Page:Dublin University Review vol 1 pt 1.pdf/119

, 1885.] Away in the green paradise,

As I wandered unseen,

(How glad was her mien!),

I saw her as you now arise;

Before her I trod

O'er the green Eden-sod,

And I sang round the tree,

As I sing now to thee:

From the shadowy hollow

Come follow! Come follow! [goes.

[The Voice sings, dying away.]

And I sang round the tree,

As I sing now to thee:

From the green shaded hollow

Arise, worm, and follow!

Antonio. I, too, will follow for this evil-starred one's sake

Unto the dolorous border of the fairy lake. [Goes.

First Voice. See! oh, see! the dew-drowned bunches

Of the monk's-hood how they shake,

Nodding by the flickering lake,

There where yonder squirrel crunches

Acorns green, with eyes awake.

Second Voice. I followed him from my green lair,

But wide awake his two eyes were.

First Voice. Oh, learnèd is each monk's-hood's mind,

And full of wisdom is each bloom,

As, clothed in ceremonial gloom,

They hear the story of the wind,

That dieth slow with sunsick doom.

Second Voice. The south breeze now in dying fears

Tells all his sinning in their ears.

First Voice. He says 'twas he, and 'twas no other,

Blew my crimson cap away

O'er the lake this very day.

Hark! he's dead—my drowsy brother,

And has not heard Absolvo te. [A pause. First Voice. Peace, peace, the earth's a-quake. I hear

Some barbarous, un-faery thing draw near.

Almintor. The evening gleams are green and gold and red

Along the lake. The crane has homeward fled.

And flowers around in clustering thousands are,

Each shining clear as some unbaffled star;

The skies more dim, though burning like a shield,

Above these men whose mouths were sealed

Long years ago, and unto stone congealed.

And, oh! the wonder of the thing! each came

When low the sun sank down in clotted flame

Beyond the lake, whose smallest wave was burdened

With rolling fire, beyond the high trees turbaned

With clinging mist, each star-fought wanderer came

As I, to choose beneath day's dying flame;

And they are all now stone, as I shall be,

Unless some pitying god shall succour me

In this my choice. [Stoops over a flower, then pauses. Some god might help; if so

Mayhap 'twere better that aside I throw

All choice, and give to chance for guiding chance

Some cast of die, or let some arrow glance

For guiding of the gods. The sacred bloom

To seek not hopeless have I crossed the gloom,

With that song leading where harmonic woods

Nourish the panthers in dim solitudes;

Vast greenness, where eternal Rumour dwells,

And hath her home by many-folded dells.

I passed by many caves of dripping stone,

And heard each unseen Echo on her throne,

Lone regent of the woods, deep muttering,

And then new murmurs came new uttering

In song, from goblin waters swaying white,

Mocking with patient laughter all the night

Of those vast woods; and then I saw the boat,

Living, wide wingèd, on the waters float.

Strange draperies did all the sides adorn,

And the waves bowed before it like mown corn,

The wingèd wonder of all Faery Land.

It bore me softly where the shallow sand

Binds, as within a girdle or a ring,

The lake-embosomed isle. Nay, this my quest

Shall not so hopeless prove: some god may rest

Upon the wind, and guide mine arrow's course.

From yonder pinnacle above the lake.

I'll send mine arrow, now my one resource;

The nighest blossom where it falls I'll take. [Goes out, fitting an arrow to his bow.

A Voice. Fickle the guiding his arrow shall find!

Some goblin, my servant, on wings that are fleet,

That nestles alone in the whistling wind,

Go pilot the course of his arrow's deceit!

[The arrow falls. Re-enter.

Almintor. 'Tis here the arrow fell: the breezes laughed

Around the feathery tip. Unto the shaft