Charmides and Other Poems | Page 5

bell?As the shorn wether led the sheep down to the mossy well.
Through the grey willows danced the fretful gnat,?The grasshopper chirped idly from the tree,?In sleek and oily coat the water-rat?Breasting the little ripples manfully?Made for the wild-duck's nest, from bough to bough?Hopped the shy finch, and the huge tortoise crept across the slough.
On the faint wind floated the silky seeds?As the bright scythe swept through the waving grass,?The ouzel-cock splashed circles in the reeds?And flecked with silver whorls the forest's glass,?Which scarce had caught again its imagery?Ere from its bed the dusky tench leapt at the dragon-fly.
But little care had he for any thing?Though up and down the beech the squirrel played,?And from the copse the linnet 'gan to sing?To its brown mate its sweetest serenade;?Ah! little care indeed, for he had seen?The breasts of Pallas and the naked wonder of the Queen.
But when the herdsman called his straggling goats?With whistling pipe across the rocky road,?And the shard-beetle with its trumpet-notes?Boomed through the darkening woods, and seemed to bode?Of coming storm, and the belated crane?Passed homeward like a shadow, and the dull big drops of rain
Fell on the pattering fig-leaves, up he rose,?And from the gloomy forest went his way?Past sombre homestead and wet orchard-close,?And came at last unto a little quay,?And called his mates aboard, and took his seat?On the high poop, and pushed from land, and loosed the dripping sheet,
And steered across the bay, and when nine suns?Passed down the long and laddered way of gold,?And nine pale moons had breathed their orisons?To the chaste stars their confessors, or told?Their dearest secret to the downy moth?That will not fly at noonday, through the foam and surging froth
Came a great owl with yellow sulphurous eyes?And lit upon the ship, whose timbers creaked?As though the lading of three argosies?Were in the hold, and flapped its wings and shrieked,?And darkness straightway stole across the deep,?Sheathed was Orion's sword, dread Mars himself fled down the steep,
And the moon hid behind a tawny mask?Of drifting cloud, and from the ocean's marge?Rose the red plume, the huge and horned casque,?The seven-cubit spear, the brazen targe!?And clad in bright and burnished panoply?Athena strode across the stretch of sick and shivering sea!
To the dull sailors' sight her loosened looks?Seemed like the jagged storm-rack, and her feet?Only the spume that floats on hidden rocks,?And, marking how the rising waters beat?Against the rolling ship, the pilot cried?To the young helmsman at the stern to luff to windward side
But he, the overbold adulterer,?A dear profaner of great mysteries,?An ardent amorous idolater,?When he beheld those grand relentless eyes?Laughed loud for joy, and crying out 'I come'?Leapt from the lofty poop into the chill and churning foam.
Then fell from the high heaven one bright star,?One dancer left the circling galaxy,?And back to Athens on her clattering car?In all the pride of venged divinity?Pale Pallas swept with shrill and steely clank,?And a few gurgling bubbles rose where her boy lover sank.
And the mast shuddered as the gaunt owl flew?With mocking hoots after the wrathful Queen,?And the old pilot bade the trembling crew?Hoist the big sail, and told how he had seen?Close to the stern a dim and giant form,?And like a dipping swallow the stout ship dashed through the storm.
And no man dared to speak of Charmides?Deeming that he some evil thing had wrought,?And when they reached the strait Symplegades?They beached their galley on the shore, and sought?The toll-gate of the city hastily,?And in the market showed their brown and pictured pottery.
II.
But some good Triton-god had ruth, and bare?The boy's drowned body back to Grecian land,?And mermaids combed his dank and dripping hair?And smoothed his brow, and loosed his clenching hand;?Some brought sweet spices from far Araby,?And others bade the halcyon sing her softest lullaby.
And when he neared his old Athenian home,?A mighty billow rose up suddenly?Upon whose oily back the clotted foam?Lay diapered in some strange fantasy,?And clasping him unto its glassy breast?Swept landward, like a white-maned steed upon a venturous quest!
Now where Colonos leans unto the sea?There lies a long and level stretch of lawn;?The rabbit knows it, and the mountain bee?For it deserts Hymettus, and the Faun?Is not afraid, for never through the day?Comes a cry ruder than the shout of shepherd lads at play.
But often from the thorny labyrinth?And tangled branches of the circling wood?The stealthy hunter sees young Hyacinth?Hurling the polished disk, and draws his hood?Over his guilty gaze, and creeps away,?Nor dares to wind his horn, or - else at the first break of day
The Dryads come and throw the leathern ball?Along the reedy shore, and circumvent?Some goat-eared Pan to be their seneschal?For fear of bold Poseidon's ravishment,?And loose their girdles, with shy timorous eyes,?Lest from the surf his azure arms and purple beard should rise.
On this side and on that a rocky cave,?Hung with