"Think then, will it bring honour to thy head
If folk say, "Everything aside he cast
And to all fame and honour was he dead,
And to his one hope now is dead at last, 410
Since all unholpen he is gone and past:
Ah, the gods love not man, for certainly,
He to his helper did not cease to cry."

'Nay, but thou wilt help; they who died before

Not single-hearted as I deem came here, 415 Therefore unthanked they laid their gifts before

Thy stainless feet, still shivering with their fear,

Lest in their eyes their true thought might

Naught noted he the shallow-flowing sea
As step by step it set the wrack a-swim;
The yellow torchlight nothing noted he
Wherein with fluttering gown and half-bared
limb

The temple damsels sung their midnight hymn;

460

And naught the doubled stillness of the fane When they were gone and all was hushed again.

But when the waves had touched the marble base,

And steps the fish swim over twice a-day, The dawn beheld him sunken in his place 465 Upon the floor; and sleeping there he lay, Not heeding aught the little jets of spray The roughened sea brought nigh, across him cast,

For as one dead all thought from him had passed.

470

Yet long before the sun had showed his head, Long ere the varied hangings on the wall Had gained once more their blue and green and red,

Some happy hope of help and victory?
The others seemed to say, 'We come to die,
Look down upon us for a little while,
That dead, we may bethink us of thy smile.'
But he what look of mastery was this 575
He cast on her? why were his lips so red?
Why was his face so flushed with happiness?
So looks not one who deems himself but dead,
E'en if to death he bows a willing head;
So rather looks a god well pleased to find 580
Some earthly damsel fashioned to his mind.

Why must she drop her lids before his gaze,

And even as she casts adown her eyes Redden to note his eager glance of praise, And wish that she were clad in other guise?

585

And in her odorous bosom laid the gold.
But when she turned again, the great-
limbed man

Now well ahead she failed not to behold,
And mindful of her glory waxing cold,
Sprang up and followed him in hot pur-
suit,

615

Though with one hand she touched the golden fruit.

Note, too, the bow that she was wont to bear

She laid aside to grasp the glittering prize,
And o'er her shoulder from the quiver fair
Three arrows fell and lay before her eyes 620
Unnoticed, as amidst the people's cries
She sprang to head the strong Milanion,
Who now the turning-post had well-nigh

won.

But as he set his mighty hand on it,
White fingers underneath his own were

laid,

625

And white limbs from his dazzled eyes did flit,

Then he the second fruit cast by the maid:

• To win the day, though now but scanty space
Was left betwixt him and the winning-place.
Short was the way unto such winged feet,
Quickly she gained upon him till at last
He turned about her eager eyes to meet 640
And from his hand the third fair apple cast.
She wavered not, but turned and ran so fast
After the prize that should her bliss fulfil,
That in her hand it lay ere it was still.

Nor did she rest, but turned about to win 645
Once more, an unblest woeful victory
And yet
why does her breath

and yet

begin

To fail her, and her feet drag heavily?
Why fails she now to see if far or nigh
The goal is? Why do her grey eyes grow
dim?

650

Why do these tremors run through every limb?

She spreads her arms abroad some stay to find

Else must she fall, indeed, and findeth this,
A strong man's arms about her body twined.
Nor may she shudder now to feel his kiss, 655
So wrapped she is in new unbroken bliss:
Made happy that the foe the prize hath won,
She weeps glad tears for all her glory done.
Shatter the trumpet, hew adown the posts!
Upon the brazen altar break the sword, 660
And scatter incense to appease the ghosts
Of those who died here by their own award.
Bring forth the image of the mighty Lord,
And her who unseen o'er the runners hung,
And did a deed forever to be sung.

665

The kingdoms are less by three. Out to the sea with her there,

Out with her over the sand, Let the kings keep the earth for their share! We have done with the sharers of land. 20

They have tied the world in a tether, They have bought over God with a fee; While three men hold together,

The kingdoms are less by three.

We have done with the kisses that sting, 25
The thief's mouth red from the feast,
The blood on the hands of the king,

And the lie at the lips of the priest.
Will they tie the winds in a tether,
Put a bit in the jaws of the sea?
While three men hold together,

The kingdoms are less by three.

Let our flag run out straight in the wind!
The old red shall be floated again

30

When the ranks that are thin shall be

When the devil's riddle is mastered,

And the galley-bench creaks with a Pope, We shall see Buonaparte the bastard

40

Kick heels with his throat in a rope.

While the shepherd sets wolves on his sheep,

And the emperor halters his kine, While Shame is a watchman asleep, And Faith is a keeper of swine,

Let the wind shake our flag like a feather, 45 Like the plumes of the foam of the sea! While three men hold together,

The kingdoms are less by three.

All the world has its burdens to bear,

From Cayenne to the Austrian whips; Forth, with the rain in our hair

And the salt sweet foam in our lips;

In the teeth of the hard glad weather,
In the blown wet face of the sea;
While three men hold together,

The kingdoms are less by three.

1862

BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF

YEARS

BEFORE the beginning of years
There came to the making of man
Time, with a gift of tears;

Grief, with a glass that ran;
Pleasure, with pain for leaven;

Summer, with flowers that fell; Remembrance fallen from heaven,

And madness risen from hell; Strength without hands to smite; Love that endures for a breath; Night, the shadow of light,

And life, the shadow of death.

And the high gods took in hand
Fire, and the falling of tears,

And a measure of sliding sand

From under the feet of the years;

And froth and drift of the sea;

And dust of the laboring earth;

And bodies of things to be

In the houses of death and of birth; And wrought with weeping and laughter, And fashioned with loathing and love,

50

55

10

15

20

With life before and after

And death beneath and above,

30

From the winds of the north and the south
They gathered as unto strife;
They breathed upon his mouth,
They filled his body with life;
Eyesight and speech they wrought
For the veils of the soul therein,
A time for labour and thought,

A time to serve and to sin;
They gave him light in his ways,
And love, and a space for delight,
And beauty and length of days,

And night, and sleep in the night.
His speech is a burning fire;
With his lips he travaileth;

In his heart is a blind desire,

35

40

In his eyes foreknowledge of death; He weaves, and is clothed with derision; 45 Sows, and he shall not reap;

His life is a watch or a vision

Let us go hence and rest: she will not love.
She shall not hear us if we sing hereof,
Nor see love's ways, how sore they are and

steep.