Classic Poem

1.

Beneath the caves where sunless loam
Grows dim and reddens into gold;
'Neath the fat earth-seams, where the cold
Rains thicken to the flowery foam
Fringing blue streams in summer zones;
Beneath the spheres where dead men's bones
Change darkly thro slow centuries to marl and glittering stones; —

2.

Orb'd in that rayless realm, alone,
Far from the realm of sun and shower,
A palpable god with godlike power,
I, Ades, dwelt upon a throne;
Much darkness did my eyelids tire;
But thro' my veins the hid Sun's fire
Communicated impulse, hope, thought, passion, and desire.

3.

Eternities of lonely reign,
Full of faint dreams of day and night
And the white glamour of starry light,
Oppress'd my patience into pain;
Upward I sent a voice of prayer
That made a horror in the air:
And " Ades craves a queen, O Zeus!" shook heaven unaware.

4.

The gods stopt short in full carouse,
And listen'd. On the streams of Hell
The whole effulgent conclave fell
As in a glass. With soft-arch'd brows,
And wings of dewy-tinctured dye,
Pale Iris listen'd blushingly;
And Here sought the soul of Zeus with coldly eager eye.

5.

Then the clear hyaline grew cold
And dim before the Father's face;
Gray meditation clothed the place;
And rising up Zeus cried, " Behold!" —
And on Olumpos' crystal wall,
A kingly phantom cloudy and tall,
Throned, sceptred, crown'd, was darkly apparition'd at the call.

6.

" Behold him!" Zeus the Father cried,
With voice that shook my throne forlorn:
Pale Hermes curl'd his lips in scorn,
And Iris drew her bow aside:
Artemis paled and did not speak;
Sheer fear flush'd Aphrodite's cheek;
And only owl-eyed Pallas look'd with pitying smile and meek.

7.

A weary night thro' earth and air
The shadow of my longing spread,
And not a goddess answerid.
All nature darken'd at my prayer;
Which darkness earth and air did shroud,
No starrain'd light, but, pale and proud,
With blue-edged sickle Artemis cut her slow path thro' cloud.

8.

And when the weary dark was done,
Beyond my sphere of realm upsprang,
With smile that beam'd and harp that sang,
Apollo piloting the Sun;
And conscious of him shining o'er,
I watch'd my black and watery floor
Wherein the wondrous upper-world is mirror'd evermore.

9.

When lo, there murmur'd on my brain,
Like sound of distant waves, a sound
That did my godlike sense confound
And kiss'd my eyelids down in pain;
And far above I heard the beat
Of musically falling feet,
Hurl'd by the echoes of the earth down to my brazen seat.

10.

And I was 'ware that overhead
Walk'd one whose very motion sent
A sweet immortal wonderment
Thro' the deep dwellings of the Dead,
And flush'd the seams of cavern and mine
To gleams of gold and diamond shine,
And made the misty dews shoot up to kiss her feet divine.

11.

By Zeus, the beat of those soft feet
Thrill'd to the very roots of Hell,
Troubling the mournful streams that fell
Like snakes from out my brazen seat:
Faint music reach'd me strange and slow,
My conscious. Throne gleam'd pale as snow,
A beauteous vision vaguely fill'd the dusky glass below. —

12.

When I beheld in that dark glass
The phantom of a lonely maid,
Who gather'd flowers in a green glade
Knee-deep in dewy meadow-grass,
And on a riverside. Behold,
The sun that robed her round with gold,
Mirror'd beneath me raylessly, loom'd white and round and cold.

13.

Soft yellow hair that curl'd and clang
Throbbed to her feet in softest showers,
And as she went she gather'd flowers,
And as she gather'd flowers she sang:
It floated down my sulphurous eaves,
That melody of flowers and leaves,
Of vineyards, gushing purple wines, and yellow slanted sheaves.

14.

Darkling I mutter'd, " It were choice
Proudly to throne in solemn cheer
So fair a queen, and ever to hear
Such song from so divine a voice!"
And with the wish I upward breathed
A mist of fire that swiftly seethed
Thro' shuddering earth-seams overhead, and round her warm knees wreathed.

15.

Whereon the caves of precious stones
Grew bright as moonlight thrown on death,
And red gold brighten'd, and the breath
Drew greenness moist from fleshless bones;
And every cave was murmuring:
" O River, cease to flow and sing,
And bear the tall bride on thy banks to the footstool of thy king!"

16.

Then writhed the roots of forest trees
In tortuous fear, till tremblingly
Green leaves quaked round her. A sharp cry
Went upward from the Oreades;
Low murmurs woke in bower and cave,
With diapason in the wave;
The River eddied darkly round, obeying as a slave.

17.

Half stooping downward, while she held
A flower in loosening fingers light;
The quick pink fading from the white
Upon her cheek; with eyes that welled
Dark pansy thoughts from veins that dart
Like restless snakes round the honied heart,
And balmy breath that mildly blew her rose-red lips apart, —

18.

She listen'd — stately, yet dismay'd;
And dimly conscious of some change
That made the whispering place seem strange
And awful, far from human aid;
And as the moaning Stream grew near,
And whirl'd unto her with eddies clear,
She saw my shadow in his waves and shrank away in fear.

19.

" Small River, flowing with summer sound,
Strong River, solemn Ades' slave,
Flow unto her with gentle wave,
And make an isle, and hem her round."
The River, sad with gentle worth,
Felt backward to that cave of earth
Where, troubled with my crimson eyes, he shudder'd into birth.

20.

Him saw she trembling; but unseen,
Under long sedges lily-strew'd,
Round creeping roots of underwood,
Low down beneath the grasses green
Whereon she waited wondering-eyed,
My servant slid with stealthy tide: —
Then like a fountain bubbled up and foam'd on either side.

21.

And shrinking back she gazed in fear
On his wild hair, and lo, an isle —
Around whose brim waves rose the while
She cried, " O mother Ceres, hear!"
Then sprang she wildly to and fro,
Wilder than rain and white as snow.
" O honour'd River, grasp thy prize, and to the footstool flow!"

22.

One swift sunbeam with sickly flare
On white arms waving high did gleam,
What time she shriek'd, and the strong Stream
Leapt up and grasp'd her by the hair.
And all was dark. With wild heads bow'd
The forest murmur'd, and black cloud
Split speumy on the mountain tops with fire and portent loud!

23.

Then all was still as the Abyss,
Save for the dark and bubbling water,
And the far voice. " Bear Ceres' daughter
Unto the kingly feet of Dis!"
Wherefore I rose upon my throne,
And smote my kingdom's roof of stone;
Earth moan'd to her deep fiery roots — Hell answer'd with a groan.

24.

When swiftly waving sulphurous wings
The Darkness brooded down in fear
To listen. I, afar, could hear
The coming River's murmurings;
My god-like eyes with flash of flame
Peer'd up the chasm. As if in shame
Of his slave-deed, darkly and slow, my trembling servant came.

25.

The gentleness of summer light,
This stream, my honour'd slave possessed:
The blue flowers mirror'd in his breast,
And the meek lamps that sweeten night,
Had made his heart too mild to bear
With other than a gentle care,
And slow sad solemn pace, a load so violet-eyed and fair!

26.

Him saw I, as, thro' looming rocks,
He glimmer'd like a serpent gray
Whose moist coils hiss; then, far away,
Lo, the dim gleam of golden locks,
Lo, a far gleam of glinting gold,
Floating in many a throbbing fold,
What time soft ripples panted dark on queenly eyelids cold.

27.

Silently, with obeisance meet,
In gentle arms escorting well
The partner of eternal Hell,
Thus flow'd, not halting, to my feet
The gracious River with his load:
Her with dark arm-sweep he bestow'd
On my great footstool — then again, with sharp shriek, upward flow'd.

28.

So fair, so fair, so strangely fair,
Dark from the waters lay my love;
And lo, I, Ades, stoop'd above,
And shuddering touch'd the yellow hair
That made my beaded eyeballs close —
Awful as sunshine. Cold as snows,
Pale-faced, dank-lidded, proud, she lay in wonderful repose.

29.

And all the lesser Thrones that rise
Around me, shook. With murmurous breath,
Their Kings shook off eternal death,
And with a million fiery eyes
Glared red above, below, around,
And saw me stooping fiery-crown'd;
And the white faces of the damn'd arose without a sound.

30.

As if an awful sunbeam, rife
With living glory, pierced the gloom,
Bringing to spirits blind with doom
The summers of forgotten life, —
Those pallid faces, mad and stern,
Rose up in foam, and each in turn
Roll'd downward, as a white wave breaks, and seem'd to plead and yearn.

31.

What time this horror loom'd beyond,
Her soul was troubled into sighs:
Stooping, throned, crown'd, I touch'd her eyes
With dim and ceremonial wand;
And looking up, she saw and knew
An awful love which did subdue
Itself to her bright comeliness and gave her greeting due!

32.

" Welcome!" — The rocks and chasms and caves,
The million thrones and their black kings,
The very snakes and creeping things,
The very damn'd within the waves,
Groan'd " welcome;" and she heard — with light
Fingers that writhed in tresses bright, —
But when I touch'd her to the soul, she slowly rose her height.

33.

While shadows of a reign eterne
Quench'd the fine glint in her yellow hair,
She rose erect more hugely fair,
And, dark'ning to a queenhood stern,
She gazed into mine eyes and thence
Drew black and subtle inference,
Subliming the black godhead there with sunnier, sweeter sense.

34.

Low at her feet, huge Cerberus
Crouch'd groaning, but with royal look
She stooping silenced him, and took
The throne sublime and perilous
That rose to hold her and upstream'd
Vaporous fire: the dark void scream'd,
The pale Eumenides made moan, with eyes and teeth that gleam'd.

35.

Behold, she sits beside me now,
A weighty sorrow in her mien,
Yet gracious to her woes — a queen;
The sunny locks about her brow
Shadow'd to godhead solemn, meet;
Throned, queen'd; but round about her feet,
Sweeten'd by gentle grass and flowers, the brackish waves grow sweet.

36.

And surely, when the mirror dun
Beneath me mirrors yellowing leaves,
And reapers binding golden sheaves,
And vineyards purple in the sun,
When fulness fills the plenteous year
Of the bright upper-world, I hear
The voice among the harvest-fields that mourns a daughter dear.

37.

" Lo, Ceres mourns the bride of Dis,"
The old Earth moans; and rocks and hills,
" Persephone;" sad radince fills
The dripping horn of Artemis
Silverly shaken in the sky;
And a great frost-wind rushing by —
" Ceres will rob the eyes of Hell when seed-time draweth nigh."

38.

And in the seed-time after snow,
Down the long caves, in soft distress,
Dry corn-blades tangled in her dress,
The weary goddess wanders slow —
The million eyes of Hell are bent
On my strange queen in wonderment, —
The ghost of Iris gleams across my waters impotent!

39.

And the sweet Bow bends mild and bland
O'er rainy meadows near the light,
When fading far along the night
They wander upward hand-in-hand;
And like a phantom I remain,
Chain'd to a throne in lonely reign,
Till, sweet with greenness, moonlight-kiss'd, she wanders back again.

40.

But when afar thro' rifts of gold
And caverns steep'd in fog complete,
I hear the beat of her soft feet,
My kingdom totters as of old;
And, conscious of her sweeter worth,
Her godhead of serener birth,
Hell, breathing fire thro' flowers and leaves, feels to the upper-earth.