Helen of Troy Part 3

VI.

But Helen leap'd from her fair carven bed As some tormented thing that fear makes bold, And on the ground she beat her golden head And pray'd with bitter moanings manifold.

Yet knew that she could never move the cold Heart of the lovely G.o.ddess, standing there, Her feet upon a little cloud, a fold Of silver cloud about her bosom bare.

VII.

So stood Queen Aphrodite, as she stands Unmoved in her bright mansion, when in vain Some naked maiden stretches helpless hands And shifts the magic wheel, and burns the grain, And cannot win her lover back again, Nor her old heart of quiet any more, Where moonlight floods the dim Sicilian main, And the cool wavelets break along the sh.o.r.e.

VIII.

Then Helen ceased from unavailing prayer, And rose and faced the G.o.ddess steadily, Till even the laughter-loving lady fair Half shrank before the anger of her eye, And Helen cried with an exceeding cry, "Why does Zeus live, if we indeed must be No more than sullen spoils of destiny, And slaves of an adulteress like thee?

IX.

"What wilt thou with me, mistress of all woe?

Say, wilt thou bear me to another land Where thou hast other lovers? Rise and go Where dark the pine trees upon Ida stand, For there did one unloose thy girdle band; Or seek the forest where Adonis bled, Or wander, wander on the yellow sand, Where thy first lover strew'd thy bridal bed.

X.

"Ah, thy first lover! who is first or last Of men and G.o.ds, unnumber'd and unnamed?

Lover by lover in the race is pa.s.s'd, Lover by lover, outcast and ashamed.

Oh, thou of many names, and evil famed!

What wilt thou with me? What must I endure Whose soul, for all thy craft, is never tamed?

Whose heart, for all thy wiles, is ever pure?

XI.

"Behold, my heart is purer than the plume Upon the stainless pinions of the swan, And thou wilt smirch and stain it with the fume Of all thy hateful l.u.s.ts Idalian.

My name shall be a hissing that a man Shall smile to speak, and women curse and hate, And on my little child shall come a ban, And all my lofty home be desolate.

XII.

"Is it thy will that like a golden cup From lip to lip of heroes I must go, And be but as a banner lifted up, To beckon where the winds of war may blow?

Have I not seen fair Athens in her woe, And all her homes aflame from sea to sea, When my fierce brothers wrought her overthrow Because Athenian Theseus carried me--

XIII.

"Me, in my bloomless youth, a maiden child, From Artemis' pure altars and her fane, And bare me, with Pirithous the wild To rich Aphidna? Many a man was slain, And wet with blood the fair Athenian plain, And fired was many a goodly temple then, But fire nor blood can purify the stain Nor make my name reproachless among men."

XIV.

Then Helen ceased, her pa.s.sion like a flame That slays the thing it lives by, blazed and fell, As faint as waves at dawn, though fierce they came, By night to storm some rocky citadel; For Aphrodite answer'd,--like a spell Her voice makes strength of mortals pa.s.s away,-- "Dost thou not know that I have loved thee well, And never loved thee better than to-day?

XV.

"Behold, thine eyes are wet, thy cheeks are wan, Yet art thou born of an immortal sire, The child of Nemesis and of the Swan; Thy veins should run with ichor and with fire.

Yet this is thy delight and thy desire, To love a mortal lord, a mortal child, To live, unpraised of lute, unhymn'd of lyre, As any woman pure and undefiled.

XVI.

"Thou art the toy of G.o.ds, an instrument Wherewith all mortals shall be plagued or blest, Even at my pleasure; yea, thou shalt be bent This way and that, howe'er it like me best: And following thee, as tides the moon, the West Shall flood the Eastern coasts with waves of war, And thy vex'd soul shall scarcely be at rest, Even in the havens where the deathless are.

XVII.

"The instruments of men are blind and dumb, And this one gift I give thee, to be blind And heedless of the thing that is to come, And ignorant of that which is behind; Bearing an innocent forgetful mind In each new fortune till I visit thee And stir thy heart, as lightning and the wind Bear fire and tumult through a sleeping sea.

XVIII.

"Thou shalt forget Hermione; forget Thy lord, thy lofty palace, and thy kin; Thy hand within a stranger's shalt thou set, And follow him, nor deem it any sin; And many a strange land wand'ring shalt thou win, And thou shalt come to an unhappy town, And twenty long years shalt thou dwell therein, Before the Argives mar its towery crown.

XIX.

"And of thine end I speak not, but thy name,-- Thy name which thou lamentest,--that shall be A song in all men's speech, a tongue of flame Between the burning lips of Poesy; And the nine daughters of Mnemosyne, With Prince Apollo, leader of the nine, Shall make thee deathless in their minstrelsy!

Yea, for thou shalt outlive the race divine,

XX.

"The race of G.o.ds, for like the sons of men We G.o.ds have but our season, and go by; And Cronos pa.s.s'd, and Ura.n.u.s, and then Shall Zeus and all his children utterly Pa.s.s, and new G.o.ds be born, and reign, and die,-- But thee shall lovers worship evermore What G.o.ds soe'er usurp the changeful sky, Or flit to the irremeable sh.o.r.e.

XXI.

"Now sleep and dream not, sleep the long day through, And the brief watches of the summer night, And then go forth amid the flowers and dew, Where the red rose of Dawn outburns the white.

Then shalt thou learn my mercy and my might Between the drowsy lily and the rose; There shalt thou spell the meaning of delight, And know such gladness as a G.o.ddess knows!"

XXII.

Then Sleep came floating from the Lemnian isle, And over Helen crush'd his poppy crown, Her soft lids waver'd for a little while, Then on her carven bed she laid her down, And Sleep, the comforter of king and clown, Kind Sleep the sweetest, near akin to Death, Held her as close as Death doth men that drown, So close that none might hear her inward breath--

XXIII.

So close no man might tell she was not dead!

And then the G.o.ddess took her zone,--where lies All her enchantment, love and l.u.s.tihead, And the glad converse that beguiles the wise, And grace the very G.o.ds may not despise, And sweet Desire that doth the whole world move,-- And therewith touch'd she Helen's sleeping eyes And made her lovely as the Queen of Love.

XXIV.

Then laughter-loving Aphrodite went To far Idalia, over land and sea, And scarce the fragrant cedar-branches bent Beneath her footsteps, faring daintily; And in Idalia the Graces three Anointed her with oil ambrosial,-- So to her house in Sidon wended she To mock the prayers of lovers when they call.

XXV.

And all day long the incense and the smoke Lifted, and fell, and soft and slowly roll'd, And many a hymn and musical awoke Between the pillars of her house of gold, And rose-crown'd girls, and fair boys linen-stoled, Did sacrifice her fragrant courts within, And in dark chapels wrought rites manifold The loving favour of the Queen to win.

XXVI.

But Menelaus, waking suddenly, Beheld the dawn was white, the day was near, And rose, and kiss'd fair Helen; no good-bye He spake, and never mark'd a fallen tear,-- Men know not when they part for many a year,-- He grasp'd a bronze-shod lance in either hand, And merrily went forth to drive the deer, With Paris, through the dewy morning land.

XXVII.

So up the steep sides of Taygetus They fared, and to the windy hollows came, While from the streams of deep Ocea.n.u.s The sun arose, and on the fields did flame; And through wet glades the huntsmen drave the game, And with them Paris sway'd an ashen spear, Heavy, and long, and shod with bronze to tame The mountain-dwelling goats and forest deer.