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Document Title: Poems (1870): Fourth Edition
Author: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date of publication: 1870 July (or early August)
Publisher: F. S. Ellis
Printer: Strangeways and Walden
Edition: 4
Issue: 1

The full Rossetti Archive record for this transcribed document is available.

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more about this work
NEW AND RE-ARRANGED EDITION OF

MR. D. G. ROSSETTI's

“EARLY ITALIAN POETS.”


In the Press, 2 vols. crown 8 vo.

DANTE AND HIS CIRCLE;

WITH THE

ITALIAN POETS BEFORE DANTE.

TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI .
In this Work, the “Vita Nuova,” (the autobiography of

Dante's early life and love,) together with the many among

his own lyrics and among those of contemporary poets

which elucidate their intimate personal relations, are

gathered together and brought into clear connexion for

the first time. No similarly exhaustive treatment has yet

been bestowed on these most interesting materials by the

Italian or even by the German editors.
LONDON:

F. S. ELLIS, 33 KING STREET,

COVENT GARDEN .
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POEMS



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POEMS



BY

DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI.

FOURTH EDITION.

LONDON:

F.S. ELLIS, 33 KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

1870.

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TO

WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI,

THESE POEMS,

TO SO MANY OF WHICH, SO MANY YEARS BACK,

HE GAVE THE FIRST BROTHERLY HEARING,

ARE NOW AT LAST DEDICATED.
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CONTENTS.
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[Many poems in this volume were written between

1847 and 1853. Others are of recent date, and a few belong

to the intervening period. It has been thought unnecessary

to specify the earlier work, as nothing is included which the

author believes to be immature.]
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more about Poems
POEMS.
more about The Blessed Damozel.
Sig. B
THE BLESSED DAMOZEL.
  • The blessed damozel leaned out
  • From the gold bar of Heaven;
  • Her eyes were deeper than the depth
  • Of waters stilled at even;
  • She had three lilies in her hand,
  • And the stars in her hair were seven.
  • Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem,
  • No wrought flowers did adorn,
  • But a white rose of Mary's gift,
  • 10 For service meetly worn;
  • Her hair that lay along her back
  • Was yellow like ripe corn.
  • Herseemed she scarce had been a day
  • One of God's choristers;
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  • The wonder was not yet quite gone
  • From that still look of hers;
  • Albeit, to them she left, her day
  • Had counted as ten years.
  • (To one, it is ten years of years.
  • 20 . . . Yet now, and in this place,
  • Surely she leaned o'er me—her hair
  • Fell all about my face. . . .
  • Nothing: the autumn fall of leaves.
  • The whole year sets apace.)
  • It was the rampart of God's house
  • That she was standing on;
  • By God built over the sheer depth
  • The which is Space begun;
  • So high, that looking downward thence
  • 30 She scarce could see the sun.
  • It lies in Heaven, across the flood
  • Of ether, as a bridge.
  • Beneath, the tides of day and night
  • With flame and darkness ridge
  • The void, as low as where this earth
  • Spins like a fretful midge.
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  • Heard hardly, some of her new friends
  • Amid their loving games
  • Spake evermore among themselves
  • 40 Their virginal chaste names;
  • And the souls mounting up to God
  • Went by her like thin flames.
  • And still she bowed herself and stooped
  • Out of the circling charm;
  • Until her bosom must have made
  • The bar she leaned on warm,
  • And the lilies lay as if asleep
  • Along her bended arm.
  • From the fixed place of Heaven she saw
  • 50 Time like a pulse shake fierce
  • Through all the worlds. Her gaze still strove
  • Within the gulf to pierce
  • Its path; and now she spoke as when
  • The stars sang in their spheres.
  • The sun was gone now; the curled moon
  • Was like a little feather
  • Fluttering far down the gulf; and now
  • She spoke through the still weather.
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  • Her voice was like the voice the stars
  • 60 Had when they sang together.
  • (Ah sweet! Even now, in that bird's song,
  • Strove not her accents there,
  • Fain to be hearkened? When those bells
  • Possessed the mid-day air,
  • Strove not her steps to reach my side
  • Down all the echoing stair?)
  • ‘I wish that he were come to me,
  • For he will come,’ she said.
  • ‘Have I not prayed in Heaven?—on earth,
  • 70 Lord, Lord, has he not pray'd?
  • Are not two prayers a perfect strength?
  • And shall I feel afraid?
  • ‘When round his head the aureole clings,
  • And he is clothed in white,
  • I'll take his hand and go with him
  • To the deep wells of light;
  • We will step down as to a stream,
  • And bathe there in God's sight.
  • ‘We two will stand beside that shrine,
  • 80 Occult, withheld, untrod,
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  • Whose lamps are stirred continually
  • With prayer sent up to God;
  • And see our old prayers, granted, melt
  • Each like a little cloud.
  • ‘We two will lie i’the shadow of
  • That living mystic tree
  • Within whose secret growth the Dove
  • Is sometimes felt to be,
  • While every leaf that His plumes touch
  • 90 Saith His Name audibly.
  • ‘And I myself will teach to him,
  • I myself, lying so,
  • The songs I sing here; which his voice
  • Shall pause in, hushed and slow,
  • And find some knowledge at each pause,
  • Or some new thing to know.’
  • (Alas! We two, we two, thou say'st!
  • Yea, one wast thou with me
  • That once of old. But shall God lift
  • 100 To endless unity
  • The soul whose likeness with thy soul
  • Was but its love for thee?)
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  • ‘We two,’ she said, ‘will seek the groves
  • Where the lady Mary is,
  • With her five handmaidens, whose names
  • Are five sweet symphonies,
  • Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,
  • Margaret and Rosalys.
  • ‘Circlewise sit they, with bound locks
  • 110 And foreheads garlanded;
  • Into the fine cloth white like flame
  • Weaving the golden thread,
  • To fashion the birth-robes for them
  • Who are just born, being dead.
  • ‘He shall fear, haply, and be dumb:
  • Then will I lay my cheek
  • To his, and tell about our love,
  • Not once abashed or weak:
  • And the dear Mother will approve
  • 120 My pride, and let me speak.
  • ‘Herself shall bring us, hand in hand,
  • To Him round whom all souls
  • Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumbered heads
  • Bowed with their aureoles:
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  • And angels meeting us shall sing
  • To their citherns and citoles.
  • ‘There will I ask of Christ the Lord
  • Thus much for him and me:—
  • Only to live as once on earth
  • 130 With Love,—only to be,
  • As then awhile, for ever now
  • Together, I and he.’
  • She gazed and listened and then said,
  • Less sad of speech than mild,—
  • ‘All this is when he comes.’ She ceased
  • The light thrilled towards her, fill’d
  • With angels in strong level flight.
  • Her eyes prayed, and she smil’d.
  • (I saw her smile.) But soon their path
  • 140 Was vague in distant spheres:
  • And then she cast her arms along
  • The golden barriers,
  • And laid her face between her hands,
  • And wept. (I heard her tears.)
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more about Love's Nocturne.
LOVE’S NOCTURN.
  • Master of the murmuring courts
  • Where the shapes of sleep convene!—
  • Lo! my spirit here exhorts
  • All the powers of thy demesne
  • For their aid to woo my queen.
  • What reports
  • Yield thy jealous courts unseen?
  • Vaporous, unaccountable,
  • Dreamland lies forlorn of light,
  • 10Hollow like a breathing shell.
  • Ah! that from all dreams I might
  • Choose one dream and guide its flight!
  • I know well
  • What her sleep should tell to-night.
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  • There the dreams are multitudes:
  • Some whose buoyance waits not sleep,
  • Deep within the August woods;
  • Some that hum while rest may steep
  • Weary labour laid a-heap;
  • 20 Interludes,
  • Some, of grievous moods that weep.
  • Poets’ fancies all are there:
  • There the elf-girls flood with wings
  • Valleys full of plaintive air;
  • There breathe perfumes; there in rings
  • Whirl the foam-bewildered springs;
  • Siren there
  • Winds her dizzy hair and sings.
  • Thence the one dream mutually
  • 30 Dreamed in bridal unison,
  • Less than waking ecstasy;
  • Half-formed visions that make moan
  • In the house of birth alone;
  • And what we
  • At death’s wicket see, unknown.
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  • But for mine own sleep, it lies
  • In one gracious form’s control,
  • Fair with honorable eyes,
  • Lamps of an auspicious soul:
  • 40 O their glance is loftiest dole,
  • Sweet and wise,
  • Wherein Love descries his goal.
  • Reft of her, my dreams are all
  • Clammy trance that fears the sky:
  • Changing footpaths shift and fall;
  • From polluted coverts nigh,
  • Miserable phantoms sigh;
  • Quakes the pall,
  • And the funeral goes by.
  • 50Master, is it soothly said
  • That, as echoes of man’s speech
  • Far in secret clefts are made,
  • So do all men’s bodies reach
  • Shadows o’er thy sunken beach,—
  • Shape or shade
  • In those halls pourtrayed of each?
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  • Ah! might I, by thy good grace
  • Groping in the windy stair,
  • (Darkness and the breath of space
  • 60 Like loud waters everywhere,)
  • Meeting mine own image there
  • Face to face,
  • Send it from that place to her!
  • Nay, not I; but oh! do thou,
  • Master, from thy shadowkind
  • Call my body’s phantom now:
  • Bid it bear its face declin’d
  • Till its flight her slumbers find,
  • And her brow
  • 70Feel its presence bow like wind.
  • Where in groves the gracile Spring
  • Trembles, with mute orison
  • Confidently strengthening,
  • Water’s voice and wind’s as one
  • Shed an echo in the sun.
  • Soft as Spring,
  • Master, bid it sing and moan.
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  • Song shall tell how glad and strong
  • Is the night she soothes alway;
  • 80Moan shall grieve with that parched tongue
  • Of the brazen hours of day:
  • Sounds as of the springtide they,
  • Moan and song,
  • While the chill months long for May.
  • Not the prayers which with all leave
  • The world’s fluent woes prefer,—
  • Not the praise the world doth give,
  • Dulcet fulsome whisperer;—
  • Let it yield my love to her,
  • 90 And achieve
  • Strength that shall not grieve or err.
  • Wheresoe’er my dreams befall,
  • Both at night-watch, (let it say,)
  • And where round the sundial
  • The reluctant hours of day,
  • Heartless, hopeless of their way,
  • Rest and call;—
  • There her glance doth fall and stay.
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  • Suddenly her face is there:
  • 100 So do mounting vapours wreathe
  • Subtle-scented transports where
  • The black firwood sets its teeth.
  • Part the boughs and look beneath,—
  • Lilies share
  • Secret waters there, and breathe.
  • Master, bid my shadow bend
  • Whispering thus till birth of light,
  • Lest new shapes that sleep may send
  • Scatter all its work to flight;—
  • 110 Master, master of the night,
  • Bid it spend
  • Speech, song, prayer, and end aright.
  • Yet, ah me! if at her head
  • There another phantom lean
  • Murmuring o’er the fragrant bed,—
  • Ah! and if my spirit’s queen
  • Smile those alien words between,—
  • Ah! poor shade!
  • Shall it strive, or fade unseen?
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  • 120How should love’s own messenger
  • Strive with love and be love’s foe?
  • Master, nay! If thus, in her,
  • Sleep a wedded heart should show,—
  • Silent let mine image go,
  • Its old share
  • Of thy spell-bound air to know.
  • Like a vapour wan and mute,
  • Like a flame, so let it pass;
  • One low sigh across her lute,
  • 130 One dull breath against her glass;
  • And to my sad soul, alas!
  • One salute
  • Cold as when death’s foot shall pass.
  • Then, too, let all hopes of mine,
  • All vain hopes by night and day,
  • Slowly at thy summoning sign
  • Rise up pallid and obey.
  • Dreams, if this is thus, were they:—
  • Be they thine,
  • 140 And to dreamland pine away.
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  • Yet from old time, life, not death,
  • Master, in thy rule is rife:
  • Lo! through thee, with mingling breath,
  • Adam woke beside his wife.
  • O Love bring me so, for strife,
  • Force and faith,
  • Bring me so not death but life!
  • Yea, to Love himself is pour’d
  • This frail song of hope and fear.
  • 150Thou art Love, of one accord
  • With kind Sleep to bring her near,
  • Still-eyed, deep-eyed, ah how dear!
  • Master, Lord,
  • In her name implor’d, O hear!
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more about Troy Town.
TROY TOWN.
  • Heavenborn Helen, Sparta’s queen,
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • Had two breasts of heavenly sheen,
  • The sun and moon of the heart’s desire:
  • All Love’s lordship lay between.
  • ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
  • Helen knelt at Venus’ shrine,
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • 10Saying, ‘A little gift is mine,
  • A little gift for a heart’s desire.
  • Hear me speak and make me a sign!
  • ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
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Sig. C
  • ‘Look, I bring thee a carven cup;
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • See it here as I hold it up,—
  • Shaped it is to the heart’s desire,
  • Fit to fill when the gods would sup.
  • 20 ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
  • ‘It was moulded like my breast;
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • He that sees it may not rest,
  • Rest at all for his heart’s desire.
  • O give ear to my heart’s behest!
  • ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
  • ‘See my breast, how like it is;
  • 30 ( O Troy Town!)
  • See it bare for the air to kiss!
  • Is the cup to thy heart’s desire?
  • O for the breast, O make it his!
  • ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
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  • ‘Yea, for my bosom here I sue;
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • Thou must give it where ’tis due,
  • Give it there to the heart’s desire.
  • 40Whom do I give my bosom to?
  • ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
  • ‘Each twin breast is an apple sweet.
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • Once an apple stirred the beat
  • Of thy heart with the heart’s desire:—
  • Say, who brought it then to thy feet?
  • ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
  • 50‘They that claimed it then were three:
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • For thy sake two hearts did he
  • Make forlorn of the heart’s desire.
  • Do for him as he did for thee!
  • ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
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  • ‘Mine are apples grown to the south,
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • Grown to taste in the days of drouth,
  • 60Taste and waste to the heart’s desire:
  • Mine are apples meet for his mouth.’
  • ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
  • Venus looked on Helen’s gift,
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • Looked and smiled with subtle drift,
  • Saw the work of her heart’s desire:—
  • ‘There thou kneel’st for Love to lift!’
  • ( O Troy’s down,
  • 70 Tall Troy’s on fire!)
  • Venus looked in Helen’s face,
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • Knew far off an hour and place,
  • And fire lit from the heart’s desire;
  • Laughed and said, ‘Thy gift hath grace!’
  • ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
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  • Cupid looked on Helen’s breast,
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • 80Saw the heart within its nest,
  • Saw the flame of the heart’s desire,—
  • Marked his arrow’s burning crest.
  • ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
  • Cupid took another dart,
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • Fledged it for another heart,
  • Winged the shaft with the heart’s desire,
  • Drew the string and said, ‘Depart!’
  • 90 ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
  • Paris turned upon his bed,
  • ( O Troy Town!)
  • Turned upon his bed and said,
  • Dead at heart with the heart’s desire,—
  • ‘O to clasp her golden head!’
  • ( O Troy’s down,
  • Tall Troy’s on fire!)
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more about The Burden of Nineveh.
THE BURDEN OF NINEVEH.
  • In our Museum galleries
  • To-day I lingered o’er the prize
  • Dead Greece vouchsafes to living eyes,—
  • Her Art for ever in fresh wise
  • From hour to hour rejoicing me.
  • Sighing I turned at last to win
  • Once more the London dirt and din;
  • And as I made the swing-door spin
  • And issued, they were hoisting in
  • 10 A wingèd beast from Nineveh.
  • A human face the creature wore,
  • And hoofs behind and hoofs before,
  • And flanks with dark runes fretted o’er.
  • ’Twas bull, ’twas mitred Minotaur,
  • A dead disbowelled mystery;
    page: 22
  • The mummy of a buried faith
  • Stark from the charnel without scathe,
  • Its wings stood for the light to bathe,—
  • Such fossil cerements as might swathe
  • 20 The very corpse of Nineveh.
  • The print of its first rush-wrapping,
  • Wound ere it dried, still ribbed the thing.
  • What song did the brown maidens sing,
  • From purple mouths alternating,
  • When that was woven languidly?
  • What vows, what rites, what prayers preferr’d,
  • What songs has the strange image heard?
  • In what blind vigil stood interr’d
  • For ages, till an English word
  • 30 Broke silence first at Nineveh?
  • Oh when upon each sculptured court,
  • Where even the wind might not resort,—
  • O’er which Time passed, of like import
  • With the wild Arab boys at sport,—
  • A living face looked in to see:—
  • Oh seemed it not—the spell once broke—
  • As though the carven warriors woke,
    page: 23
  • As though the shaft the string forsook,
  • The cymbals clashed, the chariots shook,
  • 40 And there was life in Nineveh?
  • On London stones our sun anew
  • The beast’s recovered shadow threw.
  • (No shade that plague of darkness knew,
  • No light, no shade, while older grew
  • By ages the old earth and sea.)
  • Lo thou! could all thy priests have shown
  • Such proof to make thy godhead known?
  • From their dead Past thou liv’st alone;
  • And still thy shadow is thine own
  • 50 Even as of yore in Nineveh.
  • That day whereof we keep record,
  • When near thy city-gates the Lord
  • Sheltered his Jonah with a gourd,
  • This sun, (I said) here present, pour’d
  • Even thus this shadow that I see.
  • This shadow has been shed the same
  • From sun and moon,—from lamps which came
  • For prayer,—from fifteen days of flame,
  • The last, while smouldered to a name
  • 60 Sardanapalus’ Nineveh.
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  • Within thy shadow, haply, once
  • Sennacherib has knelt, whose sons
  • Smote him between the altar-stones:
  • Or pale Semiramis her zones
  • Of gold, her incense brought to thee,
  • In love for grace, in war for aid:....
  • Ay, and who else?....till ’neath thy shade
  • Within his trenches newly made
  • Last year the Christian knelt and pray’d—
  • 70 Not to thy strength—in Nineveh.*
Transcribed Footnote (page 24):

* During the excavations, the Tiyari workmen held their ser-

vices in the shadow of the great bulls. ( Layard’s ‘Nineveh,’ ch. ix.)

  • Now, thou poor god, within this hall
  • Where the blank windows blind the wall
  • From pedestal to pedestal,
  • The kind of light shall on thee fall
  • Which London takes the day to be:
  • While school-foundations in the act
  • Of holiday, three files compact,
  • Shall learn to view thee as a fact
  • Connected with that zealous tract:
  • 80 ‘Rome,—Babylon and Nineveh.’
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  • Deemed they of this, those worshippers,
  • When, in some mythic chain of verse
  • Which man shall not again rehearse,
  • The faces of thy ministers
  • Yearned pale with bitter ecstasy?
  • Greece, Egypt, Rome,—did any god
  • Before whose feet men knelt unshod
  • Deem that in this unblest abode
  • Another scarce more unknown god
  • 90 Should house with him, from Nineveh?
  • Ah! in what quarries lay the stone
  • From which this pillared pile has grown,
  • Unto man’s need how long unknown,
  • Since those thy temples, court and cone,
  • Rose far in desert history?
  • Ah! what is here that does not lie
  • All strange to thine awakened eye?
  • Ah! what is here can testify
  • (Save that dumb presence of the sky)
  • 100 Unto thy day and Nineveh?
  • Why, of those mummies in the room
  • Above, there might indeed have come
    page: 26
  • One out of Egypt to thy home,
  • An alien. Nay, but were not some
  • Of these thine own ‘antiquity?’
  • And now,—they and their gods and thou
  • All relics here together,—now
  • Whose profit? whether bull or cow,
  • Isis or Ibis, who or how,
  • 110 Whether of Thebes or Nineveh?
  • The consecrated metals found,
  • And ivory tablets, underground,
  • Winged teraphim and creatures crown’d,
  • When air and daylight filled the mound,
  • Fell into dust immediately.
  • And even as these, the images
  • Of awe and worship,—even as these,—
  • So, smitten with the sun’s increase,
  • Her glory mouldered and did cease
  • 120 From immemorial Nineveh.
  • The day her builders made their halt,
  • Those cities of the lake of salt
  • Stood firmly ’stablished without fault,
  • Made proud with pillars of basalt,
  • With sardonyx and porphyry.
    page: 27
  • The day that Jonah bore abroad
  • To Nineveh the voice of God,
  • A brackish lake lay in his road,
  • Where erst Pride fixed her sure abode,
  • 130 As then in royal Nineveh.
  • The day when he, Pride’s lord and Man’s,
  • Showed all the kingdoms at a glance
  • To Him before whose countenance
  • The years recede, the years advance,
  • And said, Fall down and worship me:—
  • ’Mid all the pomp beneath that look,
  • Then stirred there, haply, some rebuke,
  • Where to the wind the Salt Pools shook,
  • And in those tracts, of life forsook,
  • 140 That knew thee not, O Nineveh!
  • Delicate harlot! On thy throne
  • Thou with a world beneath thee prone
  • In state for ages sat’st alone;
  • And needs were years and lustres flown
  • Ere strength of man could vanquish thee:
  • Whom even thy victor foes must bring,
  • Still royal, among maids that sing
    page: 28
  • As with doves’ voices, taboring
  • Upon their breasts, unto the King,—
  • 150 A kingly conquest, Nineveh!
  • ...Here woke my thought. The wind’s slow sway
  • Had waxed; and like the human play
  • Of scorn that smiling spreads away,
  • The sunshine shivered off the day:
  • The callous wind, it seemed to me,
  • Swept up the shadow from the ground:
  • And pale as whom the Fates astound,
  • The god forlorn stood winged and crown’d:
  • Within I knew the cry lay bound
  • 160 Of the dumb soul of Nineveh.
  • And as I turned, my sense half shut
  • Still saw the crowds of kerb and rut
  • Go past as marshalled to the strut
  • Of ranks in gypsum quaintly cut.
  • It seemed in one same pageantry
  • They followed forms which had been erst;
  • To pass, till on my sight should burst
  • That future of the best or worst
  • When some may question which was first,
  • 170 Of London or of Nineveh.
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  • For as that Bull-god once did stand
  • And watched the burial-clouds of sand,
  • Till these at last without a hand
  • Rose o’er his eyes, another land,
  • And blinded him with destiny:—
  • So may he stand again; till now,
  • In ships of unknown sail and prow,
  • Some tribe of the Australian plough
  • Bear him afar,—a relic now
  • 180 Of London, not of Nineveh!
  • Or it may chance indeed that when
  • Man’s age is hoary among men,—
  • His centuries threescore and ten,—
  • His furthest childhood shall seem then
  • More clear than later times may be:
  • Who, finding in this desert place
  • This form, shall hold us for some race
  • That walked not in Christ’s lowly ways,
  • But bowed its pride and vowed its praise
  • 190 Unto the God of Nineveh.
  • The smile rose first,—anon drew nigh
  • The thought:...Those heavy wings spread high
    page: 30
  • So sure of flight, which do not fly;
  • That set gaze never on the sky;
  • Those scriptured flanks it cannot see;
  • Its crown, a brow-contracting load;
  • Its planted feet which trust the sod:...
  • (So grew the image as I trod:)
  • O Nineveh, was this thy God,—
  • 200 Thine also, mighty Nineveh?
page: 31
more about Eden Bower.
EDEN BOWER.
  • It was Lilith the wife of Adam:
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • Not a drop of her blood was human,
  • But she was made like a soft sweet woman.
  • Lilith stood on the skirts of Eden;
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • She was the first that thence was driven;
  • With her was hell and with Eve was heaven.
  • In the ear of the Snake said Lilith:—
  • 10 ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • ‘To thee I come when the rest is over;
  • A snake was I when thou wast my lover.
  • ‘I was the fairest snake in Eden:
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • By the earth’s will, new form and feature
  • Made me a wife for the earth’s new creature.
page: 32
  • ‘Take me thou as I come from Adam:
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • Once again shall my love subdue thee;
  • 20The past is past and I am come to thee.
  • ‘O but Adam was thrall to Lilith!
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • All the threads of my hair are golden,
  • And there in a net his heart was holden.
  • ‘O and Lilith was queen of Adam!
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • All the day and the night together
  • My breath could shake his soul like a feather.
  • ‘What great joys had Adam and Lilith!—
  • 30 ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • Sweet close rings of the serpent’s twining,
  • As heart in heart lay sighing and pining.
  • ‘What bright babes had Lilith and Adam!—
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • Shapes that coiled in the woods and waters,
  • Glittering sons and radiant daughters.
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Sig. D
  • ‘O thou God, the Lord God of Eden!
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • Say, was this fair body for no man,
  • 40That of Adam’s flesh thou mak’st him a woman?
  • ‘O thou Snake, the King-snake of Eden!
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • God’s strong will our necks are under,
  • But thou and I may cleave it in sunder.
  • ‘Help, sweet Snake, sweet lover of Lilith!
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • And let God learn how I loved and hated
  • Man in the image of God created.
  • ‘Help me once against Eve and Adam!
  • 50 ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • Help me once for this one endeavour,
  • And then my love shall be thine for ever!
  • ‘Strong is God, the fell foe of Lilith:
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • Nought in heaven or earth may affright him;
  • But join thou with me and we will smite him.
page: 34
  • ‘Strong is God, the great God of Eden:
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • Over all He made He hath power;
  • 60But lend me thou thy shape for an hour!
  • ‘Lend thy shape for the love of Lilith!
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • Look, my mouth and my cheek are ruddy,
  • And thou art cold, and fire is my body.
  • ‘Lend thy shape for the hate of Adam!
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • That he may wail my joy that forsook him,
  • And curse the day when the bride-sleep took him.
  • ‘Lend thy shape for the shame of Eden!
  • 70 ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • Is not the foe-God weak as the foeman
  • When love grows hate in the heart of a woman?
  • ‘Would’st thou know the heart’s hope of Lilith?
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • Then bring thou close thine head till it glisten
  • Along my breast, and lip me and listen.
page: 35
  • ‘Am I sweet, O sweet Snake of Eden?
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • Then ope thine ear to my warm mouth’s cooing
  • 80And learn what deed remains for our doing.
  • ‘Thou didst hear when God said to Adam:—
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • “Of all this wealth I have made thee warden;
  • Thou’rt free to eat of the trees of the garden:
  • ‘“Only of one tree eat not in Eden;
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • All save one I give to thy freewill,—
  • The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.”
  • ‘O my love, come nearer to Lilith!
  • 90 ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • In thy sweet folds bind me and bend me,
  • And let me feel the shape thou shalt lend me!
  • ‘In thy shape I’ll go back to Eden;
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • In these coils that Tree will I grapple,
  • And stretch this crowned head forth by the apple.
page: 36
  • ‘Lo, Eve bends to the breath of Lilith!
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • O how then shall my heart desire
  • 100All her blood as food to its fire!
  • ‘Lo, Eve bends to the words of Lilith!—
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • “Nay, this Tree’s fruit,—why should ye hate it,
  • Or Death be born the day that ye ate it?
  • ‘“Nay, but on that great day in Eden,
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • By the help that in this wise Tree is,
  • God knows well ye shall be as He is.”
  • ‘Then Eve shall eat and give unto Adam;
  • 110 ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • And then they both shall know they are naked,
  • And their hearts ache as my heart hath achèd.
  • ‘Aye, let them hide in the trees of Eden,
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • As in the cool of the day in the garden
  • God shall walk without pity or pardon.
page: 37
  • ‘Hear, thou Eve, the man’s heart in Adam!
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • Of his brave words hark to the bravest:—
  • 120“This the woman gave that thou gavest.”
  • ‘Hear Eve speak, yea, list to her, Lilith!
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • Feast thine heart with words that shall sate it—
  • “This the serpent gave and I ate it.”
  • ‘O proud Eve, cling close to thine Adam,
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • Driven forth as the beasts of his naming
  • By the sword that for ever is flaming.
  • ‘Know, thy path is known unto Lilith!
  • 130 ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • While the blithe birds sang at thy wedding,
  • There her tears grew thorns for thy treading.
  • ‘O my love, thou Love-snake of Eden!
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • O to-day and the day to come after!
  • Loose me, love,—give breath to my laughter!
page: 38
  • ‘O bright Snake, the Death-worm of Adam!
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • Wreathe thy neck with my hair’s bright tether,
  • 140And wear my gold and thy gold together!
  • ‘On that day on the skirts of Eden,
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • In thy shape shall I glide back to thee,
  • And in my shape for an instant view thee.
  • ‘But when thou’rt thou and Lilith is Lilith,
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • In what bliss past hearing or seeing
  • Shall each one drink of the other’s being!
  • ‘With cries of “Eve!” and “Eden!” and “Adam!’
  • 150 ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • How shall we mingle our love’s caresses,
  • I in thy coils, and thou in my tresses!
  • ‘With those names, ye echoes of Eden,
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • Fire shall cry from my heart that burneth,—
  • “Dust he is and to dust returneth!”
page: 39
  • ‘Yet to-day, thou master of Lilith,—
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • Wrap me round in the form I’ll borrow
  • 160And let me tell thee of sweet to-morrow.
  • ‘In the planted garden eastward in Eden,
  • ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • Where the river goes forth to water the garden,
  • The springs shall dry and the soil shall harden.
  • ‘Yea, where the bride-sleep fell upon Adam,
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • None shall hear when the storm-wind whistles
  • Through roses choked among thorns and thistles.
  • ‘Yea, beside the east-gate of Eden,
  • 170 ( Eden bower’s in flower.)
  • Where God joined them and none might sever,
  • The sword turns this way and that for ever.
  • ‘What of Adam cast out of Eden?
  • ( And O the bower and the hour!)
  • Lo! with care like a shadow shaken,
  • He tills the hard earth