Atalanta in Calydon | Page 6

of things to
be In the houses of death and of birth; And wrought with weeping and
laughter, And fashioned with loathing and love, With life before and
after And death beneath and above, For a day and a night and a morrow,
That his strength might endure for a span With travail and heavy
sorrow, The holy spirit of man.
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; He weaves, and is clothed with derision; Sows,
and he shall not reap, His life is a watch or a vision Between a sleep
and a sleep.
MELEAGER.
O sweet new heaven and air without a star, Fair day, be fair and

welcome, as to men With deeds to do and praise to pluck from thee,
Come forth a child, born with clear sound and light, With laughter and
swift limbs and prosperous looks; That this great hunt with heroes for
the hounds May leave thee memorable and us well sped.
ALTHAEA.
Son, first I praise thy prayer, then bid thee speed; But the gods hear
men's hands before their lips, And heed beyond all crying and sacrifice
Light of things done and noise of labouring men. But thou, being armed
and perfect for the deed, Abide; for like rain-flakes in a wind they grow,
The men thy fellows, and the choice of the world, Bound to root out the
tusked plague, and leave Thanks and safe days and peace in Calydon.
MELEAGER.
For the whole city and all the low-lying land Flames, and the soft air
sounds with them that come; The gods give all these fruit of all their
works.
ALTHAEA.
Set thine eye thither and fix thy spirit and say Whom there thou
knowest; for sharp mixed shadow and wind Blown up between the
morning and the mist, With steam of steeds and flash of bridle or wheel,
And fire, and parcels of the broken dawn, And dust divided by hard
light, and spears That shine and shift as the edge of wild beasts' eyes,
Smite upon mine; so fiery their blind edge Burns, and bright points
break up and baffle day.
MELEAGER.
The first, for many I know not, being far off, Peleus the Larissaean,
couched with whom Sleeps the white sea-bred wife and silver-shod,
Fair as fled foam, a goddess; and their son Most swift and splendid of
men's children born, Most like a god, full of the future fame.
ALTHAEA.

Who are these shining like one sundered star?
MELEAGER.
Thy sister's sons, a double flower of men.
ALTHAEA.
O sweetest kin to me in all the world, O twin-born blood of Leda,
gracious heads Like kindled lights in untempestuous heaven, Fair
flower-like stars on the iron foam of fight, With what glad heart and
kindliness of soul, Even to the staining of both eyes with tears And
kindling of warm eyelids with desire, A great way off I greet you, and
rejoice Seeing you so fair, and moulded like as gods. Far off ye come,
and least in years of these, But lordliest, but worth love to look upon.
MELEAGER.
Even such (for sailing hither I saw far hence, And where Eurotas
hollows his moist rock Nigh Sparta with a strenuous-hearted stream)
Even such I saw their sisters; one swan-white, The little Helen, and less
fair than she Fair Clytaemnestra, grave as pasturing fawns Who feed
and fear some arrow; but at whiles, As one smitten with love or wrung
with joy, She laughs and lightens with her eyes, and then Weeps;
whereat Helen, having laughed, weeps too, And the other chides her,
and she being chid speaks nought, But cheeks and lips and eyelids
kisses her, Laughing; so fare they, as in their bloomless bud And full of
unblown life, the blood of gods.
ALTHAEA.
Sweet days befall them and good loves and lords, And tender and
temperate honours of the hearth, Peace, and a perfect life and blameless
bed. But who shows next an eagle wrought in gold? That flames and
beats broad wings against the sun And with void mouth gapes after
emptier prey?
MELEAGER.

Know by that sign the reign of Telamon Between the fierce mouths of
the encountering brine On the strait reefs of twice-washed Salamis.
ALTHAEA.
For like one