Part 5 (2/2)

Joy to ye children of the field!

Whose life each coming year renews, To your sweet cups the heaven shall yield The purest of its nectar-dews!

Steeped in the light's resplendent streams, The hues that streak the Iris-bow Shall trim your blooms as with the beams The looks of young Aurora know.

The budding life of happy spring, The yellow autumn's faded leaf, Alike to gentle hearts shall bring The symbols of my joy and grief.

THE ELEUSINIAN FESTIVAL.

Wreathe in a garland the corn's golden ear!

With it, the Cyane [31] blue intertwine Rapture must render each glance bright and clear, For the great queen is approaching her shrine,-- She who compels lawless pa.s.sions to cease, Who to link man with his fellow has come, And into firm habitations of peace Changed the rude tents' ever-wandering home.

Shyly in the mountain-cleft Was the Troglodyte concealed; And the roving Nomad left, Desert lying, each broad field.

With the javelin, with the bow, Strode the hunter through the land; To the hapless stranger woe, Billow-cast on that wild strand!

When, in her sad wanderings lost, Seeking traces of her child, Ceres hailed the dreary coast, Ah, no verdant plain then smiled!

That she here with trust may stay, None vouchsafes a sheltering roof; Not a temple's columns gay Give of G.o.dlike wors.h.i.+p proof.

Fruit of no propitious ear Bids her to the pure feast fly; On the ghastly altars here Human bones alone e'er dry.

Far as she might onward rove, Misery found she still in all, And within her soul of love, Sorrowed she o'er man's deep fall.

”Is it thus I find the man To whom we our image lend, Whose fair limbs of n.o.ble span Upward towards the heavens ascend?

Laid we not before his feet Earth's unbounded G.o.dlike womb?

Yet upon his kingly seat Wanders he without a home?”

”Does no G.o.d compa.s.sion feel?

Will none of the blissful race, With an arm of miracle, Raise him from his deep disgrace?

In the heights where rapture reigns Pangs of others ne'er can move; Yet man's anguish and man's pains My tormented heart must prove.”

”So that a man a man may be, Let him make an endless bond With the kind earth trustingly, Who is ever good and fond To revere the law of time, And the moon's melodious song Who, with silent step sublime, Move their sacred course along.”

And she softly parts the cloud That conceals her from the sight; Sudden, in the savage crowd, Stands she, as a G.o.ddess bright.

There she finds the concourse rude In their glad feast revelling, And the chalice filled with blood As a sacrifice they bring.

But she turns her face away, Horror-struck, and speaks the while ”b.l.o.o.d.y tiger-feasts ne'er may Of a G.o.d the lips defile, He needs victims free from stain, Fruits matured by autumn's sun; With the pure gifts of the plain Honored is the Holy One!”

And she takes the heavy shaft From the hunter's cruel hand; With the murderous weapon's haft Furrowing the light-strown sand,-- Takes from out her garland's crown, Filled with life, one single grain, Sinks it in the furrow down, And the germ soon swells amain.

And the green stalks gracefully Shoot, ere long, the ground above, And, as far as eye can see, Waves it like a golden grove.

With her smile the earth she cheers, Binds the earliest sheaves so fair, As her hearth the landmark rears,-- And the G.o.ddess breathes this prayer:

”Father Zeus, who reign'st o'er all That in ether's mansions dwell, Let a sign from thee now fall That thou lov'st this offering well!

And from the unhappy crowd That, as yet, has ne'er known thee, Take away the eye's dark cloud, Showing them their deity!”

Zeus, upon his lofty throne, Harkens to his sister's prayer; From the blue heights thundering down, Hurls his forked lightning there, Crackling, it begins to blaze, From the altar whirling bounds,-- And his swift-winged eagle plays High above in circling rounds.

Soon at the feet of their mistress are kneeling, Filled with emotion, the rapturous throng; Into humanity's earliest feeling Melt their rude spirits, untutored and strong.

Each b.l.o.o.d.y weapon behind them they leave, Rays on their senses beclouded soon s.h.i.+ne, And from the mouth of the queen they receive, Gladly and meekly, instruction divine.

All the deities advance Downward from their heavenly seats; Themis' self 'tis leads the dance, And, with staff of justice, metes Unto every one his rights,-- Landmarks, too, 'tis hers to fix; And in witness she invites All the hidden powers of Styx.

And the forge-G.o.d, too, is there, The inventive son of Zeus; Fas.h.i.+oner of vessels fair Skilled in clay and bra.s.s's use.

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