Songs of the Springtides and Birthday Ode | Page 5

nought.
Then many a midnight, many a morn and even,
His mother, passing
forth of her fair heaven,
With goodlier gifts than all save gods can
give
From earth or from the heaven where sea-things live,
With
shine of sea-flowers through the bay-leaf braid
Woven for a crown
her foam-white hands had made
To crown him with land's laurel and
sea-dew,
Sought the sea-bird that was her boy: but he
Sat
panther-throned beside Erigone,

Riding the red ways of the revel
through
Midmost of pale-mouthed passion's crownless crew.
Till on
some winter's dawn of some dim year
He let the vine-bit on the
panther's lip
Slide, and the green rein slip,
And set his eyes to
seaward, nor gave ear
If sound from landward hailed him, dire or dear;


And passing forth of all those fair fierce ranks
Back to the grey
sea-banks,
Against a sea-rock lying, aslant the steep,
Fell after
many sleepless dreams on sleep.
And in his sleep the dun green light was shed
Heavily round his head

That through the veil of sea falls fathom-deep,
Blurred like a
lamp's that when the night drops dead
Dies; and his eyes gat grace of
sleep to see
The deep divine dark dayshine of the sea,
Dense
water-walls and clear dusk water-ways,
Broad-based, or branching as
a sea-flower sprays
That side or this dividing; and anew
The glory
of all her glories that he knew.
And in sharp rapture of recovering
tears
He woke on fire with yearnings of old years,
Pure as one
purged of pain that passion bore,
Ill child of bitter mother; for his
own
Looked laughing toward him from her midsea throne,
Up
toward him there ashore.
Thence in his heart the great same joy began,
Of child that made him
man:
And turned again from all hearts else on quest,
He communed
with his own heart, and had rest.
And like sea-winds upon loud
waters ran
His days and dreams together, till the joy
Burned in him
of the boy.
Till the earth's great comfort and the sweet sea's breath

Breathed and blew life in where was heartless death,
Death
spirit-stricken of soul-sick days, where strife
Of thought and flesh
made mock of death and life.
And grace returned upon him of his
birth
Where heaven was mixed with heavenlike sea and earth;
And
song shot forth strong wings that took the sun
From inward, fledged
with might of sorrow and mirth
And father's fire made mortal in his
son.
Nor was not spirit of strength in blast and breeze
To exalt
again the sun's child and the sea's;
For as wild mares in Thessaly
grow great
With child of ravishing winds, that violate

Their leaping
length of limb with manes like fire
And eyes outburning heaven's

With fires more violent than the lightning levin's
And breath drained
out and desperate of desire,
Even so the spirit in him, when winds

grew strong,
Grew great with child of song.
Nor less than when his
veins first leapt for joy
To draw delight in such as burns a boy,

Now too the soul of all his senses felt
The passionate pride of deep
sea-pulses dealt
Through nerve and jubilant vein
As from the love
and largess of old time,
And with his heart again
The tidal throb of
all the tides keep rhyme
And charm him from his own soul's separate
sense
With infinite and invasive influence
That made strength
sweet in him and sweetness strong,
Being now no more a singer, but
a song.
Till one clear day when brighter sea-wind blew
And louder sea-shine
lightened, for the waves
Were full of godhead and the light that saves,

His father's, and their spirit had pierced him through,
He felt
strange breath and light all round him shed
That bowed him down
with rapture; and he knew
His father's hand, hallowing his humbled
head,
And the old great voice of the old good time, that said:
"Child of my sunlight and the sea, from birth
A fosterling and
fugitive on earth;
Sleepless of soul as wind or wave or fire,
A
manchild with an ungrown God's desire;
Because thou hast loved
nought mortal more than me,
Thy father, and thy mother-hearted sea;

Because thou hast set thine heart to sing, and sold
Life and life's
love for song, God's living gold;
Because thou hast given thy flower
and fire of youth
To feed men's hearts with visions, truer than truth;

Because thou hast kept in those world-wandering eyes
The light
that makes me music of the skies;
Because thou hast heard with
world-unwearied ears
The music that puts light into the spheres;

Have therefore in thine heart and in thy mouth
The sound of song that
mingles north and south,
The song of all the winds that sing of me,

And in thy soul the sense of all the sea."
ON THE CLIFFS
[Greek: imerophônos aêdôn.]

SAPPHO.
Between the moondawn and the sundown here
The twilight hangs
half starless; half the sea
Still quivers as for love or pain or fear
Or
pleasure mightier than these all may be
A man's live heart might beat

Wherein a God's with mortal blood should meet
And fill its pulse
too full to bear the strain
With fear or love or pleasure's twin-born,
pain.
Fiercely the gaunt woods to the grim soil cling
That bears for
all fair fruits
Wan wild sparse flowers of windy