Charmides and Other Poems | Page 3

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Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde
Scanned and proofed by David Price

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Charmides and Other Poems
Contents:
Charmides
Requiescat
San Miniato
Rome Unvisited
Humanitad
Louis
Napoleon
Endymion
Le Jardin
La Mer
Le Panneau
Les Ballons
Canzonet

Le Jardin Des Tuileries
Pan: Double Villanelle
In The Forest
Symphony In Yellow
Sonnets:
Helas!
To Milton
On The Massacre Of The Christians In Bulgaria
Holy Week At
Genoa
Urbs Sacra Aeterna
E Tenebris
At Verona
On The Sale By Auction Of
Keats' Love Letters
The New Remorse
CHARMIDES
I.
He was a Grecian lad, who coming home
With pulpy figs and wine from Sicily
Stood
at his galley's prow, and let the foam
Blow through his crisp brown curls unconsciously,

And holding wave and wind in boy's despite
Peered from his dripping seat across the
wet and stormy night.
Till with the dawn he saw a burnished spear
Like a thin thread of gold against the sky,

And hoisted sail, and strained the creaking gear,
And bade the pilot head her lustily

Against the nor'west gale, and all day long
Held on his way, and marked the rowers'
time with measured song.
And when the faint Corinthian hills were red
Dropped anchor in a little sandy bay,

And with fresh boughs of olive crowned his head,
And brushed from cheek and throat

the hoary spray,
And washed his limbs with oil, and from the hold
Brought out his
linen tunic and his sandals brazen-soled,
And a rich robe stained with the fishers' juice
Which of some swarthy trader he had
bought
Upon the sunny quay at Syracuse,
And was with Tyrian broideries inwrought,

And by the questioning merchants made his way
Up through the soft and silver
woods, and when the labouring day
Had spun its tangled web of crimson cloud,
Clomb the high hill, and with swift silent
feet
Crept to the fane unnoticed by the crowd
Of busy priests, and from some dark
retreat
Watched the young swains his frolic playmates bring
The firstling of their
little flock, and the shy shepherd fling
The crackling salt upon the flame, or hang
His studded crook against the temple wall

To Her who keeps away the ravenous fang
Of the base wolf from homestead and from
stall;
And then the clear-voiced maidens 'gan to sing,
And to the altar each man
brought some goodly offering,
A beechen cup brimming with milky foam,
A fair cloth wrought with cunning imagery

Of hounds in chase, a waxen honey-comb
Dripping with oozy gold which scarce the
bee
Had ceased from building, a black skin of oil
Meet for the wrestlers, a great boar
the fierce and white-tusked spoil
Stolen from Artemis that jealous maid
To please Athena, and the dappled hide
Of a
tall stag who in some mountain glade
Had met the shaft; and then the herald cried,

And from the pillared precinct one by one
Went the glad Greeks well pleased that they
their simple vows had done.
And the old priest put out the waning fires
Save that one lamp whose restless ruby
glowed
For ever in the cell, and the shrill lyres
Came fainter on the wind, as down the
road
In joyous dance these country folk did pass,
And with stout hands the warder
closed the gates of polished brass.
Long time he lay and hardly dared to breathe,
And heard the cadenced drip of spilt-out
wine,
And the rose-petals falling from the wreath
As the night breezes wandered
through the shrine,
And seemed to be in some entranced swoon
Till through the open
roof above the full and brimming moon
Flooded with sheeny waves the marble floor,
When from his nook up leapt the
venturous lad,
And flinging wide the cedar-carven door
Beheld an awful image
saffron-clad
And armed for battle! the gaunt Griffin glared
From the huge helm, and
the long lance of wreck and ruin flared
Like a red rod of flame, stony and steeled
The Gorgon's head its leaden eyeballs rolled,


And writhed its snaky horrors through the shield,
And gaped aghast with bloodless
lips and cold
In passion impotent, while with blind gaze
The blinking owl between
the feet hooted in shrill amaze.
The lonely fisher as he trimmed his lamp
Far out at sea off Sunium, or cast
The net
for tunnies, heard a brazen tramp
Of horses smite the waves, and a wild blast
Divide
the folded curtains of the night,
And knelt upon the little poop, and prayed in holy
fright.
And guilty lovers in their venery
Forgat a little while their stolen sweets,
Deeming
they heard dread Dian's bitter cry;
And the grim watchmen on their lofty seats
Ran to
their shields in haste precipitate,
Or strained black-bearded throats across the dusky
parapet.
For round the temple rolled the clang of arms,
And the twelve Gods leapt up in marble
fear,
And the air quaked with dissonant alarums
Till huge Poseidon shook his mighty
spear,
And on the frieze the prancing horses neighed,
And the low tread of hurrying
feet rang from the cavalcade.
Ready for death with parted lips he stood,
And well content