Poem VI

My dream had never died or lived again.As in some mystic middle state I lay;Seeing I saw not, hearing not I heard:Though, if I saw not, yet they told me allSo often that I speak as having seen.

For so it seemed, or so they said to me,That all things grew more tragic and more strange;That when our side was vanquished and my causeFor ever lost, there went up a great cry,The Prince is slain. My father heard and ranIn on the lists, and there unlaced my casqueAnd grovelled on my body, and after himCame Psyche, sorrowing for Aglaïa.But high upon the palace Ida stoodWith Psyche's babe in arm: there on the roofsLike that great dame of Lapidoth she sang.

'Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: the seed,The little seed they laughed at in the dark,Has risen and cleft the soil, and grown a bulkOf spanless girth, that lays on every sideA thousand arms and rushes to the Sun.

'Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: they came;The leaves were wet with women's tears: they heardA noise of songs they would not understand:They marked it with the red cross to the fall,And would have strown it, and are fallen themselves.

'Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: they came,The woodmen with their axes: lo the tree!But we will make it faggots for the hearth,And shape it plank and beam for roof and floor,And boats and bridges for the use of men.

'Our enemies have fallen, have fallen: they struck;With their own blows they hurt themselves, nor knewThere dwelt an iron nature in the grain:The glittering axe was broken in their arms,Their arms were shattered to the shoulder blade.

'Our enemies have fallen, but this shall growA night of Summer from the heat, a breadthOf Autumn, dropping fruits of power: and rolledWith music in the growing breeze of Time,The tops shall strike from star to star, the fangsShall move the stony bases of the world.

'And now, O maids, behold our sanctuaryIs violate, our laws broken: fear we notTo break them more in their behoof, whose armsChampioned our cause and won it with a dayBlanched in our annals, and perpetual feast,When dames and heroines of the golden yearShall strip a hundred hollows bare of Spring,To rain an April of ovation roundTheir statues, borne aloft, the three: but come,We will be liberal, since our rights are won.Let them not lie in the tents with coarse mankind,Ill nurses; but descend, and proffer theseThe brethren of our blood and cause, that thereLie bruised and maimed, the tender ministriesOf female hands and hospitality.'

She spoke, and with the babe yet in her arms,Descending, burst the great bronze valves, and ledA hundred maids in train across the Park.Some cowled, and some bare-headed, on they came,Their feet in flowers, her loveliest: by them wentThe enamoured air sighing, and on their curlsFrom the high tree the blossom wavering fell,And over them the tremulous isles of lightSlided, they moving under shade: but BlancheAt distance followed: so they came: anonThrough open field into the lists they woundTimorously; and as the leader of the herdThat holds a stately fretwork to the Sun,And followed up by a hundred airy does,Steps with a tender foot, light as on air,The lovely, lordly creature floated onTo where her wounded brethren lay; there stayed;Knelt on one knee,--the child on one,--and prestTheir hands, and called them dear deliverers,And happy warriors, and immortal names,And said 'You shall not lie in the tents but here,And nursed by those for whom you fought, and servedWith female hands and hospitality.'

Then, whether moved by this, or was it chance,She past my way. Up started from my sideThe old lion, glaring with his whelpless eye,Silent; but when she saw me lying stark,Dishelmed and mute, and motionlessly pale,Cold even to her, she sighed; and when she sawThe haggard father's face and reverend beardOf grisly twine, all dabbled with the bloodOf his own son, shuddered, a twitch of painTortured her mouth, and o'er her forehead pastA shadow, and her hue changed, and she said:'He saved my life: my brother slew him for it.'No more: at which the king in bitter scornDrew from my neck the painting and the tress,And held them up: she saw them, and a dayRose from the distance on her memory,When the good Queen, her mother, shore the tressWith kisses, ere the days of Lady Blanche:And then once more she looked at my pale face:Till understanding all the foolish workOf Fancy, and the bitter close of all,Her iron will was broken in her mind;Her noble heart was molten in her breast;She bowed, she set the child on the earth; she laidA feeling finger on my brows, and presently'O Sire,' she said, 'he lives: he is not dead:O let me have him with my brethren hereIn our own palace: we will tend on himLike one of these; if so, by any means,To lighten this great clog of thanks, that makeOur progress falter to the woman's goal.'

She said: but at the happy word 'he lives'My father stooped, re-fathered o'er my wounds.So those two foes above my fallen life,With brow to brow like night and evening mixtTheir dark and gray, while Psyche ever stoleA little nearer, till the babe that by us,Half-lapt in glowing gauze and golden brede,Lay like a new-fallen meteor on the grass,Uncared for, spied its mother and beganA blind and babbling laughter, and to danceIts body, and reach its fatling innocent armsAnd lazy lingering fingers. She the appealBrooked not, but clamouring out 'Mine--mine--not yours,It is not yours, but mine: give me the child'Ceased all on tremble: piteous was the cry:So stood the unhappy mother open-mouthed,And turned each face her way: wan was her cheekWith hollow watch, her blooming mantle torn,Red grief and mother's hunger in her eye,And down dead-heavy sank her curls, and halfThe sacred mother's bosom, panting, burstThe laces toward her babe; but she nor caredNor knew it, clamouring on, till Ida heard,Looked up, and rising slowly from me, stoodErect and silent, striking with her glanceThe mother, me, the child; but he that layBeside us, Cyril, battered as he was,Trailed himself up on one knee: then he drewHer robe to meet his lips, and down she lookedAt the armed man sideways, pitying as it seemed,Or self-involved; but when she learnt his face,Remembering his ill-omened song, aroseOnce more through all her height, and o'er him grewTall as a figure lengthened on the sandWhen the tide ebbs in sunshine, and he said:

'O fair and strong and terrible! LionessThat with your long locks play the Lion's mane!But Love and Nature, these are two more terribleAnd stronger. See, your foot is on our necks,We vanquished, you the Victor of your will.What would you more? Give her the child! remainOrbed in your isolation: he is dead,Or all as dead: henceforth we let you be:Win you the hearts of women; and bewareLest, where you seek the common love of these,The common hate with the revolving wheelShould drag you down, and some great NemesisBreak from a darkened future, crowned with fire,And tread you out for ever: but howso'erFixed in yourself, never in your own armsTo hold your own, deny not hers to her,Give her the child! O if, I say, you keepOne pulse that beats true woman, if you lovedThe breast that fed or arm that dandled you,Or own one port of sense not flint to prayer,Give her the child! or if you scorn to lay it,Yourself, in hands so lately claspt with yours,Or speak to her, your dearest, her one fault,The tenderness, not yours, that could not kill,Give me it: I will give it her.He said:At first her eye with slow dilation rolledDry flame, she listening; after sank and sankAnd, into mournful twilight mellowing, dweltFull on the child; she took it: 'Pretty bud!Lily of the vale! half opened bell of the woods!Sole comfort of my dark hour, when a worldOf traitorous friend and broken system madeNo purple in the distance, mystery,Pledge of a love not to be mine, farewell;These men are hard upon us as of old,We two must part: and yet how fain was ITo dream thy cause embraced in mine, to thinkI might be something to thee, when I feltThy helpless warmth about my barren breastIn the dead prime: but may thy mother proveAs true to thee as false, false, false to me!And, if thou needs must needs bear the yoke, I wish itGentle as freedom'--here she kissed it: then--'All good go with thee! take it Sir,' and soLaid the soft babe in his hard-mailèd hands,Who turned half-round to Psyche as she sprangTo meet it, with an eye that swum in thanks;Then felt it sound and whole from head to foot,And hugged and never hugged it close enough,And in her hunger mouthed and mumbled it,And hid her bosom with it; after thatPut on more calm and added suppliantly:

'We two were friends: I go to mine own landFor ever: find some other: as for meI scarce am fit for your great plans: yet speak to me,Say one soft word and let me part forgiven.'

But Ida spoke not, rapt upon the child.Then Arac. 'Ida--'sdeath! you blame the man;You wrong yourselves--the woman is so hardUpon the woman. Come, a grace to me!I am your warrior: I and mine have foughtYour battle: kiss her; take her hand, she weeps:'Sdeath! I would sooner fight thrice o'er than see it.'

But Ida spoke not, gazing on the ground,And reddening in the furrows of his chin,And moved beyond his custom, Gama said:

'I've heard that there is iron in the blood,And I believe it. Not one word? not one?Whence drew you this steel temper? not from me,Not from your mother, now a saint with saints.She said you had a heart--I heard her say it--"Our Ida has a heart"--just ere she died--"But see that some one with authorityBe near her still" and I--I sought for one--All people said she had authority--The Lady Blanche: much profit! Not one word;No! though your father sues: see how you standStiff as Lot's wife, and all the good knights maimed,I trust that there is no one hurt to death,For our wild whim: and was it then for this,Was it for this we gave our palace up,Where we withdrew from summer heats and state,And had our wine and chess beneath the planes,And many a pleasant hour with her that's gone,Ere you were born to vex us? Is it kind?Speak to her I say: is this not she of whom,When first she came, all flushed you said to meNow had you got a friend of your own age,Now could you share your thought; now should men seeTwo women faster welded in one loveThan pairs of wedlock; she you walked with, sheYou talked with, whole nights long, up in the tower,Of sine and arc, spheroïd and azimuth,And right ascension, Heaven knows what; and nowA word, but one, one little kindly word,Not one to spare her: out upon you, flint!You love nor her, nor me, nor any; nay,You shame your mother's judgment too. Not one?You will not? well--no heart have you, or suchAs fancies like the vermin in a nutHave fretted all to dust and bitterness.'So said the small king moved beyond his wont.

But Ida stood nor spoke, drained of her forceBy many a varying influence and so long.Down through her limbs a drooping languor wept:Her head a little bent; and on her mouthA doubtful smile dwelt like a clouded moonIn a still water: then brake out my sire,Lifted his grim head from my wounds. 'O you,Woman, whom we thought woman even now,And were half fooled to let you tend our son,Because he might have wished it--but we see,The accomplice of your madness unforgiven,And think that you might mix his draught with death,When your skies change again: the rougher handIs safer: on to the tents: take up the Prince.'

He rose, and while each ear was pricked to attendA tempest, through the cloud that dimmed her brokeA genial warmth and light once more, and shoneThrough glittering drops on her sad friend.'Come hither.O Psyche,' she cried out, 'embrace me, come,Quick while I melt; make reconcilement sureWith one that cannot keep her mind an hour:Come to the hollow hear they slander so!Kiss and be friends, like children being chid!I seem no more: I want forgiveness too:I should have had to do with none but maids,That have no links with men. Ah false but dear,Dear traitor, too much loved, why?--why?--Yet see,Before these kings we embrace you yet once moreWith all forgiveness, all oblivion,And trust, not love, you less.And now, O sire,Grant me your son, to nurse, to wait upon him,Like mine own brother. For my debt to him,This nightmare weight of gratitude, I know it;Taunt me no more: yourself and yours shall haveFree adit; we will scatter all our maidsTill happier times each to her proper hearth:What use to keep them here--now? grant my prayer.Help, father, brother, help; speak to the king:Thaw this male nature to some touch of thatWhich kills me with myself, and drags me downFrom my fixt height to mob me up with allThe soft and milky rabble of womankind,Poor weakling even as they are.'Passionate tearsFollowed: the king replied not: Cyril said:'Your brother, Lady,--Florian,--ask for himOf your great head--for he is wounded too--That you may tend upon him with the prince.''Ay so,' said Ida with a bitter smile,'Our laws are broken: let him enter too.'Then Violet, she that sang the mournful song,And had a cousin tumbled on the plain,Petitioned too for him. 'Ay so,' she said,'I stagger in the stream: I cannot keepMy heart an eddy from the brawling hour:We break our laws with ease, but let it be.''Ay so?' said Blanche: 'Amazed am I to herYour Highness: but your Highness breaks with easeThe law your Highness did not make: 'twas I.I had been wedded wife, I knew mankind,And blocked them out; but these men came to wooYour Highness--verily I think to win.'

So she, and turned askance a wintry eye:But Ida with a voice, that like a bellTolled by an earthquake in a trembling tower,Rang ruin, answered full of grief and scorn.

'Fling our doors wide! all, all, not one, but all,Not only he, but by my mother's soul,Whatever man lies wounded, friend or foe,Shall enter, if he will. Let our girls flit,Till the storm die! but had you stood by us,The roar that breaks the Pharos from his baseHad left us rock. She fain would sting us too,But shall not. Pass, and mingle with your likes.We brook no further insult but are gone.'She turned; the very nape of her white neckWas rosed with indignation: but the PrinceHer brother came; the king her father charmedHer wounded soul with words: nor did mine ownRefuse her proffer, lastly gave his hand.

Then us they lifted up, dead weights, and bareStraight to the doors: to them the doors gave wayGroaning, and in the Vestal entry shriekedThe virgin marble under iron heels:And on they moved and gained the hall, and thereRested: but great the crush was, and each base,To left and right, of those tall columns drownedIn silken fluctuation and the swarmOf female whisperers: at the further endWas Ida by the throne, the two great catsClose by her, like supporters on a shield,Bow-backed with fear: but in the centre stoodThe common men with rolling eyes; amazedThey glared upon the women, and aghastThe women stared at these, all silent, saveWhen armour clashed or jingled, while the day,Descending, struck athwart the hall, and shotA flying splendour out of brass and steel,That o'er the statues leapt from head to head,Now fired an angry Pallas on the helm,Now set a wrathful Dian's moon on flame,And now and then an echo started up,And shuddering fled from room to room, and diedOf fright in far apartments.Then the voiceOf Ida sounded, issuing ordinance:And me they bore up the broad stairs, and throughThe long-laid galleries past a hundred doorsTo one deep chamber shut from sound, and dueTo languid limbs and sickness; left me in it;And others otherwhere they laid; and allThat afternoon a sound arose of hoofAnd chariot, many a maiden passing homeTill happier times; but some were left of thoseHeld sagest, and the great lords out and in,From those two hosts that lay beside the walls,Walked at their will, and everything was changed.

Ask me no more: the moon may draw the sea;The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the shapeWith fold to fold, of mountain or of cape;But O too fond, when have I answered thee?Ask me no more.

Ask me no more: what answer should I give?I love not hollow cheek or faded eye:Yet, O my friend, I will not have thee die!Ask me no more, lest I should bid thee live;Ask me no more.

Ask me no more: thy fate and mine are sealed:I strove against the stream and all in vain:Let the great river take me to the main:No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield;Ask me no more.