with unearned Inxniy, 
Whose gray goat eyeballs br^;bdy ndlii^ £iU 
On diapely maidens, statdy dames, wbo thrill 
Unholy ecstasies and take the taint 
He means. Now proudly strutting lord of vogue 
He trails a hot throng in his glittering wake ; 
Who fietting time and fortune scatter wide 
The treasured power their wiser £attfaers stored. 

In every guise, in every form he starts ; 
The bqggar^s garb^ the mien of longs. Now 

roars 
A fervid patriot who overthrows 
The rule and order grown of bygone toil 
Now whines the poor oppressed ones dreary 

woes. 
That wins from wealth a bland beneficence, 
The food that feeds, the succour that enslaver 
Now prompts the lure, the cruelty, despair 
Of plotted failure launched as enterprise ! 
Now tempts young lowly damsels to destroy ; 



BOOK III.] SILENUS. 41 

While high-born bribe the lowly to conceal 
Their fruits^e plucked in dark forbidden ways ; 
And (^^sses in quiet villages 
Batten in comfort on the waifs of shame. 
The trader vends false bales, imprinted best, 
Which in far lands unrolled are there revealed 
Pierced thro' with foul decay. Yet greedier, 

some 
Cheat poverty itself with measure short ; 
And vaunted chieftains of advanced regard 
Esteem a fraud fair use of barterer's skill ; 
As men are free to use their ancient right 
Of making choice between contending thieves. 
By dulcet promises some creep to power 
Whose shadows blight and wither priceless 

worth. 
Whose dead weight crushing genius to the dust. 
Cripples its flight to their own wingless range. 

"Great nature's law," the worldly -wiselings 
cry; 



42 SILENUS. [part i. 

'' Both rough and smooth we take as best we 

can; 
And ills march ever mixed with man's advance!" 

Thus the dark demon incarnates his will 
By slaves who prattle fiend philosophy 
In phrases rolling off the fluent tongue. 
Easy to say, remembered easily ; 
Sating with glamour tranquil multitudes 
Who breathe contentedly the scentless death. 



BOOK IV. 

SiLENUS, wretched on the morrow mom, 
Wended his way where sank his hunted 

nymph 
Beneath the water she in life had loved ; 
Half soothed he thought to clasp those wailing 

leaves. 
All that remained now of his flattering dream. 

There by the stream, aghast, he saw, in room 
Of grassy reeds, a parched and withered heap 
That crumbled harshly unresponsive dust. 
When down his hands fell thro' it in despair. 

Taking two handfuls vacantly he raised 
His arms as making an appeal to heaven ; 
But rigid stood, aimless, and impotent : 



44 S I LE N US. [PART I. 

An image in wild action motionless, 
To strange and frightful pallor changed through- 
out 

Casting at length the dust abroad, he sighed, 
** There flies my solitary dream of joy. 
A dream, a dream ! " 

Then with a dreadful cry 
That pierced the forest depths, and made the 

rocks 
Thrill to their inmost hearts, Silenus fell, 
And falling crashed his spear ; and helpless lay. 
Ashy, as one long dead. 

His anguish smote 
The Naiades in sedgy nooks and Nymphs 
And Dryads lone of ancient shadowy woods, 
Who lifting lamentations all amain 
Thronged to him lying prostrate and beloved ; 
And kneeling strove with kisses, chafe of limbs. 
And casting little handfuls of the wave 



BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 45 

About his throat and brow, to summon back 
The sharp-fled h'fe. 

In vain their tenderness 
Was lavished on him, pressing bosoms warm 
Fast to his chilly breast ; laying their cheeks 
Softly to his ; while slender fingers combed 
From the moist brow his dank and matted 

hair, 
Calling with murmurous moan upon his name, 
Until they sank beside him hopelessly ; 
The clouds above with shadow covering them, 
Their solitude, and unavailing charms. 

They lay in silence on the ancient Earth, 
And looked like flowers that might lie there 

and fade. 
And be within her substance drawn again. 
But had the Earth growled inwardly and 

heaved 
In quick succession of stupendous throbs, 
They had not been with wonder startled more 
Than when they heard Silenus mutter low : 



46 SILENUS. [part i. 

*'As rush, and reed, tall grasses, and pink 

flowers, 
Mirrored in softened hues within the stream. 
Are to themselves that breathe the living air. 
And guard the river banks, was she to me. 
No sooner ripe than plucked ! Nay, O, not 

plucked, 
But shaken from the stem into the stream. 
Borne by the flow to darksome mystery. 

''Close from me, Leto, close thy tender 
eyes : 
Ox let their gracious light on others fall ! 
I could endure them were thy favour less. 
Be harsh toward me in mercy. Do not let 
Thy pitying sweetness mutely tell my loss ! 
Henceforth you see me broken worthless waste. 
My spear is shivered ; I am now no more 
He that could front a monster and prevail. 

" Despise me, Nysa ! Strength and forecast 
failed 



BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 47 

When needed most to bear the stress and 

strain. 
Why knew I not the demon's will accursed, 
Nor stayed its guilty course by flashing spear ? 
Why, when she gave herself to me, forthwith 
Did I desert her, tramping far-oflf tracts, 
To teach their dusky dwellers wiser ways ; 
Leagues, moons away, taught savage men, when 

here 
Ramped direst evil uncontrolled at home I 

" Blinded with bliss was I, or I had known 
Her risk with Pan should hateful chance 

entice ! 
" Unhappy fate to strive for others' good 
And lose meanwhile oui* own. Fondly I 

thought 
The bright regards my Syrinx cast around 
Would be enjoyed by all, as they enjoy 
The sunshine laughing thro' the summer rain. 
** The Gods I counted just ; Powers high and 

dark ; 



\ 



48 SILENUS. [PART I. 

Riddles to Demigods and mortjal men. 
We must obey them blindly : vain to seek 
In their decrees, all dimly understood, 
A meaning running side by side with ours. 
"A massive crag released from mountain 

wall 
Rushing in thunder crushes all beneath. 
It were as idle to beseech the rock, 
Lightly to waver, falling as a leaf, 
As make appeal to stay the hest of Gods ! 
Our feeble thoughts reach not their lofty wills ; 
Haply themselves the bounded ministers 
Of Destiny unknown ; for who shall say 
Whence the first beat of power ? Who wise to 

track 
Thro' growth and change its pathway unto 

man. 
Who also deals surely his stem decrees. 
As beasts, and slaves, and captive women know. 
" Ye lovely ones, yearning to soothe my woe, 
O could I take a hand of each in mine 



BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 49 

To wander onward till we reached a world 
Where Gods had made no law nor man had 

dwelt ! 
And there live unremembered and content, 
In the wild woods and by the mountain 

streams 
That shine in loops and spaces thro' the sand ; 
Where lying we might watch the seabirds soar 
And dolphins thro* the water leap and plunge. 

" And should a roving storm disturb our day, 
Straggling from troubled regions and escaped 
Inexorable Zeus while dealing doom, 
An estray like ourselves, its mighty roar 
Should be our music ; while its transient fire 
In spasms of glory quivering thro' the heavens. 
Should light with splendid wonder our new 

world. 
" I am so languid now, a wounded wretch 
Drained well-nigh of his blood, whose breath 

scarce lifts 
His hollow breast, his eyes fast losing light, 

E 



50 SILENUS. [part i. 

Beholding me in pity might feel strong. 

The stroke that wounded me cut tenderer 

cords 
Than ever arrow pierced or blade could reach. 
Such dread and horror fill my soul I seem 
Some lost and evil creature soaked in crime 
Suffering his punishment, but memory gone 
Of what his sin had been. 

" Great Heracles, 
Smitten with madness from the ravenous pain 
Of Nessus' poisoned blood, unwittingly 
Into the sea his faithful Lichas threw, 
Young Lichas whom he loved. Forgetfulness 
Gently waved over him her airy hand, 
And he was spared the bitterest agony 
When flames consuming quenched his final 

pangs. 
"Madness appals me. Could but memory 

lapse 
In any way than thro* dark Lethe's stream ! 



BOOK IV,] SILENUS. 51 

Who drinks that chilling draught forgets de- 
light 
Together with past weariness and wrong. 

" I would not lose my vision of the past : 
Still would I see in fancy Syrinx left 
With playful memory, while her glances rove 
Her own young beauties in their perfect prime ; 
For, trifling with them, I had loved to show 
Their undulations course in lily sheen, 
While she enjoyed with smiles, and never knew 
Herself to be a lovely marvel full 
Of varied inexhaustible delight, 
Till I awoke her wonder with the truth. 

** Here wishing halts. I would shut out the 
rest. 
And would not have my backward gaze defaced 
By horrors of the past; 

*' But drowsiness 
Bethrals, I fain would slumber. Clymene, 
And sweet Calypso, stretch forth each her 
hand 



^. 



52 SILENUS. [part I. 

To soothe my head softly with tender strokes ; 

And you, O Eriphia, graciously 

Throughout their length smooth my numbed, 

listless arms ; 
And Leto, cool this anguish-stricken brow 
With breathing fresh and sweeter than the rose ; 
Thus let me feel your kindness till I sleep 1 " 

He ceasing sank in slumber as he spoke. 

Nymphs, dryads, and wild naiades subdued. 

Sat by, their long arms round each other twined ; 

And some on others' shoulders pressed their chins. 

And leaning forward watched his every breath. 
One said, "Ben^nant fate had been their 
guide 

To great Silenus lone and sorrowful ; 

For he was softened in beholding them. 

New honey would they bring him mixed with 
milk 

Warm from young goats, or large-eyed sweet- 
breathed kine ; 



BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 53 

And they would sing him tenderest songs of 

old, 
Of fated lovers who hj^d lost their loves 
And wandered^nto glory other ways. 
They would attend and serve him thro' the 

suns ; 
By moons would watch, and keep his slumber 

safe 
From prowling creatures, and the dangerous 

shafts 
Of Artemis that ofttimes pricked the brain 
To madness ; and would tend him till once 

more 
He woke and drank the gladness of the mom. 
And Dionysus, who Silenus loved, 
Silenus his instructor and his friend, 
He should be sought and told the dreadful tale, 
And come with healing words of hope divine." 



BOOK V. 

" Hail, mighty One ! Hail, great Silenus, hail I 
Look up, or thou wilt wear the earth to holes 
With that hard wistful gaze. Behold the world 
In glorious sunshine. Wherefore idly fix 
Thy blank regards on nothing? Overhead 
The very eagles fluttering for joy 
Wing thro' the radiance upward lost in light ! " 

Thus Dionysus. For the God, to heal 

♦ 

His follower, now prostrate in despair. 

Had come with nymphs and satyrs, leaping 

fauns, 
Maenades, wild-haired and rosy-cheeked ; 
Flecked panthers snarling ; serpents lithe and 

strong 



BOOK v.] SILENUS. 55 

That swathed him grimly, till his fondling hands 
Stroked the bright scaling of their golden throats ; 
Then up in either hand he held them, pleased 
To watch their fotms disport in vacancy. 

At timely glance the cymbals clashed as one, 
Shrill shrieked the oaten pipes, bellowed the 

mouths 
Of ramhoms blown by satyrs stout of breath ; 
While others shouted till the deafening din 
Shattered in jahglings harsh the outraged air. 

" O Dionysus, wherefore thus disturb 
This torpor that abates my wretchedness ? 
The torture slept awhile ; why wake afresh 
Feelings that hover over memory ; 
Why mock me, laying bare the cruel past ? " 

" Thou hast, beloved Silenus, dear and true, 
Been ever my companionable friend : 
Fired with old love this is the wherefore I, 



56 SILENUS. [PART I. 

Leaving my ivied rocks in forest glades, 
Lovely with laurel-holt and asphodel, 
Gather my frolic troop and bring them now 
To wake and comfort thee with pregnant cheer. 

^ Gracious and fair, the nymph was meet for 
thee, 
But thou by right of worth had been fit lord 
To rule young Hebe, my bright sister, She 
Who in Olympus fillec) the nectar bowls, 
Now fast in wedlock with great Heracles. 

** Behold the symmetry and burning hues 
Of flowers expanded to their shapes complete : 
A passing storm or footfall levels them 
Sullied or crushed to ruin. Who despairs ? 
Yet but a little while, again behold 
Their like in splendour blooming as before ! 

** As they are, to the Gods are nymph and 
maid 
Of mortal birth ; grateful to clasp, and sweet 
Are they to kiss ; and bravely they endure 
The burden of our love. Their longest lives 



\ 



BOOK v.] SILENUS. 57 

To the duration of Immortals pass 

As gnats their sunset hour to mortal man. 

** Then why bewail a momentary joy ? 
Has love so fused thee with mortality 
Thou art weighed down to earth, that thirsts 

for all 
It once gave forth ? Could sorrow bring her 

back, 
Glowing and rosy to responsive life. 
Sorrow were well bestowed; Now frets to 

waste 
The glorious fervour that whole peoples fired 
To feats beyond their wont With me you 

loved 
To mark the kindled passion we had roused 
Achieve our purposes, when, casting thoughts 
To men as sowers cast their seeds, we saw 
Some wax in favour, and saw others sink. 
Swilling the precious juices of the grape 
That might have been their comforter and 

strength ! 



58 SILENUS. [part i. 

^ Now shout, my jovial satyrs ; lifting hoofs 
Arouse Silenus to festivity ! 
If your sweet lives be brief, ye forest nymphs, 
Brighten them while ye may. Enrich the round 
Of bliss with grace surpassing birchen-trees, 
When trembling in the wind their branches 

play. 
Show him, ye stately naiades of the wave, 
That loveliness is yet, and went not out 
With one, however fair 1 Keep measure true, 
Both voice and step ; let every hand combine 
By even clash and fingered stop to wake 
The caverned echoes of harmonious mirth. 
Till our delight becoming frenzied air 
Our saddened one shall breathe it, and his soul 
Inflame with high imaginings sublime." 

Then madly ramped the God-directed dance. 
Where ruddy bodies, circling shapes of white. 
Sped round so fast, so swiftly glanced their 
feet. 



BOOK v.] SILENUS. 59 

That ruddy figures turned on gleaming limbs ; 
And whirled on hairy legs the gleaming shapes, 
While tangled raiment fluttering, intermixed 
With floating hair, bright -hued, and many a 

spear, 
Vine-clad, and harmless with fir-cone atop. 
By glimpses seen, sliding in glittering curves, 
Enamelled serpents mutely thrid the rout 
Where growled the leopards to the panthers' 

snarl, 
Or mumbled, over-rolled, and kicked at will. 

The revel ceased and hung in silence, when 
Silenus, rising slowly to his height. 
Stretched forth his nerveless hands and cried 

'* Alas ! 
Alas for me if I must tear the threads 
My sorrow weaves in pictures of the past ! 
For tho' my gladness changed and flashed to 

hate 
And fell thro* fiery anguish to despair, 



6o SILENUS. [PART I. 

Yet these returning horrors oft intrude 
Where day-long smiles gave day-long deep con- 
tent ; 
And should I banish them for evermore, 
Silenus would be other than himself. 

" But Fate is hard. The greatest Gods are 
nought 
Against the measure of resistless doom. 
If now I must forget, thou seest me here, 
O Dionysus, a resistless slave 
From whom has fled the spring of enterprise, 
Who must obey, but never more may rule." 

" Awake, Silenus ! In the future shine 
Triumph and glory sprung of mighty deeds. 
By the stem Gods approved. Strewn thro' the 

world 
Are nations savage as their scouring wolves, 
Famine-bedriven over icy plains. 
Which we with high persuasive proof will front 
And show them law yields fairer life than when 



BOOK v.] SILENUS. 6i 

Revengeful men shed blood, or rob for greed ; 
And with temptation of the luscious grape 
We will enchant them into peaceful toil. 

'' At one deep draught now drain this cup 

divine 
Down to its moon of gold. Leave not a drop, 
For every drop is precious ; scarce unfit 
To pass Athena's lips, when shouting She 
Holds up Her shining nectar bowl and tells 
Tidings of victory to feasting Gods ! 

" Each bloomed and purple grape was singly 

plucked, 
Ere bursting ripe, by dainty-fingered nymphs ; 
And these when heaped, by their own pressure 

shed 
The wine you drink, fragrance and liquid sun. 

" The cup you handle was Hephaestion's gift 
After his downfall, from Olympus hurled 
By wrathful Zeus, I nourished him and gave 
Reviving, warm, deep draughts of crimson 

wine. 



62 SILENUS. [PARTI. 

Day after day I watched the cunning God 
Fashion these nymphs who nursed me when a 

babe. 
You see me heave to clutch the teasing bunch 
One dangles playfully beyond my reach ; 
While Hermes swings his nimble feet and smiles, 
Amused to eye me as I jerk and crow. 
His gift, embossed with playtime of my past, 
Is thine, and thine this well-filled skin. 

** When clouds 
Darken and chill thy life, and memory 
Of what. is gone too bald and clearly stares 
For steady gazing to endure, then drink ! 
When thou wouldst rise to action, but the heart 
And limbs in languor hold thee back, then drink ! 
Pour thy libation when the dazzling rays 
Of Hyperion to the zenith pierce ; 
And when his light in mighty splendour sinks 
At eventide again libation pour ! 
Worship the glorious God throughout the day, 
So he may strengthen thee, and penetrate 



BOOK v.] SILENUS. 63 

Thy loitering blood, and drive dark dreams 
away. 
*^ I go ; ere long returning I shall claim 
Thy presence with me to the blustering North, 
Where we, the vine our welcome, marching on. 
Will with its tendrils link our prophecies 
To rich abundant store in coming time ; 
And, thro' his appetite, tame savage man 
To toil and tillage of the liberal earth." 

Long after Dionysus and his rout 
Had vanished, and the airy echoes ceased 
Of distant laugh and thrilling cymbal-clash ; 
When noon, and brooding silence lay like 

thought 
On the g^een ocean of the woods afar, 
Silenus. still was standing, cup in hand, 
Gazing, or as in gaze, on its device. 
He had beheld the baby arms outstretched 
To reach the dancing grapes a teasing nymph 
Dangled in nearness never to be touched ; 



64 SILENUS. [part i. 

And this recalled a tale his Syrinx told : 
How when a babe, fresh from her mother's arms, 
She first stepped forth and walked. Lying one 

day 
Within her father's orchard, on the grass, 
Babbling to one drooped apple overhead, 
Her mother noted how she fain would pull 
The mellow prize, and plucked it from the 

bough ; 
Then, placing Syrinx on her little feet 
Against the tree, went off a pace or two. 
Holding the bright temptation nigh her 

reach. 
To seize it in her eager hands the babe 
Unconsciously moved forward step by step 
After the wondering mother ; who, enrapt, 
Snatched up the child and kissed her out of 

breath. 

Thereafter nestling in the flowers a faun 
Came trotting where she lay, and offered fruit ; 



BOOK v.] SILENUS. 65 

Which she, remembering Mother's hest, refused. 
Whereat the wilful savage raging vowed 
That eat she should, or he would ope her mouth 
And force the fruitage down. She turned and 

' fled, 
The faun pursuing, to a rapid stream 
Wherein she leaped. He, shrieking on the brink, 
Stood pelting her wfth berries as she swam 
And landed lightly on the other side. 

Well he remembered how afresh each day 
Her brightened countenance gave, mirror-like, 
Clearly each varying passion he disclosed ; 
And how she stored his sayings as the voice 
Of Fate. How, by her graces overcome. 
He would forget all beauty of the world 
But hers ; entranced, would hold her in his arms. 
Smoothing her shapely form, from laughing 

throat 
Down to her agile feet, and lingering long 
On each bewitching beauty, tho' the next 



66 SILENUS. [PART I. 

Enticed with yet more captivating chann : 
But this enjoyed, the last forsaken seemed 
To tempt return with sweetness multiplied. 

Love fondly strung these precious memories 
Until the story was completed, when 
The record fell, splashed into sudden night, 
And Syrinx was no more. 

Then yearningly 
Recalling how the drowned to Hades pass 
In pleasant dreams of early childhood days, 
Syrinx he saw risen from the river-bed. 
Ranging at will those happy\ times agone, 
Till they two met ; and might, alas ! alas ! 
Never have parted, had not ruthless fate 
Driven him unhappy into wilds remote. 
Could even faithful love be mindful then. 
The swift remorseless water sweeping by 
Obliterating fast as fancies flew, 
The overwhelming bliss and gracious light 
Her trustful love and beauty were to him ; 



J 



BOOK v.] S I LEN U S. 67 

And could she know what agony would burn 
At loss of her, and .take the bursting flame 
And ashes of despair as sacrifice 
His passion offered to her vanished grace ? 

Then, overborne by longing, sick for lack 

Of hope, the blessed boon that haughty Zeus 
Denies not to the restless race of earth, 
Silenus sank in silence on the ground. 

The drip of rocks anear, and running streams. 
Hushed whispering of the forest overhead, 
Soothed him to quietude and gentle sleep, 
And zephyrs passing fanned him with their 
wings. 



^ I 



( 



PART SECOND 



I 



BOOK I. 

Ages had passed. Now was Silenus old, ^ ' 
And fallen from his glory. Bald his head ; ^ 

Its few gray locks lay loose and scantily ; 
And gross, uncomely, his dishonoured form. 
Those mighty limbs that bore him bound for 

bound 
Alongside fleetest stag, now scarce endured 
His shiftless ponderous weight without support 
Of docile faun, or cymbal-clashing nymph ; 
But in the thews that bound his slackened 

arms 
Yet lingered force beyond the force of men ; 
As Phormis, one hard ^shepherd of the hills. 
Learned to his lifelong cost. For on a feast, 
After the shearing, he, the clown, enraged 



72 SILENUS. [PART 11. 

Silenus would not own his flock surpassed 
Lycaon's flock, in brute audacity 
Spumed with his foot the fallen Demigod, 
Who, gentle as milch kine, or bleating lamb. 
Flamed in red wrath at such despite against 
His sunken state ; the cruel foot straight seized, 
And, for a deadly moment, in his arms 
Pulsed their primeval strength. Lifting his 

hand. 
Hard-clenched, he smote the caitifl'on his knee, 
Crushing both bone and sinew into pulp ; 
And ever after on a crutch the churl 
Limped out his days ; his withered limb a sight 
Shepherd and maiden loathed. Vexatious 

boys 
Threw stone or clod, inviting him to run 
And chase them, crying, "Catch me if you 

can!" 
Silenus had obeyed the God of Wine. 



Too aptly had he in his dolorous mood 
Worshipped the fragrant drops of Lethe calm ; 



BOOK I.] . SILENUS. 73 

And succour, used beyond necessity, 
Changed to an enemy within the wall 
That unsuspected wrought his overthrow. 

Tho' ofttimes he with Dionysus ranged 
Countries where demons of outrageous shape, 
Enshrined in sullen richness, ruled as Gods, 
His ringing exhortation no more flew 
Winging the God's intent, and winningly 
Soothing ferocious gaze to droop-eyed peace ; 
Inspiring men by fervid influence 
To shun accustomed evil and reproach. 

Now, as an aged hound, he hung upon 
His well-loved master's footsteps, and had died 
Were he forbidden this old privilege. 

Tho' now no more he shook uncultured wilds 
With great pulsations like a thunderous dawn 
Of sunflame woven in tempestuous glare. 
That frets with fire the rim of drifting gloom ; 
Still, from the charm of constant wont was he 
A presence so familiar there had clung . 



74 SILENUS. • [part 11. 

Some haunting sense of need unsatisfied 

Had the march lacked his towering merriment. 

Moon following moon beheld Silenus lost 
In torpor, steadfast, like a willow trunk 
Casting its image in the shimmering stream. 
But, when again with living things awake, 
His spirit gazed as from a lonely star. 

When, stored the vintages, the mirth leaped 

free ; 
At rites of death, or feasts of marriages ; 
When troubles fled the charging revelry, 
And bowls were filled until the world flew 

round. 
Smiling he shone the guest predominant 
Rough rivals plied the frequent bowl he drained, 
Until from his unsteady hold the wine 
Erringly soaked his beard, and crimsoned down 
His spacious body wasteful to the ground : 
Then he would sing, and shout, and prophesy. 



BOOK I.] SILENUS. 75 

The hinds enchanted ever all agape, 

Eyeballs wide-showing, pressed an eager crowd, 

Noisily claiming he should tell their fates. 

'* Your fates ye seek, ye knaves and coarse- 
skinned clowns ! 
I^a ! ha ! This Zeus Himself was hot to learn 
Of great Prometheus, hating whom He fixed 
In chains on Caucasus, with bird of hell 
To tear him in eternal agony. 
What for long ages Zeus so vainly sought 
Ye would, O modest ones of crook and goad, 
Have at a word, ha ! ha ! 

" Ply the cup, ply ! 
Slack not the pouring, ye shall have reward 
Fate flashing madly off at every point, 
Like doves, when feeding they behold a hawk ! 
Fate running from my lips ; tears from mine 

eyes 
Tight-squeezed from lengthened laughter ceas- 
ing not 



76 SILENUS. [PART 11. 

Will fluster you .to such bewilderment 
Ye shall not know if flowering mead ye tread 
Where airs immortal breathe, or if ye pace 
A pathway downward to the hideous gate 
Of Hades beyond Styx. 

" Ye are unversed 
In oracles, O ye of herds and sheep, 
And likewise swine ; each moving patiently 
To taste the shambles as his lord directs. 

" When first ye feel the axe, or entering knife. 
Dread no frustration ; knowledge surely comes 
When life's dark mystery is thus resolved ! 

" Storms hurt you not so thick your hairy 
hides 1 
Dull, disregardful ; eating steadily 
Throughout your placid lives, what moves you 

now 
Keen to unriddle Fate, forecasting doom ? 

" That doom is ye shall love with love pro- 
found 
Your own dear selves and all you call your own ; 



BOOK I.] SILENUS. 77 

And from that worship never shall ye swerve 
Toward deed of grace, or any kindly thought, 
Unless advantage largely sanctify. 

" When Bion would with sweet Idyia toy, 
No scruple shall corrupt his bliss. Tho' scorn 
May hunt her shame to solitary haunts ; 
What matters ! Snapped its stem the flower 

will fade. 
And other flowers smile welcome on the way ; 
They have no voice in their own choosing, yet 
Breathe sweetness blushing when their sweets 

are plucked. 
And breathing sweets blush when we .pass them 

by. 
" Staunchly wilt thou uphold thy friend while 
he 
Toils faithfully to shape thy purposes ; 
But if of thee unmindful, his desires 
Wing him to interest apart from thine. 
Straightway he falls an outcast from thy love, 
A useless alien or an enemy ! 



78 SILENUS. [part ii. 

''When multiplied your fathers' flocks and 
herds ; 
Com, oil, and wine in vast abundancy ; 
Tho* every cup be filled to overflow, 
Insatiate ye shall hanker for the whole ; 
Wondering what age, with aches and shrivelled. 

stoop. 
Enjoys to make it obstinately cling 
To government, prerogative of strength ! 

"The laws forbid. Else in old bygone 
time. 
Dim stories run, the worn were helped away ; 
And Nature aided in the going out, 
As she is aided in the coming in. s 

The earth hates cumber. Ah, those ancient 

days 
When our forefathers by rude wisdom led 
Measured their usage by necessity ; 

Direct in every movement, unperplexed ! 

"As ye your fathers your own sons, full- 
grown, 



BOOK I.] SILENUS. 79 

Cresting the heights will proudly stand and watch 
Your feeble footsteps totter on the slope. 
Memory then flaunts bright visions of your 

prime, 
What time you watched your fathers' faltering 

pace, 
And these cheer not the dangerous passages, 
As on ye plod in grisly darkness down. 

" Beyond, your immortality shall munch 
Immeasurable husks ; or bleating shall 
Wandering on dim illimitable plains 
Appeal to emptiness with plaintive cry. 

*^ From boundless herds such bellowing shall 
scare 
The shivering spectres, they shall dread return 
To fret and anguish of mortality, 
While ye, the weak ones, hover timidly 
For ever round impenetrable fruit ; 
Watching the baser strive in vain to seize 
Bright creatures winged with beauty and sur- 
prise! 



8o SILENUS. [part il 

** But why foreshadow thus ? These darkling 

jests 
Make the Olympians laugh ; that sheep and 

swine, 
And homed oxen mimic freakish man, 
Who does himself grotesquely imitate 
The stately pace of Gods ! 

** I would delight 
My jolly shepherds with a dance of joy, 
But these old bones now fail me : once I could 
From rock to rock leap and not fear a fall. 
Now I can only drink and prophesy ! 

'* But gather round me ; for I yet can sing 
How liberal wine amends the bitter wrong 
Closed in with life, and unescapeable." 

" How dark and strange the uttered words 
of Fate !" 
Whispered the herds. " We are we know not 

what ; 
And wend we know not where. Maybe unmeet 



BOOK L] SILENUS. 8i 

Mortals should know of more than mortal life ; 
Therefore he utters mysteries for fear 
We might be mazed, and, into madness driven, 
Work fell destruction. He would save. from 

ruin, 
As Zeus for love had fain withheld the fire 
Of living glory when for love He went 
To Semele. Then let us all affect 
To track and catch his drift, lest telling more 
He stagger us with moire than, we can bear. 
He told of jests that wake Olympian mirth ; 
Join then in laughter ; marry with his mood." 

The Satyrs, shepherds, clowns^ a motley herd 
Crowding Silenus round, in one huge roar 
Joined, laughter, shock on shock, peal after peal, 
Till the mad air was frantically rent 

« 

With laughter loud his glowing body heaved 
Incessant High his voice above the rest, 
As 'mid the thrilling chatter starlings make . 
Pierces a falcon's scream. 



82 SILENUS. [PART II. 

The lusty nymphs 
Tore their wild hair ; plucked their loose raiment 

free, • " 

Casting the coloured cloudlets in the air, 
And seizing each a partner, whirling round. 
Threw out their limbs in random unison 
At poise on tightened toes. While bending low, 
. Pairs sprang together mimicking wild beasts 
Catching their prey ; or, stooping. heads to butt 
Each others* breasts, the nymphs fell sadly 

mauled ; 
Their bosoms, tenderer than satyr horn 
Or the hard brow of loiit, ached from the blows ; 
Well pleased to rest they round Silenus closed, 
. Awaiting till his song came rolling forth. 

■ 

"Ye red-faced satyrs, all come drink ta me ; . 
Your wine-skins shoulder, fill the bowls. 
Take one deep draught to warm your souls ; . 
Squat snug on your haunches or on bended 
knee: 



/ 



BOOK I.] SILENUS, 83 

Raise your arms ; shout a song : praise wine 
the divine ! 

" Praise. wine. Tho' we gasp when we first draw 

« 

breath, 
We suck life anew from the breast ; 
And milk is good, red wine is best ; 
For red wine wrests a breathing time from death. 
Raise your arms; shout a song: praise wine 

the divine ! ^ . 

" Sad for woman when her own lord is slain- ; 

For hopeless the loss $he bewails. 

Tho' hopeless, whdn all comfort fails ' 

Red wine takes the place where her lord has 

lain. 
Raise your, arms ; shoUt a song: praise wine 

the divine \ 

.** Lowly wine whispers soft words of delight, 

• • • 

Innocently fondling her charms. 



S4 SILENU& [PART II. 

From dreams she wakes» within her arms, 
Ia holding a new hero strong and bright ! 
Raise your arms ; shout a song : praise wine 
the divine! 



<* Lover, so wretched for his faithless Bliss, 
He would lie in the grave at peace. 
Wine brings a cup and sorrows cease 
As true Love clasping gives delicious kiss. 

your arms ; shout a song : praise wine 
the divine ! 



** Weak and strong wine cheers ; the young and 

the old ; 
Makes valour do all valour can ; 
Transforms the coward to a man, 
Who then draws his sword like a warrior bold. 
Raise your arms ; shout a song : praise wine 

the divine!" 

To his full lips the rich Hephaestion cup 



BOOK!.] SILENUS. 85 

Lifting, Silenus drained its splendour void- 
A deed so noble fired with zeal the rest, 
Who emptied theirs in glorious sympathy ; 
When cheerily again Silenus sang. 



*' Who would his flocks and people save, 
And stands to fight in battle brave ; 

What should he meet 

If he retreat 
Beat back by overwhelming foes ? 
A crown of myrtle mixed with rose, 
And cup of the reddest grape that grows ! 

« 

*' One who by words and shifty wiles 
His true friend's love for him beguiles ; 
Our scorn to show 
•V What best to throw 
Over the head that brings disgrace ? 
The due of cheater false and base, 
A cup of sour wine dashed in his face ! 



86 SILENUS. [PART IT. 

" Then rash and foolish wine's abuse ; 
For good and bad wine has its use. 

This cheers the brave ; 

That slights the knave. 
And merit more who can desire 
Than raising hero's glory higher, 
And giving the cheat a bed of fire ? " 

Again the shepherds muttering, 

" What know we 

» 

Of cheat or hero ? If we can we steal 

Our neighbour's sheep, and swear it was the 
wolves ; 

Which is fair honest stealing. But to clip 

A wolf, and clothe a wolf, and pass it off 

A sheep, is downright cheating, and denounced 

Of every shepherd lad. Welli heroes, they 

Are well enough in stories women tell 

To tickle gaping babies after dusk ; 

But fighting, save in anger, we despise : — 

Hush ! for Silenus tones in lower strain." 



BOOKL] SILENUS. .87 

" How sweet, when memory fades with closing 
eyes 

And wings of blessed Sleep 

Fan into slumber deep, 
When, hand in hand, happy and loverwisfe 
We roam at will the vales of paradise. 

" Then Sleep puts her soft cheek against mine 
own; 

Or, eyes to eyes content 
' In peaceful wonderment, 
We list the flowers "by whispering zephyr blown 
Trembling in music hitherto unknown : 

" Or from the margin of deep water gaze 
As rising Naiad there 

• • • 

Wimples her yellow hair 
To hide faint blushes when her hand she lays 
In mine, while kissing me in calm amaze. 

^' In calni amaze I should have truant played, 
So lonely long while $he. 



88 SILENUS. [PARTix. 

Perplexed awaiting me, 
Qu^tioned the rill for tidings, sore afraid 
I might await her lonely in the shade 

" But ere my tale of absence I narrate 

She throws the moonbeam charms 

« 

Of her long loving arms 
About me, murmuring, Tho' thou comest late 
I own myself Sleep, Naiad, Love, and Fate ! " 



" Silenus maunders," growled the listeners ; 

« 

" Singing of sleep foreshadows weariness. 
Let us now lead him to his sleeping-place. 
That he may rest. 

'* Ah } Look ! The water runs 
From. his old eyes ; but not in laughter now. 
His face down 'twixt his knees ; both hands 

upon 
His head as tho' it ached 1 

** These Demigods 



BOOK I.] SILENUS. $9 

Are mysteries. With half the wine he drank 
A mortal had been merry ; not so he. 
Despairing, dolorous he looks ; and shakes 
With sobs, as children sob when harshly chid. 
Mayhap his second childhood comes apace, 
And stress of singing songs overmasters him !" 

As chilled the waning riot with its King, 
His mirth in some dark sorrow quenched, the 

throng. 
Then dwindling fast away, soon vani$hed, save 
Unswerving nymphs and shepherds who upheld 
His listless heavy bulk and lumbering feet 
To his soft bed of fern, laid dry, compact. 
By tending maidens ; whereon, overthrown 
With skins that once clad savage beasts of 

prey, 
Silenus sank ; but, struggling against sleep) 
He turned uneasily ; then pausing glared 
At unseen foe ; unaidecj^sprang upright ! 
Then, stretching back his right arm suddenly, 



^ SILENUS. [PARTIL 

Amid loose straw there dangling from the 

thatcby 
As tho' aboat to hurl some mighty spear, 
He shouted, 

• ** Demon, not the thunderbolts 
Of all Olympus shall protect thee now ! 
To carrion will I slaughter thee and glut 
Wild wolves when maddened with mandragora ! 
As nothing else, not vulture's stenchy maw, 
Could gorge such foulness as thine evil flesh, 
"^ut no! For death might be a resting-' 

place ; 
And I would have on thee the deadliest 

curse ! . 
Therefore live on. Live to feel \rfiat thou art ; 
Then live thou on for ever ! Tliis thy doom." 

The maids and shepherds huddling crouched 
aghast, 
Beholding him distraught ; great eyes aflame ; 



BOOK I.] 



SILENUS. 



91 



And his whole stature red in furnace-glow ; 
With voice of lion hungry and enraged 
Stifling the air grown heated like a den. 
They knew not what would save themselves, or 

aid 
Their Lord ; but while they cowered/hesitating, 
He on his bed fell down and spake no more. 



Timidly then they prop his wreathless head 
And languid arms. They watch him till he 

sleeps 
Making hoarse thunder with an even breath. 



BOOK 11. 

" Having bebdd thy lustrous countenance 
How have I, great Athena, fallen and sinned ! 
Once to have felt Thy stnile ; calm, less severe 
Than so divinely true, that Cytherea's 
Before it pales as starlight in the mom ; 
And shameless afterward breathe like a beast 
Knowing no purpose but his mate and food ! 

** Beneath Thine azure gaze all troubles cease ; 
And hopelessly confused entanglement 
Opens to clearness like a simple flower. 

" My face withdrawn from Wisdom's smile, I 
lay 
Befooled by sorrow, useless as a bow 
Drawn by some hasty hand and overstrained 

" By Thy resplendency in olden time 



BOOK 11.] SILENUS. 93 

I wrought with Dionysus in wild lands 
To give men safety by well-ordered ways ; 
Enriching to content with fruit and corn 
Strange peoples, rough and turbulent, who knew 
No law but will, no pity more than fire 
From tempest hurled at random throughout 

space. 
Then toiling dawn as restful eve was sweet ; 
Then sang the whole great dome of day for 

joy; 

From darkness shone the glory of the, stars. 

" Athwart my glory swept a blighting wind, 
That fouled the air with murky hate and death 
And evil-doing ; and dismayed I fell 
Adown the deep inevitable past ; 
When, bracing up my being, unto Thee 
I should have turned for succour and for strength. 

" As Dionysus taught, so mixed was mine 
With fleeting life, the mortal weighed me down : 
Lacking meanwhile Thy presence and Thine aid, 
I never rose again to God-like state. 



94 



SILENUS. 



[part II. 



Now feeding lowly wants, I dwell amid 
Coarse satyrs, coarser clowns of sheep and 

herds ; ■ 
Drinking the grape fo^Vomfort and a cloud 
To cover horrors past Thus, having grown. 
Wasteful and aimless, to unwieldy shape ; 
With scarce the power of motion save to hold 

• « 

The well-filled cup that swells but keeps me 

down. 
The grossest churls grin, urging me to sing 
Ribald and wanton tunes for their disport 
And they would make me dance, but well they 

know 
Unknitted my frail joints ; I shout instead. 
And chant them prophecies about themselves 
They do npt understand. For while the heat 
Bums in me, they all change to sudden sheep. 
And kine, and snarling beasts ; or things that 

pierce 
To suck the juice of fruit 

" How changed, alas ! 



BOOK II.] 



SILENUS. 



95 



Ffoiii that Silenus whpse long spear in weight 

a * 

• .Equalled the spear of Ares; who could wrench 
A rooted ash out from the 3oUd ground, 
And slay a, monster at a single blow. 
Who half a sunimer day could hold enthralled. 
By exhortation unto deeds of worth, 
A fierce innumerable multitude ! 

"' Now, tarnished, bloat Silenus will be borne 
In tales, thro' lapses of far time to com6, 

9 * 

As a great wine-skin gurgling laughter-noise 

• That made dull shepherds dance. For shallow 

gaze 
Onspme poor failing dwells and sees the whole, 
Tto* but a halt upon his lengthened march 
Whose movements were of God-like stateliness, 
. Abundant in fair issues of delight. 
Let man once stumble, or forget ; once err 
From weakness, or fierce passion's goad, the 
faixlt, 

• Alone rememberedj, wings his cruel fame ; 
His worth all cancelled, or uncredited ! 



96 SILENUS. [PARTIL 

The splendour of Hephaestion's skill forgot» 
Each scornful tattler gossips of his hurt 
The God who makes the thunderbolts of Zeus 
Is known to mortals as the God that limps ! 

'' As I by mortal thraldom am debased 
Below the brute, ah ! never more to rise, 
I would with mine own degradation cease. 
No longer shaming the Divinity 

• 

From whom I sprang ; or as a shameless lure 
To mimicry, when rightly I should flame 
A fiery signal warding dangerous steeps 
About whose feet wreck and wild billows 
play. 
« O Pallas 1 Great Athena ! Wisdom's self ! 
We know Thy sure unswierving course, un- 
checked, 
Speeds to an aim Thyself alone canst see ; 
Unheeding mortals, save a gracious glance 
Occasionally cast, which they perverse 
Strain utmost wilfulness to blink ; and hate 



BOOK II.] SILENUS. 97 

Even to slaughter and dark dungeon walls, 
Thy worshipper who lauds the light divine. 

'' What comes so sadly and so dear to most 
Disquiets not the passionless repose, 
Marking Thy mien all other Gods above. 
Canst Thou look downward from that lofly 

height 
Regarding me with other than cold scorn ? 
If tenderness of perfectness is part, 
Thine eyes may pityingly upon me fall. 
And in their radiance I may cease to be ! " 

"A babe," spake Pallas, "beauty in thee 
moved 
Immeasurable joy ; the idlest note 
Enticed thee, as a gaudy Western sky 
At eventide some careless shepherd boy, 
Lost and enraptured in its golden light. 
His flock neglected wandering wide astray. 
"Thou didst, while drifting into sidelong 
ways, 

H 



98 SILENUS. [PART u. 

Pursue delusive splendour that dela}red 
And frittered thy advance ; and courage failed 
When halting thou beheldst the scanty space 
Trod by thy footsteps in the vanished time. 

" 111 portioned and ill mixed thy nature held 
Too much of heaven's fire to herd with men ; 
Too little for the Gods. Hopeless to find 
An equal, and thence loving, as thou didst, 
A forest nymph, to make the balance true. 
More than was fitting gavest her of thyself, 
And losing her wast dragged so nigh to death 
Thou couldst not spring to healthy poise again. 

^Instead of nymph hadst thou a Goddess 
loved 
She might have scorned thee ; and in fierce 

despair 
Thou hadst, as conqueror, destroyed with fire, 
As now with revelry and crimson wine. 

" Save Zeus my Father and loved Hebe, none 
Of Gods divine have ever touched my hand ; 
Nor great Prometheus whom I loved and took 



BOOK II.] SILENUS. 99 



Within my shield and guarded him against 
The Horrors vigilant, that, hid or seen, 
Beset Olympian fire, when bent on theft 
He dared encounter them for love of man. 

" But thou in thy intent hast guileless been ; 
Whose fair young love was torn and crushed as 

life 
Unfolded in her to the perfect flower ; 
Thou in thine innocence a helpless babe 
Shalt clasp my hand ; and, as I lead thee 

hence. 
Thou shalt, tho' late, enjoy the blessed peace 
Found but within my guard. 

" Strange is thy Fate ! 
As one great star, beyond thy sight remote, 
Ringed by lone splendour in the space of 

worlds, 
Encircled has thy being been with love ! j 
And, as that splendour to the central orb, 
It never nears but moves for ever round. 
Thy passion is to thee ! " 



loo SILENUS. [part ii. 

^ O Goddess dread ! 
And yet I dread Thee not My hand in Thine, 
I seem an infant led. That haunting fear 
Of dire and unimaginable wrong. 
Hovering malign for the appointed swoop. 
Is past Around is calm, and hope beyond." 

" Thou art, Silenus, now within the light 
Of life. In joyful ease they dwell who tread 
The ground that bears thee now ; and spirits 

here, 
Unmixed with transient offspring of decay, 
Presenting aspects perfect to themselves, 
Are pure in sympathy with all around. 

" Behold these graceful reeds that waving turn 
Their edges to the breeze. Thy Syrinx dwells 
Within them, they are she. The water-flags, 
With purple candour gazing to thy gaze, 

I 

Asking thy love, are Leto. Loving thee 

She pined to death ; and dying hoped to grow 

In stately water-flags anear her friend, 



BOOK 11.] SILENUS. loi 

The graceful Syrinx whom on earth she loved. 

" Will but to see them in their mortal guise, 
Lo, they appear ! Behold them bending low 
To thee, as thou art bending low to them ! 

" Tall Eriphia whom thou loved'st to watch 
Because her movements had the measured 

charm 
Of music when innumerable leaves 
Sing their thanksgiving with the wind of heaven, 
Loftily now she droops in yonder birch, 
Fingering delightedly released perfumes 
That pause in lingering eddies on their way. 

" Here are no wooings as on earth are known ; 
Each spirit here loves all, and all love each ; 
Those who fulfil their lives are here and blessed ; 
The base as base remain resolved to earth. 
Becoming food and mansion of the worm. 

" When here perfection ripens, new desire. 
Breaking its bounds, attains sublimer worlds 
And rarer fineness in the living air. 
And inspiration, throbbing passionately, 



^* J^^^^P^PIP^B^^^^IW iJI W^i M * 



^" •■ i w 



I02 SILENUS. [PART II. 

Joins in the music of the sounding spheres ! 

'* That spheral region is remote from this 
Far as thou now art from thy slumbering form 
Breathing hoarse thunder in the midnight gloom 
That shudders at the sound. Thou wilt awake 
Believing this to be a sleep of dreams. 
Ere entering again that house of flesh, 
First learn thy fate from me : 

" No evil aim 
Has stained thy soul that weakness has debased, 
And, tho' to others thou hast been a bane, 
It was by ways unmeant Therefore dread not 
Fire of exasperate wrath ; nor Furies* scourge 
Of serpents, poison-faiiged, more than thou 

fear'st 
An azure noon, or love-sick nightingale 
Warbling his ardour to the evening breeze. 

** Piercing the dimmest future thou canst 
reach. 
Thou seest thyself a wine-skin gurgling mirth. 
Jeered and bemocked by unborn multitudes. 



BOOK II.] SILENUS. 103 

Comfort thyself in weakness. Thou canst see 
Into the cycles of immensity, 
Compared with vision of Olympian Gods, 
About so far as might a sparrow hop 
Against my Father's eagle at his speed. 

"In punishment thy name will bear the 
weight 
Of well-deserved reproach thro' countless years. 
But years will end : bright wilt thou reappear 
Purged of thy grossness ; splendid, as when she, 
Syrinx, beheld thee hurl thy mighty spear. 
For truth is strong, and, when unclouded, rules 
Omnipotent Men's ignorance and guile 
Are ofttimes clad in adamantine scales, 
Impenetrable as this golden mail 
Guarding my breast ; dashed from the arc of 

which 
A God-hurled thunderbolt would fly in dust 
Leaving assault no hope. Impregnable 
May error be against attack without ; 
Corrupt within it loosens into ruin. 



r 



104 SILENUS. [PART II. 

" Doubt not thy gentle life and storied woe 
Will soften harsh decree and conquer love. 
Then courage ! Dread no more 1 Pursue thy 

Fate 1 
I shall be nigh thee in thine hour of need ! " 



BOOK III. 

Come hoofs, come heels, and wine-skins ; 
cow-horns come ! - 
Your spry goats leave to browse the vine, or leap 
In airy arches over clefted rocks ; 
But come you hither, hoist the fir-cone high ! 

On thymy hills, O shepherds, leave your flocks, 
Of mellow-fleece, and bleating let them feed 
The breezy down ; or, if on roving bent, , 
Let them seek humid nooks of greenest growth. 
Doubt not of increase ; their own crdok-homed 

lords 
Have keen espial for the ewes' retreat ! 

Your spears becrimsoned by the sneaking wolf, 
Array in ivy or the looser vine ; 



io6 SILENUS. [part ii. 

With fir - cone guard their whetted perilous 

blades; 
Commanding victory, we with juicy grape 
Offer the cup but hide the pointed steel I 

Blare horns, crash cymbals, shrill the double 

pipe: 
Yell satyrs ; bellow fauns ; and shriek ye 

nymphs ! 
Leaving the swollen udders to their chance 
Of wasteful galaxy-besprinkled grass, 
As homeward kine low for the milker's hands. 

Tarry no longer by the rills to braid. 
Devices freaking your inwoven mats. 
With clustered seeds that crest the pointed 

rush, 
O clear-eyed Naiads cool 1 Haste, come with 

us. 
And show wild people how divinely pure 
The shapeliness of those who tend the vine ! 



BOOK III.] SILENUS. 107 

Now wends great Dionysus North away 
Thro' regions where loud torrents round the 

rock, 
Grinding with thunderous roar its rapid sides, 
And, shattering down in cataracts of foam. 
Shine forth in wonder, dazzling, iris-spanned, 
Of every hue the flowers of summer yield. 

He the gay God will lead adventuring feet 
And overcome whatever dangers lurk 
Of hunger, crouching beast, and raging 

storm. 
Or fury of surprised revengeful man ! 

Then leave, ye loveliest, your tended bees 
To revel on their honey for a while. 
Sweetest of sweets new honey from the comb ; 
But sweeter yet the sweet of hoarded toil, 
Gathered unceasingly through burdened hours 
Eyed by keen hunger armed with threatening 

beak. 
Then let the little toilers feast their fill ! 



io8 SILENUS. [PARTIL I 

Athena gave the olive. Wisely ye 
The oil expressed pour into slender jars 
With lengthened ears that they may hear the rat, 
Or any two-legged robber coming nigh. 
But if your oil they rob then let them rob : 
Better oil wasted than yourselves should lose 
The show of thronging people mad for joy. 
Falling adown in worship of the vine ! 
Then hasten forth to join the fir-coned spears f 

Be tempted, O ye Dryades, a while. 
Quit the gnarled safety of your shadowy homes, 
They were but acorns in the ancient days, 
What time Zeus, nurtured in the mountain cave. 
Lay hid from Cronos, child-devouring Sire. 
Leave beech and birch, cold ash, and broad - 

leaved plane. 
Ye who can battle with the wintry storm. 
And dropping summer garments, lithe and 

bare. 
Resist the strength and teeth of Boreas ! 



/ 



BOOK III.] SILENUS. 109 

In vain we hail the Hamadiyades ; 
For each, where her twin leaflets broke the soil, 
Lingers contented on the self-same spot. 

Placid Limniades persuade to move, 
And for a while forego their heavenward gaze. 
Assure them heaven is more benign than vast. 
And will again their steadfastness requite 
When they returning reassume the watch 
Of changing glories thro' the day and night. 

For Dionysus plans his march to glow 
And gleam with nymphs of river, lake, and 

wood. 
In beauty unconfused. 

Come Oreads, 
From mountain heights descending: primrose 

hair 
Borne out from rosy features either side, 
Quivering like wings that tremble with a song ! 
Sing to us of great chasms, thunder-split ; 



no SILENUS. [part ii. 

Of tempest warfare making noontide black, 

Till spent it bursts in sudden torrents down 

Sweeping hillsides with all their pines away ! 

Ye bright ones, tell of lofty things afar. 

Stem eagles in their solitary haunts ; 

Why they on splintered points a livelong day 

Blink satisfied and silent in >the sun ? 

And tell us why they ring the mountain-world 

Ere swooping* downward on a destined aim. 

Tho' coy the Nereids, in beauty proud, 

No garments vex the movement of their charms. 
Whereon the favoured eyes would love to dwell. 
But, ever baffled by the waves and flash 
Of sparkling foam, brief glimpses only catch ; 
And only mortal high, heroical, 
Was ever blessed by Nereid's embrace ; 
As Peleus, who, by Thetis loved, became 
Father of great Achilles whose renown 
Went level with the Gods*. Ah! they could 
tell 



BOOK III.] SILENUSL III 

Of wonders in the blue Aegean sea ; 
Of caverns where green monsters ruby-eyed, 
Guard jewels heaped and sprinkled on the 
floor, 

Crushed gems compounded into glittering sand 
In times of Chaos ere the Gods were born. 
But they forsake not their own watery world, 
Or make brief pauses by the shelving shore 
To snood their brine -drenched locks, or watch 

the sails 
Buoyant on dancing laughter-loving waves. 

Great daughters of the ancient Power that 

clasps 
The rounded earth, the Oceanides ; 
Beyond the flight of hope to waken them ! 
In vast Atlantic water leave them still 
And undisturbed, awaiting Fate when hence ; 
In some dim future yet inscrutable, 
They shall behold their billows thronged with 

fleets 



112 SILENUS. [PART II. 

Innumerable, as wild-fowl in their haunt 
At breeding time on lonely island mere. 

Who would be laggard in a God's advance, 
Remaining fixed as flowers however fair ? 
When she might wander with the nightingales, 
Who fly from land to land and loudly sing 
Of fairest bloom and all the woodland joy 
Their tender gaze collects in passing by. 

What can smile lovelier than a Naiad's lot, 
Whose springs well rippling from the coolest 

depth! 
Thro' creviced rock she sees them ever drip 
And run atwixt moist stones beneath the grass. 
The grasses spreading finger-tips to feel 
Unceasing motion thrill them, while the flow 
Quiveringly carries on the lustrous day 
Thro' sweeps of open space, to wind along 
Rich tillage patched with store by homes of 

men; 



BOOK III.] SILENUS. 1 13 

And widening out, far-spreading, reach on reach, 
Commingles lastly with the sounding sea ! 

If she, the dainty and the pure, forego 
Fixed contemplation of her sacred charge, 
To follow Dionysus' crowded march ; 
Who will, regardless of triumphant chance, 
Here linger, conquered by the cark and fret 
Of little earthly cares ? 

Sound high the shell ! 
Raisis voice and spear ; move forward foot and 

hoof: 
Astound the silence of the sleeping hills, 
And make the forest shiver with your shouts ! 



BOOK IV, 

Forecasting victory lolled the vintage God, 
The languid-eyed and smooth-limbed . son of. 
Zeus, 

Great Dionyisus on his tiger huge ; 
Whose silent glide of pliant-pacing feet 
Seemed rather drift of undulating flame 
Than crafty brut<s compact of bone and thews. 

By fierceness fiercer than the tiger's own, 
Artaxeres, an orient Prince, had tamed . 
Its savage temper to obedience. 
Grateful for fellowship and wisdom learned . 
Of Dionysus, for the priceless vine 
Imparted to his people, he had given 
As boon his fondled treasure, now subdued ; 
Soothed to such gentle gait the God could sit 



BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 115 

The dreaded back .holding his cup so brimmed 
A bubble. setting threatened overflow, 
And bring to lip wiftiout a wasted drop ! 

Now marched he in. the rude Edone's land, 

• ■ • • 

Ruled by Lycurgus, grim flesh-loving King, 
Who, hating grain atid oil and every fruit, 
Loathed most the tempting clusters of the vine, 
Whence oozed the red abominable juice 
That fires man's brain to waste, and taints his 

blood 
;Sq thick with foulness, dimmed, his eyesight fails 
To wing ah easy arrow to its aim. 

« 

The King bound every man to bow and spear ; 

Flouting the texture of the tedious loom, 

< 

For clothing of the beasts ; man^s pride to seize 
And privilege to wear ! Girt by his throng 
Of worshippers, all guardians of the grape, 
Divinely tranquil Dionysus passed. 
Trampling thro' open plot of dazzling flowers 
His multitude left crushed ; athwart broad shade 



ii8 ^ . SILENUS. [part II. 

As soon 
Had he imagined those bright forms CQuld turn 
Storming upon him in an ash-faced rage, 
Ferocious, uncontrollable, as gift 
So rich in promise scornfully refused ! 
While meditating fondly his great boon, 
A sharp and distant din he heard ; and cries 
From many quarters, lengthened shouts that 

swelled 
And gathered, like the tempest from the hills 
Sucked down the valley round the log-built 

town, 
That threw blank chill and silence on his host 

Now, flashing thro' the stormy darkness, 
bursts 
A glittering stream of spears, guided by him. 
Swiftly in measured paces step for step. 
The grim Edonean King, whose head unhelmed 
In his wild haste discloses burning hate 
At deadly heat blanching his countenance. 



\ 



BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 119 

He faces Diotiysus. When the King, 
Holding his spears, that shivered in their haste 
For .sharp assault, made fell assail by fierce 

' Impoisoned words barbed with disdain, the 
God 
Saw a great beast aroused too strong to slay, 
And strove by promises of sweet account, 

. In brief recital of his purposes. 
To win acceptance for the precious grape. 

But the king's hate had rooted into life, 
And grown throughout his being, as the veins 
That pulsed a net of movement thro' his 

frame ; 
And wasteful as to woo a hurricane 
Laden with blight to spare the buds of spring. 
Is strife with enmity at highest tide. 

If in fulfilment even Gods may fail, 
Thwarted by force unknown or unforeseen, 
Malign, and not regarded ; how shall man 



I20 SILENUS. [part ii. 

Not stumble and halt, peqplexed in ignorance. 
Checked before sheer unfathomable chasms 
Across the followed pathway to his hope ? 

Quivering, teeth-set, Lycurgus, in his hate 
Of Dionysus, terror-stricken lest 
The God on his stem people breathe the taint 
He dreaded mostly, worship of the vine, 
Scarce deigned him breathing-time, ere shriek- 
ing loud 
He charged with every spear the helpless host. 
And baulked escape by sending nimble bows 
To hold the seaward road. 

Arose a scream 
Of piteous, shrill, unutterable woe. 
As struck their entered flesh the shock of spears ! 
Yells, arrows, blows, spear-thrusts, derisive taunts 
Mixed to a storm of rage, beating in waves 
Successive, fiercer each, urged by the King, 
Whose wrath was lighted into lurid smile. 
Beholding where the baffled God withdrawn 



BOOK IV.] SILENUS. 121 

Scaled a steep rock hard by, and uttered words 
Of doom. 

But exultation changed anon, 
When ceasing Dionysus hurled his spear. 
Fluttering in vine-leaves, thro' the metal shield, 
Firm breast and sinewy shoulder, crushing thro' 
The strong bladebone beyond, leaving the King 
Becrippled in his savage power, reserved 
For deadlier fate than death from wound of 

spear ! 
Then from the lofty crag the God adown 
Plunged headlong in the sea. 

Lycurgus now. 
Maddened by anguish into fury, blared 
For slaughter, while he urged them not to spare 
* One that might wag a future tongue and say 
He saw a King in Thrace smitten by spear 
Tricked in the juggling leafage of the vine ! 
While faster flowed the victims' blood, their 
shrieks 



122 SIX.ENUS. . IPARTII. 

More loudly filled the vacancy, of heaven 

Appealing to the Gods. 

Silenus heard, 

And, roused from heavy dreams that held him 
bound 
* And stupefied in some oblivious world 

Throughout the fearful fortune of the day, 

Rose like a lion with a rolling roar, 
. Thundering above the havoc, and appalled 

The slaughterers to wondering pause, while hung 

Trembling the reddened blades spell-bound in air. 

4 
\ 

"Ye murderers," cried he, "degraded slaves, 
Doing the bidding of a brutish King 
Who knows nor cares for either right or wrong ; 
. Forbidding you the treasure we had brought 
Of riches, peace, and laws to govern you ! 
We offer yoy the wisdom and the fruit 
Thousands have bent their toiling lives to find 
Thro' generations aided by the Gods, 
Which ye refuse, and welcome us with death I 



t 



J: 

r 



BOOK IV.} . SILENUS. 133 

*' Oh Dryantiades, what a fate is thine I . 
Fell, grisly son of wrath and vengeance thou ! 
Flesh-tearing wolf in hunian form ! The wolves, 
Thy kin, await the feast of mangled limbs 
Wild horses on Pangaeum's mount shall wrench 
Asunder fromi thy carcase shuddering, 
When they, these murderers^ know thy crime 

has Iain . , 
Stark barrenness accursed upon their land ! 
. '* That day thy fetteris, forged of brightest 

gold 
And silver njelted from the mountain-side, 
Shall mock the trailing glories of the rose 
Blossoming there on thy death-spot, O King f 

^ Thine is a fate so horrible that death 
In ghastliest ini^ginable shape 
Shall seem a blessed boon beyond thy hope ! 
Mad shalt thou be I And maddened by the 

vine! 
Thy lifelong horror shall around thee cling 
So close its leaves shall taint thine every meal, 



134 SILENUS. [PART II. 

And canopy thy dreams ; until the world 
Shall seem to thee but one grape-bearing stem. 
Which 'tis thy burdened duty evermore 
To hack at and to hew. And thou shalt find 
That, fast as thou mayst cut, the dream-vine 

grows 
Yet faster. Thou unable to descry 
Man's form from that of trees, shalt hack and 

hew 
The limbs of Dryas, thine own son, and slay 
Him who by thee of all was best beloved 1 
" But hark ; the thunder ! Speaks the voice 

of Zeus ! " 

Then harshly yelled the King, " Enough I 
Enough t 
A foolish spear driven thro' me should suffice 
Without the plague of hearing evil things 
Prophesied on myself! The voice of Zeus ; 



BOOK IV.] SILENUS. las 

Of these parts I am Zeus ! Thou callest me 

wolf! 
What I call thee soon shalt thou hear, ha ! ha I 
And mayhap feel the truth. 

" Stand forth there bows I 
In that huge wine-bag plant me fifty shafts 
That I may fairly name him porcupine 
Bristling in fear to hold us all aloof." 

The bowmen notched the arrows on the 
strings 
And raised their bows to aim ; but, ere they 

drew 
Their shafts back to the head, Silenus cried, 

murderers, and blood-stain 

t trifling sport to rend thin 
its socket and to splash th^ 
upon the earth. Thy bows 
t straw to fence thee from 



1 26 SI LEN U S. [PART II. 

Were I so willed to slay. But thou art doomed 
To darker fate than any death from me 1 
For when thou hast thine only soa destroyed 
Thy reason will return. Then shalt thou know 
Thy loss i The curse stem Gods have laid on 

thee, 
Thy countiy's barrenness, thy people's wrath, 
The fierce wild horses, and the golden chains I 

** Thy Father's voice, O great Athena I Hear 
Thy worshipper. This is his hour of need f " 

While spoke the Demigod crashed thunder 
burst. 
Blazing one instant in stupendous glare, 
With sound, as water singing in descent j 
With smell of burning hides ; and all was dark. 



BOOK V. 

No lowly offered roses at the shrine 
Of Aphrodite can more richly bloom 
Than these, Silenus, we have brought to 

grace 
The rock tliAt guards thine honoured bones. 

Long years 
Our vines have blossomed^ set, and grown to 

fruit ; 
The vintages been gathered, drunk the wine ; 
But thou' art still the loss we must bemoan 
As on that fearful day of blood and fire, 
When, Dionysus driven into the sea, 
And thou alone didst face the evil King. 



128 SILENUS. [PART II. 

Our life-blood ran in streams, till thou wert 

roused. 
And thy voice rang like thunder from the hills 
And stayed the slaughter; when the slaughterers 
Paused in their pastime, like affrighted ghosts, 
As thou didst tell the King his dreadful doom 
Of madness, fury, murder of his child ; 
And reason waking on the deed of blood. 
Well couldst thou read the future ; pace by pace 
The Furies have fulfilled thy prophecy ; 
The barren country; and the people's wrath 
Bursting in vengeance on the King accursed. 
And when upon thee fifty points were bent, 
Thy voice again in thunder stayed their hands ; 
Shook the black vault of heaven, brought 

thunders down. 
Where wonderstruck, in blinding fire, we saw 
Pallas Athena, spear and shield outspread. 
And heard Her mighty voice. 

And when the gloom 
Had passed away, with horror we beheld 



BOOK v.] SILENUS. i2f 

The fifty bowmen fifty blackened heaps ; 
While thou wert lying as a babe asleep 
Smiling on mother's lap, without a wound 
From shaft or spear, or stain of thunder-fire. 
But they had seen the Gorgon shield and 

turned 
To hard black stones and sunk into the soil ; 
For no one could be found to bury them ; 
And some say vaguely nothing now remains ; 
Tho' no one knows for no one goeth nigh. 

The flash that slew the fifty felled the King, 
Who si^ewise lay outstretched like slaughtered 

wolf. 
Then ceased the carnage; all male folk were 

slain ; 
We women taken prisoners and spared, 
Because they thought us shapely, strong, and 

fair, 

And, scorning war-slaves for their wedded wives, 

They gave us freedom, and they married us. 

We nurse and rear the children of our lords ; 

K 



13Q SILENUS. [PART n. 

And every day make ready every meal ; 
Fashion their garments, and keep bright the 

hearth. 
We do all women have to do for men. 
These are not worse than men of other lands : 
Men are much like each other everywhere ; 
Unfeeling, hard, and coarse throughout the 

grain. 
Their thews are stouter, and our own must give ; 
Their wills are sterner, and we must obey. 

This is not what we thought our lives would 

be, 
Adored Silenus, in the times agone ; 
When, hallowed by the forest shadowing, 
We heard thy stories of heroic men 
Who loved their loving maidens tenderly. 
We, thought the common course of woman's 

life 
Gently united with the man's she loved ; 
That every meeting of their eyes bred smiles 



BOOK v.l SILENUS. 131 

In happy looks, and words of sweet content, 
Contentment in each other winged with hope, 
Sole blessing left us, our forefathers taught. 
A word of doubtful meaning, never clear. 
Hope now has left us in another sense : 
We are but as we are, and must remain. 

It gladdens us to know we had the care 
Thy memory should receive a warrior's due 
In this great rock placed where thine honoured 

bones 
Were laid deep in the grave we filled with 

flowers. 
For, while the curse clung withering on the land, 
And nothing quickened in its barren soil, 
We told the people our offended Gods 
Must be appeased by sacrifice and prayer. 
Five hundred strong men came with rolls and 

cords ; 
Long wooden levers, picks, and spades to dig 
An even roadway and an easy slope 



132 SILENUS. [PART II. 

Whereon they urged the great rock inch by inch. 
It gave us joy to watch their sunburnt limbs 
Brighten with sinewy effort, as the words 
To move were cried. With simultaneous shout, 
They clenched, and put together all their strength 
In one great impulse at the close and set 
The rock where now it rests. 

The toilers all 
Fell back, and gazing on the feat awestruck. 
Knelt, holding forth their arms and praised the 
Gods! 

We do not chatter idle words of thee, 
Silenus ; knowing thou wert huge and bald ; 
Thy lingering locks but loose, and scanty gray ; 
Thy smiling eyes were moist, and vague thy 

lips; 
And thy limbs creased with fatness like a babe's. 
These plain defects, an easy gibe for churls, 
Awoke within our hearts no pleasantry. 
Whatever fair reproach might cleave to thee 



BOOK v.] SILENUS. 133 

We ever loved thee and thy gentle voice ; 
Thy gentle voice that patiently disclosed 
What heretofore our eyes had never seen 
Our ears had never heard : 

Why sharply edged 
The driven scud of heaven against the wind, 
And birds their spring notes sang so lustily ; 
How the bees, seeking honey for themselves, 
Ministered singing to the loves of flowers ; 
How flowers, when in their fullest beauty bright 
Could lure winged riflers to the fruits' increase ; 
And why on one cheek alway blushes fruit. 
Thou wouldst unweariedly narrate to us 
The stories of the trees ; and why they turned 
To this incline or that ; why at a slope 
Whole forest flanks swerved inland from the 

shore 
Thrifty of leaf ; and why some drooping sought 
Shelter from light, to root in earth again ; 
While others proudly, with exalted points 
Trembling in sapphire, whispered to the wind. 



1 



134 SILENUS. [PART 11. 

It did not, loved Silenus, make us love 
These tales t6e less because male creatures 

scoffed, 
Calling them little and of little worth. 
We loved them with thee ; now we love them 

more, 
Having lost both the Teacher and his tunes. 
Our lords have arms of strength, and hold 

their spears 
As weapons well in use ; and with them we 
Dread neither panther's teeth nor tusk of 

boar ; 
For deft are they with bow and arrows winged 
To fell or check the hare and stag at speed ; 
But all their talk is ambush, capture^ spoil ; 
Food, drink, and clothing; and the store for 

fires. 
Our lords so little heed the joy around, 
The sweetest flower asks vainly for a smile ; 
Unnoticed ring the woodland melodies, 
And march the clouds of noon without regard. 



r»"» 



BOOK v.] SILENUS. 135 

Therefore do we on our permitted days 

Heap the red roses on thy sacred rock. 

Our lords believe the sacrifice we bring 

Will add fresh clusters and protect their vines, 
And they, remembering Dryantiades' fate, 

Are gruffly lenient toward the rites we pay. 

Our sweetest dreams are dreams of memory, 

During the toilsome day, when lacking hope, 

We wander backward in the olden time 

And gather round thy feet to hear thy tales 

Of Gods and Demigods, and favoured maids ; 

Of Goddesses who deigned to mortal love ; 

And dreadful monsters slain by strength divine. 

Children of duty and obedience, 

As these of ours, brought forth in nature's 

course, 

Babble a duller music than the babes 

Of love. Kindly we use our helpless ones ; 

All things are kindly to their tender young ; 

But children they of our lords* will, not ours, 

We seem not nursing our own kith and kin.