Charmides Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCBCDD EAECFF GHGHII JIKIHH IIIILL MCMCLL BCBCCC IIIINN OIOIOO PQRQSS TITIII IIIIOO UIUIII TOTOII OTOTII IOIIII TVTHII WIWIXX YIYICC OIOIZZ IIIIII OA2OA2TT TNTNLL B2OB2OC2C2 ID2ID2II TITIHH IIIICC E2OE2OII ITTTF2F2 THTTT TTTTT TTTTTT CTCTTT G2OG2OTT OTOTCC TTTTH2V OOOOTT LTLTTT OTOTTT OHOTTT OTOTI2I2 OTOTJ2J2 K2L2K2L2TT OTOTTT TOTOG2G2 TTTTK2K2 TTTTG2G2 TTTTTT A TTTTH2H2 G2TG2TTT TTTTHH M2TM2THH CTCTTT VTVTTT CTCTTT TTTTTT TTTTTT TTTTL2L2 TTTTTT TTTTTT TM2TM2TT K2TK2TTT TCTCTT TTTTTT CTCTK2K2 TJ2TJ2TT TTTTK2 THTHTT TVTVTT TTTTTT CTCTTT TTTTVV TTTTTT TTTTTT TTTTTT TCTCTT TG2TG2TT TK2TK2TT TTTTTT TTTTTT THTHTT TTTCCC L2TL2TTT TTTTTT TK2TK2J2J2 TK2TTTT K2TK2TG2 TTTTTT TK2TK2TT TTTTTT TTTTCC TTTTTT TTTTG2G2 TTTTTT TTTTTT K2TK2THH TTTTT CTCTTT TTTTK2K2 CTCTTT TTTTTT TCTCTT TTTTTT A THTHTT CTTTG2G2 TTTTTT TG2TG2TT TTTTTT TTTTTT TG2TG2TT TTTTTT

I	A
	-
	-
He was a Grecian lad who coming home	B
With pulpy figs and wine from Sicily	C
Stood at his galley's prow and let the foam	B
Blow through his crisp brown curls unconsciously	C
And holding wave and wind in boy's despite	D
Peered from his dripping seat across the wet and stormy night	D
	-
Till with the dawn he saw a burnished spear	E
Like a thin thread of gold against the sky	A
And hoisted sail and strained the creaking gear	E
And bade the pilot head her lustily	C
Against the nor'west gale and all day long	F
Held on his way and marked the rowers' time with measured song	F
	-
And when the faint Corinthian hills were red	G
Dropped anchor in a little sandy bay	H
And with fresh boughs of olive crowned his head	G
And brushed from cheek and throat the hoary spray	H
And washed his limbs with oil and from the hold	I
Brought out his linen tunic and his sandals brazen soled	I
	-
And a rich robe stained with the fishers' juice	J
Which of some swarthy trader he had bought	I
Upon the sunny quay at Syracuse	K
And was with Tyrian broideries inwrought	I
And by the questioning merchants made his way	H
Up through the soft and silver woods and when the labouring day	H
	-
Had spun its tangled web of crimson cloud	I
Clomb the high hill and with swift silent feet	I
Crept to the fane unnoticed by the crowd	I
Of busy priests and from some dark retreat	I
Watched the young swains his frolic playmates bring	L
The firstling of their little flock and the shy shepherd fling	L
	-
The crackling salt upon the flame or hang	M
His studded crook against the temple wall	C
To Her who keeps away the ravenous fang	M
Of the base wolf from homestead and from stall	C
And then the clear voiced maidens 'gan to sing	L
And to the altar each man brought some goodly offering	L
	-
A beechen cup brimming with milky foam	B
A fair cloth wrought with cunning imagery	C
Of hounds in chase a waxen honey comb	B
Dripping with oozy gold which scarce the bee	C
Had ceased from building a black skin of oil	C
Meet for the wrestlers a great boar the fierce and white tusked spoil	C
	-
Stolen from Artemis that jealous maid	I
To please Athena and the dappled hide	I
Of a tall stag who in some mountain glade	I
Had met the shaft and then the herald cried	I
And from the pillared precinct one by one	N
Went the glad Greeks well pleased that they their simple vows had done	N
	-
And the old priest put out the waning fires	O
Save that one lamp whose restless ruby glowed	I
For ever in the cell and the shrill lyres	O
Came fainter on the wind as down the road	I
In joyous dance these country folk did pass	O
And with stout hands the warder closed the gates of polished brass	O
	-
Long time he lay and hardly dared to breathe	P
And heard the cadenced drip of spilt out wine	Q
And the rose petals falling from the wreath	R
As the night breezes wandered through the shrine	Q
And seemed to be in some entranced swoon	S
Till through the open roof above the full and brimming moon	S
	-
Flooded with sheeny waves the marble floor	T
When from his nook up leapt the venturous lad	I
And flinging wide the cedar carven door	T
Beheld an awful image saffron clad	I
And armed for battle the gaunt Griffin glared	I
From the huge helm and the long lance of wreck and ruin flared	I
	-
Like a red rod of flame stony and steeled	I
The Gorgon's head its leaden eyeballs rolled	I
And writhed its snaky horrors through the shield	I
And gaped aghast with bloodless lips and cold	I
In passion impotent while with blind gaze	O
The blinking owl between the feet hooted in shrill amaze	O
	-
The lonely fisher as he trimmed his lamp	U
Far out at sea off Sunium or cast	I
The net for tunnies heard a brazen tramp	U
Of horses smite the waves and a wild blast	I
Divide the folded curtains of the night	I
And knelt upon the little poop and prayed in holy fright	I
	-
And guilty lovers in their venery	T
Forgat a little while their stolen sweets	O
Deeming they heard dread Dian's bitter cry	T
And the grim watchmen on their lofty seats	O
Ran to their shields in haste precipitate	I
Or strained black bearded throats across the dusky parapet	I
	-
For round the temple rolled the clang of arms	O
And the twelve Gods leapt up in marble fear	T
And the air quaked with dissonant alarums	O
Till huge Poseidon shook his mighty spear	T
And on the frieze the prancing horses neighed	I
And the low tread of hurrying feet rang from the cavalcade	I
	-
Ready for death with parted lips he stood	I
And well content at such a price to see	O
That calm wide brow that terrible maidenhood	I
The marvel of that pitiless chastity	I
Ah well content indeed for never wight	I
Since Troy's young shepherd prince had seen so wonderful a sight	I
	-
Ready for death he stood but lo the air	T
Grew silent and the horses ceased to neigh	V
And off his brow he tossed the clustering hair	T
And from his limbs he throw the cloak away	H
For whom would not such love make desperate	I
And nigher came and touched her throat and with hands violate	I
	-
Undid the cuirass and the crocus gown	W
And bared the breasts of polished ivory	I
Till from the waist the peplos falling down	W
Left visible the secret mystery	I
Which to no lover will Athena show	X
The grand cool flanks the crescent thighs the bossy hills of snow	X
	-
Those who have never known a lover's sin	Y
Let them not read my ditty it will be	I
To their dull ears so musicless and thin	Y
That they will have no joy of it but ye	I
To whose wan cheeks now creeps the lingering smile	C
Ye who have learned who Eros is O listen yet awhile	C
	-
A little space he let his greedy eyes	O
Rest on the burnished image till mere sight	I
Half swooned for surfeit of such luxuries	O
And then his lips in hungering delight	I
Fed on her lips and round the towered neck	Z
He flung his arms nor cared at all his passion's will to check	Z
	-
Never I ween did lover hold such tryst	I
For all night long he murmured honeyed word	I
And saw her sweet unravished limbs and kissed	I
Her pale and argent body undisturbed	I
And paddled with the polished throat and pressed	I
His hot and beating heart upon her chill and icy breast	I
	-
It was as if Numidian javelins	O
Pierced through and through his wild and whirling brain	A2
And his nerves thrilled like throbbing violins	O
In exquisite pulsation and the pain	A2
Was such sweet anguish that he never drew	T
His lips from hers till overhead the lark of warning flew	T
	-
They who have never seen the daylight peer	T
Into a darkened room and drawn the curtain	N
And with dull eyes and wearied from some dear	T
And worshipped body risen they for certain	N
Will never know of what I try to sing	L
How long the last kiss was how fond and late his lingering	L
	-
The moon was girdled with a crystal rim	B2
The sign which shipmen say is ominous	O
Of wrath in heaven the wan stars were dim	B2
And the low lightening east was tremulous	O
With the faint fluttering wings of flying dawn	C2
Ere from the silent sombre shrine his lover had withdrawn	C2
	-
Down the steep rock with hurried feet and fast	I
Clomb the brave lad and reached the cave of Pan	D2
And heard the goat foot snoring as he passed	I
And leapt upon a grassy knoll and ran	D2
Like a young fawn unto an olive wood	I
Which in a shady valley by the well built city stood	I
	-
And sought a little stream which well he knew	T
For oftentimes with boyish careless shout	I
The green and crested grebe he would pursue	T
Or snare in woven net the silver trout	I
And down amid the startled reeds he lay	H
Panting in breathless sweet affright and waited for the day	H
	-
On the green bank he lay and let one hand	I
Dip in the cool dark eddies listlessly	I
And soon the breath of morning came and fanned	I
His hot flushed cheeks or lifted wantonly	I
The tangled curls from off his forehead while	C
He on the running water gazed with strange and secret smile	C
	-
And soon the shepherd in rough woollen cloak	E2
With his long crook undid the wattled cotes	O
And from the stack a thin blue wreath of smoke	E2
Curled through the air across the ripening oats	O
And on the hill the yellow house dog bayed	I
As through the crisp and rustling fern the heavy cattle strayed	I
	-
And when the light foot mower went afield	I
Across the meadows laced with threaded dew	T
And the sheep bleated on the misty weald	T
And from its nest the waking corncrake flew	T
Some woodmen saw him lying by the stream	F2
And marvelled much that any lad so beautiful could seem	F2
	-
Nor deemed him born of mortals and one said	T
'It is young Hylas that false runaway	H
Who with a Naiad now would make his bed	T
Forgetting Herakles ' but others 'Nay	T
It is Narcissus his own paramour	T
Those are the fond and crimson lips no woman can allure '	-
	-
And when they nearer came a third one cried	T
'It is young Dionysos who has hid	T
His spear and fawnskin by the river side	T
Weary of hunting with the Bassarid	T
And wise indeed were we away to fly	T
They live not long who on the gods immortal come to spy '	-
	-
So turned they back and feared to look behind	T
And told the timid swain how they had seen	T
Amid the reeds some woodland god reclined	T
And no man dared to cross the open green	T
And on that day no olive tree was slain	T
Nor rushes cut but all deserted was the fair domain	T
	-
Save when the neat herd's lad his empty pail	C
Well slung upon his back with leap and bound	T
Raced on the other side and stopped to hail	C
Hoping that he some comrade new had found	T
And gat no answer and then half afraid	T
Passed on his simple way or down the still and silent glade	T
	-
A little girl ran laughing from the farm	G2
Not thinking of love's secret mysteries	O
And when she saw the white and gleaming arm	G2
And all his manlihood with longing eyes	O
Whose passion mocked her sweet virginity	T
Watched him awhile and then stole back sadly and wearily	T
	-
Far off he heard the city's hum and noise	O
And now and then the shriller laughter where	T
The passionate purity of brown limbed boys	O
Wrestled or raced in the clear healthful air	T
And now and then a little tinkling bell	C
As the shorn wether led the sheep down to the mossy well	C
	-
Through the grey willows danced the fretful gnat	T
The grasshopper chirped idly from the tree	T
In sleek and oily coat the water rat	T
Breasting the little ripples manfully	T
Made for the wild duck's nest from bough to bough	H2
Hopped the shy finch and the huge tortoise crept across the slough	V
	-
On the faint wind floated the silky seeds	O
As the bright scythe swept through the waving grass	O
The ouzel cock splashed circles in the reeds	O
And flecked with silver whorls the forest's glass	O
Which scarce had caught again its imagery	T
Ere from its bed the dusky tench leapt at the dragon fly	T
	-
But little care had he for any thing	L
Though up and down the beech the squirrel played	T
And from the copse the linnet 'gan to sing	L
To its brown mate its sweetest serenade	T
Ah little care indeed for he had seen	T
The breasts of Pallas and the naked wonder of the Queen	T
	-
But when the herdsman called his straggling goats	O
With whistling pipe across the rocky road	T
And the shard beetle with its trumpet notes	O
Boomed through the darkening woods and seemed to bode	T
Of coming storm and the belated crane	T
Passed homeward like a shadow and the dull big drops of rain	T
	-
Fell on the pattering fig leaves up he rose	O
And from the gloomy forest went his way	H
Past sombre homestead and wet orchard close	O
And came at last unto a little quay	T
And called his mates aboard and took his seat	T
On the high poop and pushed from land and loosed the dripping sheet	T
	-
And steered across the bay and when nine suns	O
Passed down the long and laddered way of gold	T
And nine pale moons had breathed their orisons	O
To the chaste stars their confessors or told	T
Their dearest secret to the downy moth	I2
That will not fly at noonday through the foam and surging froth	I2
	-
Came a great owl with yellow sulphurous eyes	O
And lit upon the ship whose timbers creaked	T
As though the lading of three argosies	O
Were in the hold and flapped its wings and shrieked	T
And darkness straightway stole across the deep	J2
Sheathed was Orion's sword dread Mars himself fled down the steep	J2
	-
And the moon hid behind a tawny mask	K2
Of drifting cloud and from the ocean's marge	L2
Rose the red plume the huge and horned casque	K2
The seven cubit spear the brazen targe	L2
And clad in bright and burnished panoply	T
Athena strode across the stretch of sick and shivering sea	T
	-
To the dull sailors' sight her loosened looks	O
Seemed like the jagged storm rack and her feet	T
Only the spume that floats on hidden rocks	O
And marking how the rising waters beat	T
Against the rolling ship the pilot cried	T
To the young helmsman at the stern to luff to windward side	T
	-
But he the overbold adulterer	T
A dear profaner of great mysteries	O
An ardent amorous idolater	T
When he beheld those grand relentless eyes	O
Laughed loud for joy and crying out 'I come'	G2
Leapt from the lofty poop into the chill and churning foam	G2
	-
Then fell from the high heaven one bright star	T
One dancer left the circling galaxy	T
And back to Athens on her clattering car	T
In all the pride of venged divinity	T
Pale Pallas swept with shrill and steely clank	K2
And a few gurgling bubbles rose where her boy lover sank	K2
	-
And the mast shuddered as the gaunt owl flew	T
With mocking hoots after the wrathful Queen	T
And the old pilot bade the trembling crew	T
Hoist the big sail and told how he had seen	T
Close to the stern a dim and giant form	G2
And like a dipping swallow the stout ship dashed through the storm	G2
	-
And no man dared to speak of Charmides	T
Deeming that he some evil thing had wrought	T
And when they reached the strait Symplegades	T
They beached their galley on the shore and sought	T
The toll gate of the city hastily	T
And in the market showed their brown and pictured pottery	T
	-
	-
II	A
	-
	-
But some good Triton god had ruth and bare	T
The boy's drowned body back to Grecian land	T
And mermaids combed his dank and dripping hair	T
And smoothed his brow and loosed his clenching hand	T
Some brought sweet spices from far Araby	H2
And others bade the halcyon sing her softest lullaby	H2
	-
And when he neared his old Athenian home	G2
A mighty billow rose up suddenly	T
Upon whose oily back the clotted foam	G2
Lay diapered in some strange fantasy	T
And clasping him unto its glassy breast	T
Swept landward like a white maned steed upon a venturous quest	T
	-
Now where Colonos leans unto the sea	T
There lies a long and level stretch of lawn	T
The rabbit knows it and the mountain bee	T
For it deserts Hymettus and the Faun	T
Is not afraid for never through the day	H
Comes a cry ruder than the shout of shepherd lads at play	H
	-
But often from the thorny labyrinth	M2
And tangled branches of the circling wood	T
The stealthy hunter sees young Hyacinth	M2
Hurling the polished disk and draws his hood	T
Over his guilty gaze and creeps away	H
Nor dares to wind his horn or else at the first break of day	H
	-
The Dryads come and throw the leathern ball	C
Along the reedy shore and circumvent	T
Some goat eared Pan to be their seneschal	C
For fear of bold Poseidon's ravishment	T
And loose their girdles with shy timorous eyes	T
Lest from the surf his azure arms and purple beard should rise	T
	-
On this side and on that a rocky cave	V
Hung with the yellow belled laburnum stands	T
Smooth is the beach save where some ebbing wave	V
Leaves its faint outline etched upon the sands	T
As though it feared to be too soon forgot	T
By the green rush its playfellow and yet it is a spot	T
	-
So small that the inconstant butterfly	C
Could steal the hoarded money from each flower	T
Ere it was noon and still not satisfy	C
Its over greedy love within an hour	T
A sailor boy were he but rude enow	T
To land and pluck a garland for his galley's painted prow	T
	-
Would almost leave the little meadow bare	T
For it knows nothing of great pageantry	T
Only a few narcissi here and there	T
Stand separate in sweet austerity	T
Dotting the unmown grass with silver stars	T
And here and there a daffodil waves tiny scimitars	T
	-
Hither the billow brought him and was glad	T
Of such dear servitude and where the land	T
Was virgin of all waters laid the lad	T
Upon the golden margent of the strand	T
And like a lingering lover oft returned	T
To kiss those pallid limbs which once with intense fire burned	T
	-
Ere the wet seas had quenched that holocaust	T
That self fed flame that passionate lustihead	T
Ere grisly death with chill and nipping frost	T
Had withered up those lilies white and red	T
Which while the boy would through the forest range	L2
Answered each other in a sweet antiphonal counter change	L2
	-
And when at dawn the wood nymphs hand in hand	T
Threaded the bosky dell their satyr spied	T
The boy's pale body stretched upon the sand	T
And feared Poseidon's treachery and cried	T
And like bright sunbeams flitting through a glade	T
Each startled Dryad sought some safe and leafy ambuscade	T
	-
Save one white girl who deemed it would not be	T
So dread a thing to feel a sea god's arms	T
Crushing her breasts in amorous tyranny	T
And longed to listen to those subtle charms	T
Insidious lovers weave when they would win	T
Some fenced fortress and stole back again nor thought it sin	T
	-
To yield her treasure unto one so fair	T
And lay beside him thirsty with love's drouth	M2
Called him soft names played with his tangled hair	T
And with hot lips made havoc of his mouth	M2
Afraid he might not wake and then afraid	T
Lest he might wake too soon fled back and then fond renegade	T
	-
Returned to fresh assault and all day long	K2
Sat at his side and laughed at her new toy	T
And held his hand and sang her sweetest song	K2
Then frowned to see how froward was the boy	T
Who would not with her maidenhood entwine	T
Nor knew that three days since his eyes had looked on Proserpine	T
	-
Nor knew what sacrilege his lips had done	T
But said 'He will awake I know him well	C
He will awake at evening when the sun	T
Hangs his red shield on Corinth's citadel	C
This sleep is but a cruel treachery	T
To make me love him more and in some cavern of the sea	T
	-
Deeper than ever falls the fisher's line	T
Already a huge Triton blows his horn	T
And weaves a garland from the crystalline	T
And drifting ocean tendrils to adorn	T
The emerald pillars of our bridal bed	T
For sphered in foaming silver and with coral crowned head	T
	-
We two will sit upon a throne of pearl	C
And a blue wave will be our canopy	T
And at our feet the water snakes will curl	C
In all their amethystine panoply	T
Of diamonded mail and we will mark	K2
The mullets swimming by the mast of some storm foundered bark	K2
	-
Vermilion finned with eyes of bossy gold	T
Like flakes of crimson light and the great deep	J2
His glassy portaled chamber will unfold	T
And we will see the painted dolphins sleep	J2
Cradled by murmuring halcyons on the rocks	T
Where Proteus in quaint suit of green pastures his monstrous flocks	T
	-
And tremulous opal hued anemones	T
Will wave their purple fringes where we tread	T
Upon the mirrored floor and argosies	T
Of fishes flecked with tawny scales will thread	T
The drifting cordage of the shattered wreck	K2
And honey coloured amber beads our twining limbs will deck '	-
	-
But when that baffled Lord of War the Sun	T
With gaudy pennon flying passed away	H
Into his brazen House and one by one	T
The little yellow stars began to stray	H
Across the field of heaven ah then indeed	T
She feared his lips upon her lips would never care to feed	T
	-
And cried 'Awake already the pale moon	T
Washes the trees with silver and the wave	V
Creeps grey and chilly up this sandy dune	T
The croaking frogs are out and from the cave	V
The nightjar shrieks the fluttering bats repass	T
And the brown stoat with hollow flanks creeps through the dusky grass	T
	-
Nay though thou art a god be not so coy	T
For in yon stream there is a little reed	T
That often whispers how a lovely boy	T
Lay with her once upon a grassy mead	T
Who when his cruel pleasure he had done	T
Spread wings of rustling gold and soared aloft into the sun	T
	-
Be not so coy the laurel trembles still	C
With great Apollo's kisses and the fir	T
Whose clustering sisters fringe the seaward hill	C
Hath many a tale of that bold ravisher	T
Whom men call Boreas and I have seen	T
The mocking eyes of Hermes through the poplar's silvery sheen	T
	-
Even the jealous Naiads call me fair	T
And every morn a young and ruddy swain	T
Woos me with apples and with locks of hair	T
And seeks to soothe my virginal disdain	T
By all the gifts the gentle wood nymphs love	V
But yesterday he brought to me an iris plumaged dove	V
	-
With little crimson feet which with its store	T
Of seven spotted eggs the cruel lad	T
Had stolen from the lofty sycamore	T
At daybreak when her amorous comrade had	T
Flown off in search of berried juniper	T
Which most they love the fretful wasp that earliest vintager	T
	-
Of the blue grapes hath not persistency	T
So constant as this simple shepherd boy	T
For my poor lips his joyous purity	T
And laughing sunny eyes might well decoy	T
A Dryad from her oath to Artemis	T
For very beautiful is he his mouth was made to kiss	T
	-
His argent forehead like a rising moon	T
Over the dusky hills of meeting brows	T
Is crescent shaped the hot and Tyrian noon	T
Leads from the myrtle grove no goodlier spouse	T
For Cytheraea the first silky down	T
Fringes his blushing cheeks and his young limbs are strong and brown	T
	-
And he is rich and fat and fleecy herds	T
Of bleating sheep upon his meadows lie	C
And many an earthen bowl of yellow curds	T
Is in his homestead for the thievish fly	C
To swim and drown in the pink clover mead	T
Keeps its sweet store for him and he can pipe on oaten reed	T
	-
And yet I love him not it was for thee	T
I kept my love I knew that thou would'st come	G2
To rid me of this pallid chastity	T
Thou fairest flower of the flowerless foam	G2
Of all the wide AEgean brightest star	T
Of ocean's azure heavens where the mirrored planets are	T
	-
I knew that thou would'st come for when at first	T
The dry wood burgeoned and the sap of spring	K2
Swelled in my green and tender bark or burst	T
To myriad multitudinous blossoming	K2
Which mocked the midnight with its mimic moons	T
That did not dread the dawn and first the thrushes' rapturous tunes	T
	-
Startled the squirrel from its granary	T
And cuckoo flowers fringed the narrow lane	T
Through my young leaves a sensuous ecstasy	T
Crept like new wine and every mossy vein	T
Throbbed with the fitful pulse of amorous blood	T
And the wild winds of passion shook my slim stem's maidenhood	T
	-
The trooping fawns at evening came and laid	T
Their cool black noses on my lowest boughs	T
And on my topmost branch the blackbird made	T
A little nest of grasses for his spouse	T
And now and then a twittering wren would light	T
On a thin twig which hardly bare the weight of such delight	T
	-
I was the Attic shepherd's trysting place	T
Beneath my shadow Amaryllis lay	H
And round my trunk would laughing Daphnis chase	T
The timorous girl till tired out with play	H
She felt his hot breath stir her tangled hair	T
And turned and looked and fled no more from such delightful snare	T
	-
Then come away unto my ambuscade	T
Where clustering woodbine weaves a canopy	T
For amorous pleasaunce and the rustling shade	T
Of Paphian myrtles seems to sanctify	C
The dearest rites of love there in the cool	C
And green recesses of its farthest depth there is pool	C
	-
The ouzel's haunt the wild bee's pasturage	L2
For round its rim great creamy lilies float	T
Through their flat leaves in verdant anchorage	L2
Each cup a white sailed golden laden boat	T
Steered by a dragon fly be not afraid	T
To leave this wan and wave kissed shore surely the place was made	T
	-
For lovers such as we the Cyprian Queen	T
One arm around her boyish paramour	T
Strays often there at eve and I have seen	T
The moon strip off her misty vestiture	T
For young Endymion's eyes be not afraid	T
The panther feet of Dian never tread that secret glade	T
	-
Nay if thou will'st back to the beating brine	T
Back to the boisterous billow let us go	K2
And walk all day beneath the hyaline	T
Huge vault of Neptune's watery portico	K2
And watch the purple monsters of the deep	J2
Sport in ungainly play and from his lair keen Xiphias leap	J2
	-
For if my mistress find me lying here	T
She will not ruth or gentle pity show	K2
But lay her boar spear down and with austere	T
Relentless fingers string the cornel bow	T
And draw the feathered notch against her breast	T
And loose the arched cord aye even now upon the quest	T
	-
I hear her hurrying feet awake awake	K2
Thou laggard in love's battle once at least	T
Let me drink deep of passion's wine and slake	K2
My parched being with the nectarous feast	T
Which even gods affect O come Love come	G2
Still we have time to reach the cavern of thine azure home '	-
	-
Scarce had she spoken when the shuddering trees	T
Shook and the leaves divided and the air	T
Grew conscious of a god and the grey seas	T
Crawled backward and a long and dismal blare	T
Blew from some tasselled horn a sleuth hound bayed	T
And like a flame a barbed reed flew whizzing down the glade	T
	-
And where the little flowers of her breast	T
Just brake into their milky blossoming	K2
This murderous paramour this unbidden guest	T
Pierced and struck deep in horrid chambering	K2
And ploughed a bloody furrow with its dart	T
And dug a long red road and cleft with winged death her heart	T
	-
Sobbing her life out with a bitter cry	T
On the boy's body fell the Dryad maid	T
Sobbing for incomplete virginity	T
And raptures unenjoyed and pleasures dead	T
And all the pain of things unsatisfied	T
And the bright drops of crimson youth crept down her throbbing side	T
	-
Ah pitiful it was to hear her moan	T
And very pitiful to see her die	T
Ere she had yielded up her sweets or known	T
The joy of passion that dread mystery	T
Which not to know is not to live at all	C
And yet to know is to be held in death's most deadly thrall	C
	-
But as it hapt the Queen of Cythere	T
Who with Adonis all night long had lain	T
Within some shepherd's hut in Arcady	T
On team of silver doves and gilded wain	T
Was journeying Paphos ward high up afar	T
From mortal ken between the mountains and the morning star	T
	-
And when low down she spied the hapless pair	T
And heard the Oread's faint despairing cry	T
Whose cadence seemed to play upon the air	T
As though it were a viol hastily	T
She bade her pigeons fold each straining plume	G2
And dropt to earth and reached the strand and saw their dolorous doom	G2
	-
For as a gardener turning back his head	T
To catch the last notes of the linnet mows	T
With careless scythe too near some flower bed	T
And cuts the thorny pillar of the rose	T
And with the flower's loosened loneliness	T
Strews the brown mould or as some shepherd lad in wantonness	T
	-
Driving his little flock along the mead	T
Treads down two daffodils which side by aide	T
Have lured the lady bird with yellow brede	T
And made the gaudy moth forget its pride	T
Treads down their brimming golden chalices	T
Under light feet which were not made for such rude ravages	T
	-
Or as a schoolboy tired of his book	K2
Flings himself down upon the reedy grass	T
And plucks two water lilies from the brook	K2
And for a time forgets the hour glass	T
Then wearies of their sweets and goes his way	H
And lets the hot sun kill them even go these lovers lay	H
	-
And Venus cried 'It is dread Artemis	T
Whose bitter hand hath wrought this cruelty	T
Or else that mightier maid whose care it is	T
To guard her strong and stainless majesty	T
Upon the hill Athenian alas	T
That they who loved so well unloved into Death's house should pass '	-
	-
So with soft hands she laid the boy and girl	C
In the great golden waggon tenderly	T
Her white throat whiter than a moony pearl	C
Just threaded with a blue vein's tapestry	T
Had not yet ceased to throb and still her breast	T
Swayed like a wind stirred lily in ambiguous unrest	T
	-
And then each pigeon spread its milky van	T
The bright car soared into the dawning sky	T
And like a cloud the aerial caravan	T
Passed over the AEgean silently	T
Till the faint air was troubled with the song	K2
From the wan mouths that call on bleeding Thammuz all night long	K2
	-
But when the doves had reached their wonted goal	C
Where the wide stair of orbed marble dips	T
Its snows into the sea her fluttering soul	C
Just shook the trembling petals of her lips	T
And passed into the void and Venus knew	T
That one fair maid the less would walk amid her retinue	T
	-
And bade her servants carve a cedar chest	T
With all the wonder of this history	T
Within whose scented womb their limbs should rest	T
Where olive trees make tender the blue sky	T
On the low hills of Paphos and the Faun	T
Pipes in the noonday and the nightingale sings on till dawn	T
	-
Nor failed they to obey her hest and ere	T
The morning bee had stung the daffodil	C
With tiny fretful spear or from its lair	T
The waking stag had leapt across the rill	C
And roused the ouzel or the lizard crept	T
Athwart the sunny rock beneath the grass their bodies slept	T
	-
And when day brake within that silver shrine	T
Fed by the flames of cressets tremulous	T
Queen Venus knelt and prayed to Proserpine	T
That she whose beauty made Death amorous	T
Should beg a guerdon from her pallid Lord	T
And let Desire pass across dread Charon's icy ford	T
	-
	-
III	A
	-
	-
In melancholy moonless Acheron	T
Farm for the goodly earth and joyous day	H
Where no spring ever buds nor ripening sun	T
Weighs down the apple trees nor flowery May	H
Chequers with chestnut blooms the grassy floor	T
Where thrushes never sing and piping linnets mate no more	T
	-
There by a dim and dark Lethaean well	C
Young Charmides was lying wearily	T
He plucked the blossoms from the asphodel	T
And with its little rifled treasury	T
Strewed the dull waters of the dusky stream	G2
And watched the white stars founder and the land was like a dream	G2
	-
When as he gazed into the watery glass	T
And through his brown hair's curly tangles scanned	T
His own wan face a shadow seemed to pass	T
Across the mirror and a little hand	T
Stole into his and warm lips timidly	T
Brushed his pale cheeks and breathed their secret forth into a sigh	T
	-
Then turned he round his weary eyes and saw	T
And ever nigher still their faces came	G2
And nigher ever did their young mouths draw	T
Until they seemed one perfect rose of flame	G2
And longing arms around her neck he cast	T
And felt her throbbing bosom and his breath came hot and fast	T
	-
And all his hoarded sweets were hers to kiss	T
And all her maidenhood was his to slay	T
And limb to limb in long and rapturous bliss	T
Their passion waxed and waned O why essay	T
To pipe again of love too venturous reed	T
Enough enough that Eros laughed upon that flowerless mead	T
	-
Too venturous poesy O why essay	T
To pipe again of passion fold thy wings	T
O'er daring Icarus and bid thy lay	T
Sleep hidden in the lyre's silent strings	T
Till thou hast found the old Castalian rill	T
Or from the Lesbian waters plucked drowned Sappho's golden quid	T
	-
Enough enough that he whose life had been	T
A fiery pulse of sin a splendid shame	G2
Could in the loveless land of Hades glean	T
One scorching harvest from those fields of flame	G2
Where passion walks with naked unshod feet	T
And is not wounded ah enough that once their lips could meet	T
	-
In that wild throb when all existences	T
Seemed narrowed to one single ecstasy	T
Which dies through its own sweetness and the stress	T
Of too much pleasure ere Persephone	T
Had bade them serve her by the ebon throne	T
Of the pale God who in the fields of Enna loosed her zone	T

Oscar Fingal O'flahertie Wills Wilde

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