Ah, what whisper of doom?
V
Gold, thro" the ferns as he gazed and listened, Shone the soul of the wood"s deep dream, One bright glade and a pool that glistened Full in the face of the sun"s last gleam,-- Gold in the heart of a violet dingle!
Young Actaeon, beware! beware!
Who shall track, while the pulses tingle, Spring to her woodland lair?
VI
See, at his feet, what mystical quiver, Maiden"s girdle and robe of snow, Tossed aside by the green glen-river Ere she bathed in the pool below?
All the fragrance of April meets him Full in the face with its young sweet breath; Yet, as he steals to the glade, there greets him-- Hush, what whisper of death?
VII
Lo, in the violets, lazily dreaming, Young Diana, the huntress, lies: One white side thro" the violets gleaming Heaves and sinks with her golden sighs, One white breast like a diamond crownet Couched in a velvet casket glows, One white arm, tho" the violets drown it, Thrills their purple with rose.
VIII
Buried in fragrance, the half-moon flashes, Beautiful, clouded, from head to heel: One white foot in the warm wave plashes, Violets tremble and half reveal, Half conceal, as they kiss, the slender Slope and curve of her sleeping limbs: Violets bury one half the splendour Still, as thro" heaven, she swims.
IX
Cold as the white rose waking at daybreak Lifts the light of her lovely face, Poised on an arm she watches the spray break Over the slim white ankle"s grace, Watches the wave that sleeplessly tosses Kissing the pure foot"s pink sea-sh.e.l.ls, Watches the long-leaved heaven-dark mosses Drowning their star-bright bells.
X
Swift as the Spring where the South has brightened Earth with bloom in one pa.s.sionate night, Swift as the violet heavens had lightened Swift to perfection, blinding, white, Dian arose: and Actaeon saw her, Only he since the world began!
Only in dreams could Endymion draw her Down to the heart of man.
XI
Fair as the dawn upon Himalaya Anger flashed from her cheek"s pure rose, Alpine peaks at the pa.s.sage of Maia Flushed not fair as her b.r.e.a.s.t.s" white snows.
Ah, fair form of the heaven"s completeness, Who shall sing thee or who shall say Whence that "high perfection of sweetness,"
Perfect to save or slay?
XII
_Perfect in beauty, beauty the portal Here on earth to the world"s deep shrine, Beauty hidden in all things mortal, Who shall mingle his eyes with thine?
Thou, to whom Life and Death surrender All earth"s forms as to heaven"s deep care, Who shall pierce to thy naked splendour, Bind his brows with thy hair?_
XIII
_Beauty, perfect in blinding whiteness, Softly suffused thro" the world"s dark shrouds, Kindling them all as they pa.s.s by her brightness,-- Hills, men, cities,--a pageant of clouds, She, the unchanging, shepherds their changes, Bids them mingle and form and flow, Flowers and flocks and the great hill-ranges Follow her cry and go._
XIV
Swift as the sweet June lightning flashes, Down she stoops to the purpling pool, Sudden and swift her white hand dashes Rainbow mists in his eyes! "Ah, fool!
Hunter," she cries to the young Actaeon, "Change to the hunted, rise and fly, Swift ere the wild pack utter its paean, Swift for thy hounds draw nigh!"
XV
Lo, as he trembles, the greenwood branches Dusk his brows with their antlered pride!
Lo, as a stag thrown back on its haunches Quivers, with velvet nostrils wide, Lo, he changes! The soft fur darkens Down to the fetlock"s lifted fear!-- Hounds are baying!--he snuffs and hearkens, "Fly, for the stag is here!"
XVI
Swift as he leapt thro" the ferns, Actaeon, Young Actaeon, the lordly stag, Full and mellow the deep-mouthed paean Swelled behind him from crag to crag: Well he remembered that sweet throat leading, Wild with terror he raced and strained, On thro" the darkness, thorn-swept, bleeding: Ever they gained and gained!
XVII
Death, like a darkling huntsman holloed-- Swift, Actaeon!--desire and shame Leading the pack of the pa.s.sions followed.
Red jaws frothing with white-hot flame, Volleying out of the glen, they leapt up, Snapped and fell short of the foam-flecked thighs ...
Inch by terrible inch they crept up, Shadows with blood-shot eyes.
XVIII
Still with his great heart bursting asunder Still thro" the night he struggled and bled; Suddenly round him the pack"s low thunder Surged, the hounds that his own hand fed Fastened in his throat, with red jaws drinking Deep!--for a moment his antlered pride Soared o"er their pa.s.sionate seas, then, sinking, Fell for the fangs to divide.
XIX
_Light of beauty, O, perfect in whiteness, Softly suffused thro" the years" dark veils, Kindling them all as they pa.s.s by her brightness, Filling our hearts with her old-world tales, She, the unchanging, shepherds their changes, Bids them mingle and form and flow, Flowers and flocks and the great hill-ranges Follow her cry and go._
XX
Still, in the violets, lazily dreaming Young Diana, the huntress, lies: One white side thro" the violets gleaming Heaves and sinks with her golden sighs; One white breast like a diamond crownet Couched in a velvet casket glows, One white arm, tho" the violets drown it, Thrills their purple with rose.
LUCIFER"S FEAST
(A EUROPEAN NIGHTMARE.)