The Complete Poetical Works, vol 3 | Page 4

have
you done since you departed hence? _205
27.
'Apollo soon will pass within this gate
And bind your tender
body in a chain
Inextricably tight, and fast as fate,
Unless you can
delude the God again,
Even when within his arms--ah, runagate! _210
A pretty torment both for Gods and Men
Your father made when he
made you!'--'Dear mother,'
Replied sly Hermes, 'wherefore scold and
bother?
28.
'As if I were like other babes as old,
And understood nothing of
what is what; _215 And cared at all to hear my mother scold.
I in my
subtle brain a scheme have got,
Which whilst the sacred stars round
Heaven are rolled
Will profit you and me--nor shall our lot
Be as
you counsel, without gifts or food, _220 To spend our lives in this
obscure abode.
29
'But we will leave this shadow-peopled cave
And live among the
Gods, and pass each day
In high communion, sharing what they have

Of profuse wealth and unexhausted prey; _225 And from the portion
which my father gave
To Phoebus, I will snatch my share away,

Which if my father will not--natheless I,
Who am the king of robbers,
can but try.
30.
'And, if Latona's son should find me out, _230 I'll countermine
him by a deeper plan;
I'll pierce the Pythian temple-walls, though
stout,
And sack the fane of everything I can--

Caldrons and tripods
of great worth no doubt,
Each golden cup and polished brazen pan,

_235 All the wrought tapestries and garments gay.'--
So they together
talked;--meanwhile the Day
31.
Aethereal born arose out of the flood
Of flowing Ocean, bearing
light to men.
Apollo passed toward the sacred wood, _240 Which
from the inmost depths of its green glen
Echoes the voice of
Neptune,--and there stood
On the same spot in green Onchestus then

That same old animal, the vine-dresser,
Who was employed
hedging his vineyard there. _245
32.
Latona's glorious Son began:--'I pray
Tell, ancient hedger of
Onchestus green,
Whether a drove of kine has passed this way,
All
heifers with crooked horns? for they have been
Stolen from the herd
in high Pieria, _250 Where a black bull was fed apart, between
Two
woody mountains in a neighbouring glen,
And four fierce dogs
watched there, unanimous as men.
33.
'And what is strange, the author of this theft
Has stolen the
fatted heifers every one, _255 But the four dogs and the black bull are
left:--
Stolen they were last night at set of sun,
Of their soft beds
and their sweet food bereft.--
Now tell me, man born ere the world
begun,
Have you seen any one pass with the cows?'-- _260 To whom
the man of overhanging brows:
34.
'My friend, it would require no common skill
Justly to speak of
everything I see:
On various purposes of good or ill
Many pass by
my vineyard,--and to me _265 'Tis difficult to know the invisible

Thoughts, which in all those many minds may be:--
Thus much alone
I certainly can say,
I tilled these vines till the decline of day,
35.
'And then I thought I saw, but dare not speak _270 With certainty
of such a wondrous thing,
A child, who could not have been born a
week,
Those fair-horned cattle closely following,
And in his hand
he held a polished stick:
And, as on purpose, he walked wavering
_275 From one side to the other of the road,
And with his face
opposed the steps he trod.'
36.
Apollo hearing this, passed quickly on--

No winged omen could
have shown more clear
That the deceiver was his father's son. _280

So the God wraps a purple atmosphere
Around his shoulders, and like
fire is gone
To famous Pylos, seeking his kine there,
And found
their track and his, yet hardly cold,
And cried--'What wonder do mine
eyes behold! _285
37.
'Here are the footsteps of the horned herd
Turned back towards
their fields of asphodel;--
But THESE are not the tracks of beast or
bird,
Gray wolf, or bear, or lion of the dell,
Or maned
Centaur--sand was never stirred _290 By man or woman thus!
Inexplicable!
Who with unwearied feet could e'er impress
The sand
with such enormous vestiges?
38.
'That was most strange--but this is stranger still!'
Thus having
said, Phoebus impetuously _295 Sought high Cyllene's forest-cinctured
hill,
And the deep cavern where dark shadows lie,
And where the
ambrosial nymph with happy will
Bore the Saturnian's love-child,
Mercury--
And a delightful odour from the dew _300 Of the hill
pastures, at his coming, flew.
39.
And Phoebus stooped under the craggy roof
Arched over the
dark cavern:--Maia's child
Perceived that he came angry, far aloof,

About the cows of which he had been beguiled; _305 And over him the
fine and fragrant woof
Of his ambrosial swaddling-clothes he piled--

As among fire-brands lies a burning spark
Covered, beneath the
ashes cold and dark.
40.
There, like an infant who had sucked his fill _310 And now was
newly washed and put to bed,
Awake, but courting sleep with weary
will,
And gathered in a lump, hands, feet, and head,
He lay, and his
beloved tortoise still
He grasped and held under his shoulder-blade.
_315 Phoebus the lovely mountain-goddess knew,
Not less her subtle,
swindling baby, who
41.
Lay swathed in his sly wiles.