Lamia | Page 7

must be so."?He answer'd, bending to her open eyes,?Where he was mirror'd small in paradise,?My silver planet, both of eve and morn!?Why will you plead yourself so sad forlorn,?While I am striving how to fill my heart?With deeper crimson, and a double smart??How to entangle, trammel up and snare?Your soul in mine, and labyrinth you there?Like the hid scent in an unbudded rose??Ay, a sweet kiss - you see your mighty woes.?My thoughts! shall I unveil them? Listen then!?What mortal hath a prize, that other men?May be confounded and abash'd withal,?But lets it sometimes pace abroad majestical,?And triumph, as in thee I should rejoice?Amid the hoarse alarm of Corinth's voice.?Let my foes choke, and my friends shout afar,?While through the thronged streets your bridal car?Wheels round its dazzling spokes." The lady's cheek?Trembled; she nothing said, but, pale and meek,?Arose and knelt before him, wept a rain?Of sorrows at his words; at last with pain?Beseeching him, the while his hand she wrung,?To change his purpose. He thereat was stung,?Perverse, with stronger fancy to reclaim?Her wild and timid nature to his aim:?Besides, for all his love, in self despite,?Against his better self, he took delight?Luxurious in her sorrows, soft and new.?His passion, cruel grown, took on a hue?Fierce and sanguineous as 'twas possible?In one whose brow had no dark veins to swell.?Fine was the mitigated fury, like?Apollo's presence when in act to strike?The serpent - Ha, the serpent! certes, she?Was none. She burnt, she lov'd the tyranny,?And, all subdued, consented to the hour?When to the bridal he should lead his paramour.?Whispering in midnight silence, said the youth,?"Sure some sweet name thou hast, though, by my truth,?I have not ask'd it, ever thinking thee?Not mortal, but of heavenly progeny,?As still I do. Hast any mortal name,?Fit appellation for this dazzling frame??Or friends or kinsfolk on the citied earth,?To share our marriage feast and nuptial mirth?"?"I have no friends," said Lamia," no, not one;?My presence in wide Corinth hardly known:?My parents' bones are in their dusty urns?Sepulchred, where no kindled incense burns,?Seeing all their luckless race are dead, save me,?And I neglect the holy rite for thee.?Even as you list invite your many guests;?But if, as now it seems, your vision rests?With any pleasure on me, do not bid?Old Apollonius - from him keep me hid."?Lycius, perplex'd at words so blind and blank,?Made close inquiry; from whose touch she shrank,?Feigning a sleep; and he to the dull shade?Of deep sleep in a moment was betray'd
It was the custom then to bring away?The bride from home at blushing shut of day,?Veil'd, in a chariot, heralded along?By strewn flowers, torches, and a marriage song,?With other pageants: but this fair unknown?Had not a friend. So being left alone,?(Lycius was gone to summon all his kin)?And knowing surely she could never win?His foolish heart from its mad pompousness,?She set herself, high-thoughted, how to dress?The misery in fit magnificence.?She did so, but 'tis doubtful how and whence?Came, and who were her subtle servitors.?About the halls, and to and from the doors,?There was a noise of wings, till in short space?The glowing banquet-room shone with wide-arched grace.?A haunting music, sole perhaps and lone?Supportress of the faery-roof, made moan?Throughout, as fearful the whole charm might fade.?Fresh carved cedar, mimicking a glade?Of palm and plantain, met from either side,?High in the midst, in honour of the bride:?Two palms and then two plantains, and so on,?From either side their stems branch'd one to one?All down the aisled place; and beneath all?There ran a stream of lamps straight on from wall to wall.?So canopied, lay an untasted feast?Teeming with odours. Lamia, regal drest,?Silently paced about, and as she went,?In pale contented sort of discontent,?Mission'd her viewless servants to enrich?The fretted splendour of each nook and niche.?Between the tree-stems, marbled plain at first,?Came jasper pannels; then, anon, there burst?Forth creeping imagery of slighter trees,?And with the larger wove in small intricacies.?Approving all, she faded at self-will,?And shut the chamber up, close, hush'd and still,?Complete and ready for the revels rude,?When dreadful guests would come to spoil her solitude.
The day appear'd, and all the gossip rout.?O senseless Lycius! Madman! wherefore flout?The silent-blessing fate, warm cloister'd hours,?And show to common eyes these secret bowers??The herd approach'd; each guest, with busy brain,?Arriving at the portal, gaz'd amain,?And enter'd marveling: for they knew the street,?Remember'd it from childhood all complete?Without a gap, yet ne'er before had seen?That royal porch, that high-built fair demesne;?So in they hurried all, maz'd, curious and keen:?Save one, who look'd thereon with eye severe,?And with calm-planted steps walk'd in austere;?'Twas Apollonius: something too he laugh'd,?As though some knotty problem, that had daft?His patient thought, had now begun to thaw,?And solve and melt - 'twas just as he foresaw.
He met within the murmurous vestibule?His young disciple. "'Tis no common rule,?Lycius," said he, "for uninvited guest?To force