Came to her: without hope of change,
In sleep she seem'd to walk forlorn, Till cold winds woke the gray-eyed morn 'About the lonely moated grange.
She only said, "The day is dreary, He cometh not,' she said; She said, 'I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!'
About a stone-cast from the wall
A sluice with blacken'd waters slept, 'And o'er it many, round and small, The cluster'd marish-mosses crept. Hard by a poplar shook alway,
All silver-green with gnarled bark: For leagues no other tree did mark The level waste, the rounding gray.
She only said, 'My life is dreary, He cometh not,' she said; She said, 'I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!'
And ever when the moon was low, And the shrill winds were up and away, In the white curtain, to and fro, She saw the gusty shadow sway. But when the moon was very low,
And wild winds bound within their cell, The shadow of the poplar fell
Upon her bed, across her brow.
She only said, 'The night is dreary,
He cometh not,' she said;
She said, 'I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!'
All day within the dreamy house,
The doors upon their hinges creak'd; The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse Behind the mouldering wainscot shriek'd, Or from the crevice peer'd about.
Old faces glimmer'd thro' the doors, Old footsteps trod the upper floors, Old voices called her from without. She only said, 'My life is dreary, He cometh not,' she said; She said, 'I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!'
The sparrow's chirrup on the roof, The slow clock ticking, and the sound Which to the wooing wind aloof
The poplar made, did all confound Her sense; but most she loathed the hour When the thick-moted sunbeam lay Athwart the chambers, and the day Was sloping toward his western bower. Then, said she, 'I am very weary, He will not come,' she said; She wept, 'I am aweary, aweary, Oh God, that I were dead!'
RHAICOS was born amid the hills wherefrom Gnidos the light of Caria is discern'd,
And small are the white-crested that play near, And smaller onward are the purple waves. Thence festal choirs were visible, all crown'd With rose and myrtle if they were inborn; If from Pandion sprang they, on the coast Where stern Athenè raised her citadel, Then olive was intwined with violets Cluster'd in bosses, regular and large. For various men wore various coronals; But one was their devotion: 'twas to her Whose laws all follow, her whose smile withdraws The sword from Ares, thunderbolt from Zeus, And whom in his chill caves the mutable Of mind, Poseidon, the sea-king, reveres,
And whom his brother, Stubborn Dis, hath pray'd To turn in pity the averted cheek
Of her he bore away, with promises, Nay, with loud oath before dread Styx itself, To give her daily more and sweeter flowers Than he made drop from her on Enna's dell.
Rhaicos was looking from his father's door At the long trains that hastened to the town From all the valleys, like bright rivulets Gurgling with gladness, wave outrunning wave, And thought it hard he might not also go And offer up one prayer, and press one hand, He knew not whose. The father call'd him in, And said, 'Son Rhaicos! those are idle games; Long enough I have lived to find them so.' And ere he ended, sighed, as old men do
Always, to think how idle such games are.
'I have not yet,' thought Rhaicos in his heart, And wanted proof.
'Suppose thou go and help
Echeion at the hill, to bark yon oak
And lop its branches off, before we delve
About the trunk and ply the root with axe: This we may do in winter.'
For thence he could see farther, and see more Of those who hurried to the city-gate. Echeion he found there, with naked arm Swart-hair'd, strong-sinew'd, and his eyes intent Upon the place where first the axe should fall: He held it upright. "There are bees about, Or wasps, or hornets,' said the cautious eld, 'Look sharp, O son of Thallinos!' The youth Inclined his ear, afar and warily,
And cavern'd in his hand. He heard a buzz At first, and then the sound grew soft and clear, And then divided into what seem'd tune, And there were words upon it, plaintive words. He turn'd, and said, 'Echeion! do not strike That tree: it must be hollow; for some God Speaks from within. Come thyself near.' Again Both turn'd toward it: and behold! there sat Upon the moss below, with her two palms Pressing it on each side, a maid in form. Downcast were her long eyelashes, and pale Her cheek, but never mountain-ash display'd Berries of colour like her lips so pure, Nor were the anemones about her hair Soft, smooth, and wavering, like the face beneath. 'What dost thou here?' Echeion, half-afraid,
Half-angry, cried. She lifted up her eyes, But nothing spake she. Rhaicos drew one step Backward, for fear came likewise over him, But not such fear: he panted, gaspt, drew in His breath, and would have turn'd it into words, But could not into one.
That sad old man!' said she. The old man went Without a warning from his master's son, Glad to escape, for sorely he now fear'd, And the axe shone behind him in their eyes. HAMADRYAD. And wouldst thou too shed the most innocent
Of blood? no vow demands it; no God wills The oak to bleed.
Who art thou? whence? why here? And whither wouldst thou go? Among the robed In white or saffron, or the hue that most Resembles dawn or the clear sky, is none Array'd as thou art. What so beautiful
As that gray robe which clings about thee close, Like moss to stones adhering, leaves to trees, Yet lets thy bosom rise and fall in turn,
As, toucht by zephyrs, fall and rise the boughs Of graceful platane by the river-side.
HAMADRYAD. Lovest thou well thy father's house?
I love it, well I love it, yet would leave For thine, where'er it be, my father's house, With all the marks upon the door, that show My growth at every birth-day since the third, And all the charms, o'erpowering evil eyes, My mother nail'd for me against my bed, And the Cydonian bow (which thou shalt see))
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