Charmides and Other Poems | Page 6

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 the yellow-belled laburnum, stands

Smooth is the beach, save where some ebbing wave
Leaves its faint outline etched upon
the sands,
As though it feared to be too soon forgot
By the green rush, its playfellow,
- and yet, it is a spot
So small, that the inconstant butterfly
Could steal the hoarded money from each flower

Ere it was noon, and still not satisfy
Its over-greedy love, - within an hour
A sailor
boy, were he but rude enow
To land and pluck a garland for his galley's painted prow,
Would almost leave the little meadow bare,
For it knows nothing of great pageantry,

Only a few narcissi here and there
Stand separate in sweet austerity,
Dotting the
unmown grass with silver stars,
And here and there a daffodil waves tiny scimitars.

Hither the billow brought him, and was glad
Of such dear servitude, and where the land

Was virgin of all waters laid the lad
Upon the golden margent of the strand,
And
like a lingering lover oft returned
To kiss those pallid limbs which once with intense
fire burned,
Ere the wet seas had quenched that holocaust,
That self-fed flame, that passionate
lustihead,
Ere grisly death with chill and nipping frost
Had withered up those lilies
white and red
Which, while the boy would through the forest range,
Answered each
other in a sweet antiphonal counter-change.
And when at dawn the wood-nymphs, hand-in-hand,
Threaded the bosky dell, their
satyr spied
The boy's pale body stretched upon the sand,
And feared Poseidon's
treachery, and cried,
And like bright sunbeams flitting through a glade
Each startled
Dryad sought some safe and leafy ambuscade.
Save one white girl, who deemed it would not be
So dread a thing to feel a sea-god's
arms
Crushing her breasts in amorous tyranny,
And longed to listen to those subtle
charms
Insidious lovers weave when they would win
Some fenced fortress, and stole
back again, nor thought it sin
To yield her treasure unto one so fair,
And lay beside him, thirsty with love's drouth,

Called him soft names, played with his tangled hair,
And with hot lips made havoc of
his mouth
Afraid he might not wake, and then afraid
Lest he might wake too soon,
fled back, and then, fond renegade,
Returned to fresh assault, and all day long
Sat at his side, and laughed at her new toy,

And held his hand, and sang her sweetest song,
Then frowned to see how froward was
the boy
Who would not with her maidenhood entwine,
Nor knew that three days since
his eyes had looked on Proserpine;
Nor knew what sacrilege his lips had done,
But said, 'He will awake, I know him well,

He will awake at evening when the sun
Hangs his red shield on Corinth's citadel;

This sleep is but a cruel treachery
To make me love him more, and in some cavern of
the sea
Deeper than ever falls the fisher's line
Already a huge Triton blows his horn,
And
weaves a garland from the crystalline

And drifting ocean-tendrils to adorn
The
emerald pillars of our bridal bed,
For sphered in foaming silver, and with coral crowned
head,
We two will sit upon a throne of pearl,
And a blue wave will be our canopy,
And at
our feet the water-snakes will curl
In all their amethystine panoply
Of diamonded
mail, and we will mark
The mullets swimming by the mast of some storm-foundered
bark,

Vermilion-finned with eyes of bossy gold
Like flakes of crimson light, and the great
deep
His glassy-portaled chamber will unfold,
And we will see the painted dolphins
sleep
Cradled by murmuring halcyons on the rocks
Where Proteus in quaint suit of
green pastures his monstrous flocks.
And tremulous opal-hued anemones
Will wave their purple fringes where we tread

Upon the mirrored floor, and argosies
Of fishes flecked with tawny scales will thread

The drifting cordage of the shattered wreck,
And honey-coloured amber beads our
twining limbs will deck.'
But when that baffled Lord of War the Sun
With gaudy pennon flying passed away

Into his brazen House, and one by one
The little yellow stars began to stray
Across
the field of heaven, ah! then indeed
She feared his lips upon her lips would never care
to feed,
And cried, 'Awake, already the pale moon
Washes the trees with silver, and the wave

Creeps grey and chilly up this sandy dune,
The croaking frogs are out, and from the
cave
The nightjar shrieks, the fluttering bats repass,
And the brown stoat with hollow
flanks creeps through the dusky grass.
Nay, though thou art a god, be not so coy,
For in yon stream