Part 18 (1/2)

Will he go in his sleep from these desolate lands, Like a chief, to the rest of his race, With the honey-voiced woman who beckons and stands, And gleams like a dream in his face-- Like a marvellous dream in his face?

Arakoon

-- * A promontory on the coast of New South Wales.

Lo! in storms, the triple-headed Hill, whose dreaded Bases battle with the seas, Looms across fierce widths of fleeting Waters beating Evermore on roaring leas!

Arakoon, the black, the lonely!

Housed with only Cloud and rain-wind, mist and damp; Round whose foam-drenched feet and nether Depths, together Sullen sprites of thunder tramp!

There the East hums loud and surly, Late and early, Through the chasms and the caves, And across the naked verges Leap the surges!

White and wailing waifs of waves.

Day by day the sea-fogs gathered-- Tempest-fathered-- Pitch their tents on yonder peak, Yellow drifts and fragments lying Where the flying Torrents chafe the cloven creek!

And at nightfall, when the driven Bolts of heaven Smite the rock and break the bluff, Thither troop the elves whose home is Where the foam is, And the echo and the clough.

Ever girt about with noises, Stormy voices, And the salt breath of the Strait, Stands the steadfast Mountain Giant, Grim, reliant, Dark as Death, and firm as Fate.

So when trouble treads, like thunder, Weak men under-- Treads and breaks the thews of these-- Set thyself to bear it bravely, Greatly, gravely, Like the hill in yonder seas;

Since the wrestling and endurance Give a.s.surance To the faint at bay with pain, That no soul to strong endeavour Yoked for ever, Works against the tide in vain.

The Voyage of Telegonus

Ill fares it with the man whose lips are set To bitter themes and words that spite the G.o.ds; For, seeing how the son of Saturn sways With eyes and ears for all, this one shall halt As on hard, hurtful hills; his days shall know The plaintive front of sorrow; level looks With cries ill-favoured shall be dealt to him; And _this_ shall be that he may think of peace As one might think of alienated lips Of sweetness touched for once in kind, warm dreams.

Yea, fathers of the high and holy face, This soul thus sinning shall have cause to sob ”Ah, ah,” for sleep, and s.p.a.ce enough to learn The wan, wild Hyrie's aggregated song That starts the dwellers in distorted heights, With all the meaning of perpetual sighs Heard in the mountain deserts of the world, And where the green-haired waters glide between The thin, lank weeds and mallows of the marsh.

But thou to whom these things are like to shapes That come of darkness--thou whose life slips past Regarding rather these with mute fast mouth-- Hear none the less how fleet Telegonus, The bra.s.s-clad hunter, first took oar and smote Swift eastward-going seas, with face direct For narrowing channels and the twofold coasts Past Colchis and the fierce Symplegades, And utmost islands, washed by streams unknown.

For in a time when Phasis whitened wide And drove with violent waters blown of wind Against the bare, salt limits of the land, It came to pa.s.s that, joined with Cytheraea, The black-browed Ares, chafing for the wrong Ulysses did him on the plains of Troy, Set heart against the king; and when the storms Sang high in thunder and the Thracian rain, The G.o.d bethought him of a pale-mouthed priest Of Thebae, kin to ancient Chariclo, And of an omen which the prophet gave That touched on death and grief to Ithaca; Then, knowing how a heavy-handed fate Had laid itself on Circe's bra.s.s-clad son, He p.r.i.c.ked the hunter with a l.u.s.t that turned All thoughts to travel and the seas remote; But chiefly now he stirred Telegonus To longings for his father's exiled face, And dreams of rest and honey-hearted love And quiet death with much of funeral flame Far in the mountains of a favoured land Beyond the wars and wailings of the waves.

So, past the ridges where the coast abrupt Dips greyly westward, Circe's strong-armed son Swept down the foam of sharp-divided straits And faced the stress of opening seas. Sheer out The vessel drave; but three long moons the gale Moaned round; and swift, strong streams of fire revealed The labouring rowers and the lightening surf, Pale watchers deafened of sonorous storm, And dipping decks and rents of ruined sails.

Yea, when the hollow ocean-driven s.h.i.+p Wheeled sideways, like a chariot cloven through In hard hot battle, and the night came up Against strange headlands lying east and north, Behold a black, wild wind with death to all Ran sh.o.r.eward, charged with flame and thunder-smoke, Which blew the waters into wastes of white, And broke the bark, as lightning breaks the pine; Whereat the sea in fearful circles showed Unpitied faces turned from Zeus and light-- Wan swimmers wasted with their agony, And hopeless eyes and moaning mouths of men.

But one held by the fragments of the wreck, And Ares knew him for Telegonus, Whom heavy-handed Fate had chained to deeds Of dreadful note with sin beyond a name.

So, seeing this, the black-browed lord of war, Arrayed about by Jove's authentic light, Shot down amongst the shattered clouds and called With mighty strain, betwixt the gaps of storm ”Ocea.n.u.s! Ocea.n.u.s!” Whereat The surf sprang white, as when a keel divides The gleaming centre of a gathered wave; And, ringed with flakes of splendid fire of foam, The son of Terra rose half-way and blew The triple trumpet of the water-G.o.ds, At which great winds fell back and all the sea Grew dumb, as on the land a war-feast breaks When deep sleep falls upon the souls of men.

Then Ares of the night-like brow made known The bra.s.s-clad hunter of the facile feet, Hard clinging to the slippery logs of pine, And told the omen to the h.o.a.ry G.o.d That touched on death and grief to Ithaca; Wherefore Ocea.n.u.s, with help of hand, Bore by the chin the warrior of the North, A moaning ma.s.s, across the shallowing surge, And cast him on the rocks of alien sh.o.r.es Against a wintry morning shot with storm.

Hear also, thou, how mighty G.o.ds sustain The men set out to work the ends of Fate Which fill the world with tales of many tears And vex the sad face of humanity: Six days and nights the bra.s.s-clad chief abode Pent up in caverns by the straitening seas And fed on ferns and limpets; but the dawn, Before the strong sun of the seventh, brought A fume of fire and smells of savoury meat And much rejoicing, as from neighbouring feasts; At which the hunter, seized with sudden l.u.s.t, Sprang up the crags, and, like a dream of fear, Leapt, shouting, at a huddled host of hinds Amongst the fragments of their steaming food; And as the hoa.r.s.e wood-wind in autumn sweeps To every zone the hissing latter leaves, So fleet Telegonus, by dint of spear And strain of thunderous voice, did scatter these East, south, and north. 'Twas then the chief had rest, Hard by the outer coast of Ithaca, Unknown to him who ate the spoil and slept.

Nor stayed he hand thereafter; but when noon Burned dead on misty hills of stunted fir, This man shook slumber from his limbs and sped Against h.o.a.r beaches and the kindled cliffs Of falling waters. These he waded through, Beholding, past the forests of the West, A break of light and homes of many men, And s.h.i.+ning corn, and flowers, and fruits of flowers.

Yea, seeing these, the facile-footed chief Grasped by the knot the huge Aeaean lance And fell upon the farmers; wherefore they Left hoe and plough, and crouched in heights remote, Companioned with the grey-winged fogs; but he Made waste their fields and throve upon their toil-- As throve the boar, the fierce four-footed curse Which Artemis did raise in Calydon To make stern mouths wax white with foreign fear, All in the wild beginning of the world.

So one went down and told Laertes' son Of what the bra.s.s-clad stranger from the straits Had worked in Ithaca; whereat the King Rose, like a G.o.d, and called his mighty heir, Telemachus, the wisest of the wise; And these two, having counsel, strode without, And armed them with the arms of warlike days-- The helm, the javelin, and the sun-like s.h.i.+eld, And glancing greaves and quivering stars of steel.