Poems - Arnold Matthew

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range, and regal banquetings?

       Bend ye on these indeed an unmoved eye,

       Not gods, but ghosts, in frozen apathy?

      “Or is it that some force, too stern, too strong,

       Even for yourselves to conquer or beguile,

       Bears earth and heaven and men and gods along,

       Like the broad volume of the insurgent Nile?

       And the great powers we serve, themselves may be

       Slaves of a tyrannous necessity?

      “Or in mid-heaven, perhaps, your golden cars,

       Where earthly voice climbs never, wing their flight,

       And in wild hunt, through mazy tracts of stars,

       Sweep in the sounding stillness of the night?

       Or in deaf ease, on thrones of dazzling sheen,

       Drinking deep draughts of joy, ye dwell serene?

      “Oh, wherefore cheat our youth, if thus it be,

       Of one short joy, one lust, one pleasant dream?

       Stringing vain words of powers we cannot see,

       Blind divinations of a will supreme;

       Lost labor! when the circumambient gloom

       But hides, if gods, gods careless of our doom?

      “The rest I give to joy. Even while I speak,

       My sand runs short; and as yon star-shot ray,

       Hemmed by two banks of cloud, peers pale and weak,

       Now, as the barrier closes, dies away—

       Even so do past and future intertwine,

       Blotting this six years’ space, which yet is mine.

      “Six years—six little years—six drops of time!

       Yet suns shall rise, and many moons shall wane,

       And old men die, and young men pass their prime,

       And languid pleasure fade and flower again,

       And the dull gods behold, ere these are flown,

       Revels more deep, joy keener than their own.

      “Into the silence of the groves and woods

       I will go forth; though something would I say—

       Something—yet what, I know not: for the gods

       The doom they pass revoke not nor delay;

       And prayers and gifts and tears are fruitless all,

       And the night waxes, and the shadows fall.

      “Ye men of Egypt, ye have heard your king!

       I go, and I return not. But the will

       Of the great gods is plain; and ye must bring

       Ill deeds, ill passions, zealous to fulfil

       Their pleasure, to their feet; and reap their praise—

       The praise of gods, rich boon! and length of days.”

      —So spake he, half in anger, half in scorn;

       And one loud cry of grief and of amaze

       Broke from his sorrowing people; so he spake,

       And turning, left them there: and with brief pause,

       Girt with a throng of revellers, bent his way

       To the cool region of the groves he loved.

       There by the river-banks he wandered on,

       From palm-grove on to palm-grove, happy trees,

       Their smooth tops shining sunward, and beneath

       Burying their unsunned stems in grass and flowers;

       Where in one dream the feverish time of youth

       Might fade in slumber, and the feet of joy

       Might wander all day long and never tire.

       Here came the king, holding high feast, at morn,

       Rose-crowned; and ever, when the sun went down,

       A hundred lamps beamed in the tranquil gloom,

       From tree to tree all through the twinkling grove,

       Revealing all the tumult of the feast—

       Flushed guests, and golden goblets foamed with wine;

       While the deep-burnished foliage overhead

       Splintered the silver arrows of the moon.

       It may be that sometimes his wondering soul

       From the loud joyful laughter of his lips

       Might shrink half startled, like a guilty man

       Who wrestles with his dream; as some pale shape,

       Gliding half hidden through the dusky stems,

       Would thrust a hand before the lifted bowl,

       Whispering, A little space, and thou art mine! It may be, on that joyless feast his eye Dwelt with mere outward seeming; he, within, Took measure of his soul, and knew its strength, And by that silent knowledge, day by day, Was calmed, ennobled, comforted, sustained. It may be; but not less his brow was smooth, And his clear laugh fled ringing through the gloom, And his mirth quailed not at the mild reproof Sighed out by winter’s sad tranquillity; Nor, palled with its own fulness, ebbed and died In the rich languor of long summer-days; Nor withered when the palm-tree plumes, that roofed With their mild dark his grassy banquet-hall, Bent to the cold winds of the showerless spring; No, nor grew dark when autumn brought the clouds. So six long years he revelled, night and day. And when the mirth waxed loudest, with dull sound Sometimes from the grove’s centre echoes came, To tell his wondering people of their king; In the still night, across the steaming flats, Mixed with the murmur of the moving Nile.

       Table of Contents

      I.

       The Castle.

      Down the Savoy valleys sounding,

       Echoing round this castle old,

       ’Mid the distant mountain-chalets

       Hark! what bell for church is tolled?

      In the bright October morning

       Savoy’s Duke had left his bride.

       From the castle, past the drawbridge,

       Flowed the hunters’ merry tide.

      Steeds are neighing, gallants glittering.

       Gay, her smiling lord to greet,

       From her mullioned chamber-casement

       Smiles the Duchess Marguerite.

      From Vienna, by the Danube,

       Here she came, a bride, in spring.

       Now the autumn crisps the forest;

       Hunters gather, bugles ring.

      Hounds are pulling, prickers swearing,

       Horses fret, and boar-spears glance.

       Off!—They sweep the marshy forests,

       Westward on the side of France.

      Hark! the game’s on foot; they scatter!

       Down the forest-ridings lone,

       Furious, single horsemen gallop.

       Hark! a shout—a crash—a groan!

      Pale and breathless, came

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