Chapter III

What is the witchery rare
Which snares me in her hair
So deeply that I dare,
I dare not move, I dare not move,--
Lie stilly?
In looks and winning ways
The bloom of love she lays
Like fire on all my days,
And makes me love, and makes me love
This Lily.

YULE.

Behold! it was night; and the wind and the rushing
of snow on the wind,
And the boom of the sea and the moaning of desolate pines
that were thinned.

And the halls of fierce Erick of Sogn with the clamor of wassail
were filled,
With the clash of great beakers of gold and the reek of the ale
that was spilled.

For the Yule was upon them, the Yule, and they quaffed
as from skulls of the slain,
And sware out round oaths in hoarse wit, and long quaffing
sware laughing again.

Unharnessed from each shaggy throat that was hot with mad lust
and with drink,
The burly wild skins and barbaric tossed rent from their
broad golden link.

For the Yule was upon them, the Yule, and the "_waes-heils_"
were shouted and roared
By the Berserks, the eaters of fire, and the Jarls round
the ponderous board.

And huge on the hearth, that writhed hissing and bellied
a bullion of gold,
The yule-log, the half of an oak from the mountains,
was royally rolled.

And its warmth was a glory that glared and smote red through
the width of the hall,
To burnish wild-boar skins and swords and great war-axes
hung on the wall.

Till the maidens, who hurried big goblets that bubbled
excessive with barm,
Blushed rose to the gold of thick curls when the shining steel
mirrored each charm.

And Erick's one hundred gray skalds, at the nod and the beck
of the king,
With the stormy rolled music of an hundred wild harps made the
castle re-echoing ring.

For the Yule, for the Yule was upon them, and battle and
rapine were o'er,
And Harold, the viking, the red, and his brother lay dead
on the shore.

For the harrier, Harold the red, and his merciless brother,
black Ulf,
With their men on the shore of the wintery sea were carrion
cold for the wolf.

Behold! for the battle was finished, the battle that boomed
in the day
With the rumble of shields that were shocked and the shatter
of spears that did slay;

With the hewing of swords that fierce lightened hot smoking
with riotous blood,
And the crush of the mace that was crashed through the helm and
the brain that withstood;

And the cursing and shrieking of men at their gods--at their
gods whom they cursed,
Till the caves of the ocean re-bellowed and storm on their
struggling burst.

And they fought in the flying and drifting and silence of
covering snow,
Till the wounded that lay with the dead, with the dead were
stiff frozen in woe.

And they fought; and the mystical flakes that were clutched
of the maniac wind
Drave sharp on the eyes of the kings, made the sight of
their warriors blind.

And they fought; and with leonine wrath were they met till
the battle god, Thor,
From his thunder-wheeled chariot rolled, making end of
destruction and war.

And they fell--like twin rocks of the mountain the ruinous
whirlwinds have hurled
From their world-rooted crags to the ocean below with the
strength of the world.

And, lo! not in vain their loud vows! on the stern iron
altars of War
Their flesh, their own flesh, yea, the victim, their blood
the libation to Thor....

But a glitter and splendor of arms out of snow and the foam
of the seas,
And the terrible ghosts of the vikings and the gauntleted
Valkyries....

Yea, the halls of fierce Erick of Sogn with the turmoil of
wassail are filled,
With the steam of the flesh of the boar and the reek of the
ale that is spilled.

For the Yule and the vict'ry are theirs, and the "_waes-heils_"
are shouted and roared
By the Berserks, the eaters of fire, and the Jarls 'round
the ponderous board.

THE TROUBADOUR.

He stood where all the rare voluptuous West,
Like some mad Maenad wine-stained to the breast,
Shot from delirious lips of ruby must
Long, fierce, triumphant smiles wherein hot lust
Swam like a feverish wine exultant tost
High from a golden goblet and so lost.
And all the West, and all the rosy West,
Bathed his frail beauty, hair and throat and breast;
And there he bloomed, a thing of rose and snows,
A passion flower of men of snows and rose
Beneath the casement of her old red tower
Whereat the lady sat, as white a flower
As ever blew in Provence, and the lace,
Mist-like about her hair, half hid her face
And all its moods which his sweet singing raised,
Sad moods that censured it, sweet moods that praised.
And where the white rose climbing over and over
Up to her wide-flung lattice like a lover,
And gladiolas and deep fleurs-de-lis
Held honey-cups up for the violent bee,
Within her garden by the ivied wall,
Where many a fountain falling musical
Flamed fire-fierce in the eve against it flung,
Like some mad nightingale the minstrel sung:--

"The passion, O! of plunging through and through
Lascivious curls star-litten as light dew,
And jeweled thick, as is the bosomed dusk
Dense scintillant with stars! Oh frenzy rare
Of twisting curling fingers in thy hair!
No touch of balm-beat winds from torrid seas
Were half so satin-soft in sorceries!
No god-like life so sweet as lost to lie
Wrapped strand on strand deep in such hair and die,
Ah love, sweet love!

"The mounting madness and the rapturous pain
With fingers wound in thick, cool curls to strain
All the wild sight deep in thy perilous eyes
So agate polished, where the thoughts that rise
Warm in the heart, like on a witch's glass
Must forth in pictures beautiful and pass;
No Siren sweetness wailed to lyres of gold,
No naked beauty that the Greeks of old
God-bosomed thro' the bursting foam did see
Were potent, love, to tear mine eyes from thee,
Ah love, sweet love!

"Far o'er the sea of old time once a witch,
The fair Aeaean, Circe, dwelt, so rich
In marvelous magic, cruel as a god,
She made or unmade lovers at a nod;
Ah, bitter love that made all loves but brute!--
Ah, bitterer thou who mak'st my heart a lute
To lie and languish for thee sad and mute,
Strung high for utterance of the sweetest lay,
Such magic music as Acrasia
And all her lovers swooned to utter bliss,--
And then not wake it with a single kiss,
Ah! cruel, cruel love!"

Knee-deep within the dew-damp grasses there,
Against the stars, that now were everywhere
Flung thro' the perfumed heav'ns of angel hands,
And, linked in tangled labyrinths of bands
Of soft rose-hearted flame and glimmer, rolled
One vast immensity of mazy gold,
He sang, like some hurt creature desolate,
Heart-aching for the loss of some wild mate
Hounded and speared to death of heartless men
In old romantic Arden waste; and then
Turned to the one white star,--which like a stone
Of precious worth low on the heaven shone,--
A white, sweet, lovely face and passed away
From the warm flowers and the fountains' spray.
And that fair lady in pale drapery,
High in the quaint, red tower, did she sigh
To see him, dimming down the purple night,
Lone with his instrument die out of sight
Far in the rose-pleached, musk-drunk avenues,
Far in, far in amid the gleaming dews,
And, left alone but with the sighing rush
Of the wan fountains and the deep night hush,
Weep to the melancholy stars above
Half the lorn night for the desired love?
Or down the rush-strewn halls, where arras old
Billowed with passage of her fold on fold,
Even to the ponderous iron-studded gate,
That shrieked with rust, steal from her lord and wait
Deep in the dingled hyacinth and rose
For him who sang so sweetly erst?--who knows?

WHY?

Why smile high stars the happier after rain?
Why is strong love the stronger after pain?
Ai me! ai me! thou wotest not nor I!

Why sings the wild swan heavenliest when it dies?
Why spake the dumb lips sweetest that we prize
For maddening memories? O why! O why!

Why are dead kisses dearer when they're dead?
Why are dead faces lovelier vanished?
And why this heart-ache? None can answer why!

FROM UNBELIEF TO BELIEF.

Why come ye here to sigh that I,
Who with crossed wrists so peaceless lie
Before ye, am at rest, at rest!
For that the pistons of my blood
No more in this machinery thud?
And on these eyes, that once were blest
With magnetism of fire, are prest
Thin, damp, pale eyelids for a sheath,
Whereon the bony claw of Death
Hath set his coins of unseen lead,
Stamped with the image of his head?

Why come ye here to weep for one,
Who is forgotten when he's gone
From ye and burthened with this rest
Your God hath given him! unsought
Of any prayers, whiles yet he wrought,--
And with what sacrifices bought!
Low, sweet communion mouth to mouth
Of thoughts that dewed eternal drought
Of Life's bald barrenness,--a jest,
An irony hath grown confessed
When he's at rest! when he's at rest!

Why come ye, fools!--ye lie! ye lie!
Rashly! the grave, for such as I,
Hath naught that lies as near this rest
As your high Heaven lies near your Hell!
I see why now that it is well
That men but know the husk-like shell,
Which like a fruit the being kept,
That swinked and sported, woke and slept;
From which that stern essential stept,
That ichor-veined inhabitant
Who makes me all myself, in all
My moods the "_I_" original,
That holds one orbit like a star,
Distinct, to which a similar
There never was, and be there can't.

And as it is, it is the best
That Death hath my poor body dressed
In such fair semblance of a rest,
Which soothes the hearts of those distressed;
But, God! unto the _dead_ the jest
Of this his rest, of this his rest!

THE KING.

A blown white bubble buoyed zenith-ward,
Up from the tremulous East the round moon swung
Mist-murky, and the unsocial stars that thronged,
Hot with the drought, thick down the empty West,
Winked thirstily; no wind to rouse the leaves,
That o'er the glaring road lolled palpitant,
Withered and whitened of the weary dust
From iron hoofs of that gay fellowship
Of knights which gat at morn the king disguised;
Whose mind was, "in the lists to joust and be
An equal mid unequals, man with man:"
Who from the towers of Edric passed, wherein
Some nights he'd sojourned, till one morn a horn
Sang at dim portals, musical with dew,
Wild echoes of wild woodlands and the hunt,
Clear herald of the staunchest of his knights;
And they to the great jousts at Camelot
Rode pounding off, a noise of steel and steeds.

Thick in the stagnant moat the lilies lay
Ghastly and rotting; hoarse with rusty chains
The drawbridge hung before the barbed grate;
And far above along lone battlements,
His armor moon-drenched, one great sentinel
Clanked drowsily, and it was late in June,
She at her lattice, lawny night-robed, leaned
Dreaming of somewhat dear, and happy smiled
From glorious eyes; a face like gracious nights,
One silent brilliancy of steadfast stars
Innumerable and delicate through the dusk:
Long, loosened loops and coils of sensuous hair
Rolled turbulence down naked neck and throat,
That shamed the moonshine with a rival sheen.

One stooped above her till his nostrils drank
Rich, faint perfumes that blossomed in her hair,
And 'round her waist hooped one strong arm and drew
Her mightily to him; soft burying deep
In crushed fresh linen warm with flesh his arm,
Searched all her eyes until his own were drugged
Mad with their fire, quick one hungry kiss,
Like anger bruised fierce on her breathless lips,
Whispered, "And lov'st but one? and he?"
"Sweet, sweet my lord, thou wotest well!" and then
From love's stern beauty writhen into hate's
Gnarled hideousness, he haled her sweet, white face
Back, back by its large braids of plenteous hair
Till her full bosom's clamorous speechlessness
Stiff on the moon burst white, low mocked and laughed,
"The King, I wot, adulteress!" and a blade
Glanced thin as ice plunged hard, hard in her heart.

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