'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

Like the far lustre of a godlike town,
Had left the world to seeming hopeless night,
Nor would he move the more when wan
moonlight

Streamed through the pillars for a little. while,

And lighted up the white Queen's changeless smile.

455

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,

By sight of these amidst her glory stayed. 525

'For bearing these within a scrip with thee, When first she heads thee from the startingplace

530

Cast down the first one for her eyes to see, And when she turns aside make on apace, And if again she heads thee in the race Spare not the other two to cast aside If she not long enough behind will bide. 'Farewell, and when has come the happy time

That she Diana's raiment must unbind And all the world seems blessed with Saturn's clime, 535

And thou with eager arms about her twined Beholdest first her grey eyes growing kind, Surely, O trembler, thou shalt scarcely then Forget the helper of unhappy men.'

Milanion raised his head at this last word,

540

For now so soft and kind she seemed to be No longer of her Godhead was he feared; Too late he looked; for nothing could he

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

Why must the memory to her heart arise Of things unnoticed when they first were heard,

Some lover's song, some answering maiden's word?

What makes these longings, vague, without a

name,

And this vain pity never felt before, 590 This sudden languor, this contempt of fame, This tender sorrow for the time past o'er,

To win the day, though now but scanty space
Was left betwixt him and the winning-place.

Short was the way unto such wingèd 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
- and yet why does her breath

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

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)

A SONG IN TIME OF ORDER PUSH hard across the sand,

For the salt wind gathers breath; Shoulder and wrist and hand, Push hard as the push of death. The wind is as iron that rings,

The foam-heads loosen and flee; It swells and welters and swings, The pulse of the tide of the sea. And up on the yellow cliff

The long corn flickers and shakes; Push, for the wind holds stiff, And the gunwale dips and rakes. Good hap to the fresh fierce weather, The quiver and beat of the sea! While three men hold together,

The kingdoms are less by three.

Out to the sea with her there,

5

10

15

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!

330

The old red shall be floated again When the ranks that are thin shall be

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

30

336

35

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,

In his eyes foreknowledge of death;

40

sleep,

She would not weep.

20

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.