Chapter I: Front Matter

GRASS OF PARNASSUS

RHYMES OLD AND NEW

BY ANDREW LANG

* * * * *

LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET

_All rights reserved_

* * * * *

PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON

* * * * *

TO E. M. S.

* * * * *

_Primâ dicta mihi_, _summâ dicenda Camenâ_.

* * * * *

The years will pass, and hearts will range,
_You_ conquer Time, and Care, and Change.
Though Time doth still delight to shed
The dust on many a younger head;
Though Care, oft coming, hath the guile
From younger lips to steal the smile;
Though Change makes younger hearts wax cold,
And sells new loves for loves of old,
Time, Change, nor Care, hath learned the art
To fleck your hair, to chill your heart,
To touch your tresses with the snow,
To mar your mirth of long ago.
Change, Care, nor Time, while life endure,
Shall spoil our ancient friendship sure,
The love which flows from sacred springs,
In ‘old unhappy far-off things,’
From sympathies in grief and joy,
Through all the years of man and boy.

Therefore, to you, the rhymes I strung
When even this ‘brindled’ head was young
I bring, and later rhymes I bring
That flit upon as weak a wing,
But still for you, for yours, they sing!

* * * * *

MANY of the verses and translations in this volume were published first in _Ballads and Lyrics of Old France_ (1872). Though very sensible that they have the demerits of imitative and even of undergraduate rhyme, I print them again because people I like have liked them. The rest are of different dates, and lack (though doubtless they need) the excuse of having been written, like some of the earlier pieces, during College Lectures. I would gladly have added to this volume what other more or less serious rhymes I have written, but circumstances over which I have no control have bound them up with _Ballades_, and other toys of that sort.

It may be as well to repeat in prose, what has already been said in verse, that Grass of Parnassus, the pretty Autumn flower, grows in the marshes at the foot of the Muses’ Hill, and other hills, not at the top by any means.

Several of the versions from the Greek Anthology have been published in the _Fortnightly Review_, and the sonnet on Colonel Burnaby appeared in _Punch_. These, with pieces from other serials, are reprinted by the courteous permission of the Editors.

The verses that were published in _Ballades and Lyrics_, and in _Ballads and Verses Vain_ (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York), are marked in the contents with an asterisk.

CONTENTS

_DEEDS OF MEN_ PAGE SEEKERS FOR A CITY 3 THE WHITE PACHA 6 MIDNIGHT, JANUARY 25, 1886 8 ADVANCE, AUSTRALIA 9 COLONEL BURNABY 11 MELVILLE AND COGHILL 12 _RHODOCLEIA_ TO RHODOCLEIA 15 _AVE_ CLEVEDON CHURCH 21 TWILIGHT ON TWEED * 23 METEMPSYCHOSIS * 25 LOST IN HADES * 26 A STAR IN THE NIGHT * 27 A SUNSET ON YARROW * 28 ANOTHER WAY 29 _HESPEROTHEN_ * THE SEEKERS FOR PHÆACIA 33 A SONG OF PHÆACIA 35 THE DEPARTURE FROM PHÆACIA 37 A BALLAD OF DEPARTURE 39 THEY HEAR THE SIRENS FOR THE SECOND TIME 40 CIRCE’S ISLE REVISITED 42 THE LIMIT OF LANDS 44 _VERSES_ MARTIAL IN TOWN 49 APRIL ON TWEED 51 TIRED OF TOWNS 53 SCYTHE SONG 55 PEN AND INK 56 A DREAM 58 THE SINGING ROSE 59 A REVIEW IN RHYME 62 COLINETTE * 63 A SUNSET OF WATTEAU * 65 NIGHTINGALE WEATHER * 67 LOVE AND WISDOM * 69 GOOD-BYE * 71 AN OLD PRAYER * 73 À LA BELLE HÉLÈNE * 74 SYLVIE ET AURÉLIE * 76 A LOST PATH * 78 THE SHADE OF HELEN * 79 _SONNETS_ SHE 83 HERODOTUS IN EGYPT 84 GÉRARD DE NERVAL * 85 RONSARD * 86 LOVE’S MIRACLE * 87 DREAMS * 88 TWO SONNETS OF THE SIRENS * 89 _TRANSLATIONS_ HYMN TO THE WINDS * 93 MOONLIGHT * 94 THE GRAVE AND THE ROSE * 95 A VOW TO HEAVENLY VENUS * 96 OF HIS LADY’S OLD AGE * 97 SHADOWS OF HIS LADY * 98 APRIL * 99 AN OLD TUNE * 103 OLD LOVES * 104 A LADY OF HIGH DEGREE * 106 IANNOULA * 108 THE MILK WHITE DOE * 109 HELIODORE 112 THE PROPHET 113 LAIS 114 CLEARISTA 115 THE FISHERMAN’S TOMB 116 OF HIS DEATH 117 RHODOPE 118 TO A GIRL 119 TO THE SHIPS 120 A LATE CONVERT 121 THE LIMIT OF LIFE 122 TO DANIEL ELZEVIR 123 _THE LAST CHANCE_ THE LAST CHANCE 127

GRASS OF PARNASSUS.

_PALE star that by the lochs of Galloway_,
_In wet green places ’twixt the depth and height_
_Dost keep thine hour while Autumn ebbs away_,
_When now the moors have doffed the heather bright_,
_Grass of Parnassus_, _flower of my delight_,
_How gladly with the unpermitted bay_—
_Garlands not mine_, _and leaves that not decay_—
_How gladly would I twine thee if I might_!

_The bays are out of reach_! _But far below_
_The peaks forbidden of the Muses’ Hill_,
_Grass of Parnassus_, _thy returning snow_
_Between September and October chill_
_Doth speak to me of Autumns long ago_,
_And these kind faces that are with me still_.

DEEDS OF MEN

αειδε δ’ αρα κλέα ανδρων

TO
_COLONEL IAN HAMILTON_

To you, who know the face of war,
You, that for England wander far,
You that have seen the Ghazis fly
From English lads not sworn to die,
You that have lain where, deadly chill,
The mist crept o’er the Shameful Hill,
You that have conquered, mile by mile,
The currents of unfriendly Nile,
And cheered the march, and eased the strain
When Politics made valour vain,
Ian, to you, from banks of Ken,
We send our lays of Englishmen!

SEEKERS FOR A CITY.

“Believe me, if that blissful, that beautiful place, were set on a
hill visible to all the world, I should long ago have journeyed
thither. . . But the number and variety of the ways! For you know,
_There is but one road that leads to Corinth_.”

HERMOTIMUS (Mr Pater’s Version).

“The Poet says, _dear city of Cecrops_, and wilt thou not say, _dear
city of Zeus_?”