THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, AUTHOR OF ' ANIMI FIGURA," " MANY MOODS," ETC. LONDON: KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO., i, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1884. College Library V/7 VAGO CUIDAM VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUM CUJUS PARS MAGNA VENETIIS SCRIPTA. VAGANS POETA D.D. VENETIIS MDCCCLXXXIV. > 1116384 PREFACE. "Y "HE title of this volume sufficiently ex- plains its scope and purpose. It is the little book of a wanderer; and it is dedicated to a wanderer Vago Cuidam, a phrase bor- rowed from one of Petrarctt 's familiar letters. Since all men on this earth are wanderers, this dedication may be taken as addressed to himself by any one who finds an echo of his thought or feeling in my verse. The second section demands some words of comment. I wrote it to supplement and to explain what is defective and unintelligible in a collection of sonnets called ANIMI FIGURA, PREFACE. published by me in 1882. "Stella Marts" forms in fact the transition from "Intellectual Isolation'" to "Self-Condemnation" in that book. The portrait of a beauty-loving and im- pulsive but at the same time self-tormenting and conscientious mind, which I attempted to display in ANIMI FIGURA, was incomplete and inexplicable without the episode of passionate experience set forth in " Stella Man's." These explanations had to be made upon the appearance of "Stella Marts'' in VAGA- BUNDULI LIBELLUS ] for I wish it to be under- stood that the sonnets which compose that section were intended for the fictitious char- acter of ANIMI FIGURA. Few things are more difficult than to express imagined emotions in a lyrical form ; and in so far as any success may be attained in this attempt, the poet exposes himself to the danger of misconstrue- PREFACE. tion. It is taken for granted that he is describing his own experience, although, as in the present case, he may have sought to adumbrate the form which feelings common to all men assume in some specific and perhaps abnormal personality constructed by his fancy. To tell a story in a series of sonnets, is no easy task, because the effort to do so puts a severe strain upon the law whereby the sonnet lives. That form of verse is not designed for continuous narration, but for the crys- tallization of thought around isolated points of emotion, passion, meditation, or remem- brance. I have therefore omitted from 11 Stella Maris" such connecting links as ought assuredly to have been supplied if this love-episode had been presented in prose or idyll, or in any of the numerous types of nar- rative verse. What remains will be enough, PREFACE. I trust, to explain how the fictitious character I endeavoured to portray in ANIMI FIGURA, yields to a passion which overmasters the man at first, how his acquired habits of self- analysis necessitate doubt and conflict at the very moment of fruition, and how he be- comes aware of a discord not only between his own tone of feeling and that of the woman who attracted him, but also between the emotion she inspired and his inalienable ideal of love. In a moment of disillusion- ment he roughly rejects what he had ardently desired, because he finds himself upon the verge of disloyalty to his superior nature. That his conscience should be vehemently stirred in this unsatisfactory climax of an adventure on which he had staked much, is consistent with the tenor of his temperament. The sense of failure is intensified by the memory of previous moods PREFACE. (set forth in ANIMI FIGURA, pp. 15 31) which had been inspired by somewhat arrogant self-confidence. It only remains for me to add that while a few of the sonnets in VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS have already appeared in print (and for permission to republish them my thanks are due to Messrs. Smith and Elder), by far the larger part are now published for the first time. DAVOS PLATZ, March 1884. CONTENTS. PACK THE SEA CALLS 3 STELLA MARIS n AMONG THE MOUNTAINS : Winter Nights in the High Alps . . . . . 81 For a Picture -85 The Average Man 86 Adolescenti . . . . . . . ' . -87 A Problem of the Night .88 Three Sisters 89 In Black and White Winter Etchings . . . .90 The Coming of Spring . . . . . . .96 The Soul and the Eagle 97 On the Cowberry Alp 98 In the Fir Wood 99 Resignation 100 THE ENVOY TO A BOOK . . ..'.'... . 105 xiv CONTENTS. HACK ART AND POETRY : The Sonnet 113 Music Past and Present 116 Music . .117 The Poets of Our Age 118 A Portrait 1 19 Angelo Ribello . 120 Three Successive Portraits of the Same Face . . . 121 To a Sicilian of To-day . . . . . . .122 The Birth of Jacopo Robusti . . .123 JUVENILIA : From Friend to Friend . 127 Dead Love . . . ... . . 128 At Waking ....... . 129 The Passing of the Cloud . . ... 130 Mi Raccomando a te . . . . . . -131 Fiat Lux 132 The Magic Isle . . 133 Love's Idolatry . . . . . . . . 135 Renunciation . . . . . . . . .136 The Fall of a Soul 138 O si, O si ! 139 In Memoriam 140 A Sister of the Poor 141 To the Unseen Beauty 142 CONTENTS. xv PAGE The Plovers ...... . 143 A Boy's Voice Broken ... . . . 144 A Coat of Arms 145 Morgenlied 146 An Autumn Day 147 On the Hill-side . 148 To Chrysanthemums ....... 149 Rosa 150 ' Je suis Trop Jeune" 151 HERE AND THERE :-- La Retraite I$5 The Strolling Musician 156 The Jews' Cemetery . .... . . .157 Before the Dawn 159 A Crucifix in the Etsch Thai 161 Monte Generoso . . . . . . .162 ON CLASSICAL THEMES : To the Loved One of the Poet . . . . . .167 To the Beloved 168 A Serenata ...... . 172 The Garland- Bearer .... . . 173 TRANSLATIONS On Disordered Will 177 Nothing Overmuch . . . .. .178 xvi CONTENTS. PAGE Willing and Doing . . ..... . . 179 The Leafless Wood 180 To Sleep ... . . . . . .181 To Sleep ......... 182 Lux Umbra Dei 183 The Philosophic Flight 184 ON THEMES OF MEDITATION : Autumn Years ........ 187 Wo die Gotter nicht sind, walten Gespenster . . .188 Pessimism 189 The Last Doubt 190 The Last Despair 191 The Voice of Rebellion 192 In Memoriam 19.3 In Memoriam . . 194 The Grave of Omar Khayyam 195 " The World's a Stage ". 196 " All Life is but a Wandering to Find Home " . . . 198 Priez Dieu pour lui ! ' . . 199 A Dream of Burial in Mid Ocean ..... 200 Burial in Athens 201 To Night 202 NOTES .......'.... 203 c/\ THE SEA CALLS. THE SEA CALLS, i. JDROAD shadowy mountains and the boundless plain And silver streak of ocean part us, friend, Since that last night in Venice and the end Of our souls' conflict in a throb of pain. The stillness of these hills, these woods, again Folds me disquieted ; while you ascend Heights hitherto unsought, which lightnings renu, Where strife and tumult and ambition reign. Come back, come back ! The smooth sea calleth you. The waves that break on Lido cry to me. England and Alps divide us ; but the blue Breadth of those slumberous waters, calm yet free, The azure of those deep wild eyes we knew, Will bring both home to Venice, to the sea. VAGABUNDULI L1BELLUS. ii. 1\WAY, away ! The ruffling breezes call ; The slack waves rippling at the smooth flat keel ; The swanlike swerving of the queenly steel ; The sails that flap against their masts and fall ; The dip of oars in time, the musical Cry of the statue-poised lithe gondolier ; The scent of seaweeds from the sea-girt mere ; The surge that frets on Malamocco's wall ; The solitary gun San Giorgio peals ; The murmurous pigeons, pensioners of St. Marl; ; The deep tongues of the slender campaniles; The song that fitful floats across the dark ; All sounds, all sights, all scents born of the sea, Venezia, call and call me back to thee ! THE SEA CALLS. III. JL O-NIGHT with noise of multitudinous rills, Snow-swollen in full midsummer by the breeze That blows from Italy, our silent hills Plain to the stars ; dry granite-grappling trees, From whose hard boughs the unwilling gum distils, Yield, as in grief, Arabian fragrances, Waving their plumes, which the wild south wind fills With moaning music, plangent litanies. I through this clamour of hoarse streams, this wail Of woods despoiled that weep beneath the storm, Too soft, too sweet for our stern upland vale, Hear only one deep message borne to me, From dark lagoon, from glimmering isle, from warm Venetian midnight hear the calling sea. VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. IV. LIGHTNING; and o'er those hills the rattling shock Of Alpine thunder, short, a dropping fire ; Unformidable here, but on yon spire, Where snow lies ridged, splintering the solid rock. Slow heat ; the stout hinds swink in sweating smock ; The milking maidens pant by ben and byre ; No sooner cut than carried, high and higher The scented hay is stored by swathe and shock. Such is our summer. Village greybeards swear They nor their fathers felt so sultry air. But I sit mute : how metal-molten glows Thy burnished sea ; one flame ; flamboyant dyes Of sulphur deepening into gold and rose ! How o'er thy bell-towers boom those thunderous skies ! THE SEA CALLS. v. J. HOU art not clamorous. Nay, thy silvery tongue And rhetoric that holds me night and noon Attentive to one tender monotone, Are clear as fairy chimes by lilies rung. They speak of twilight and grave ditties sung By seamen brown beneath a low broad moon, And breezes with the sea-scent in them blown At sundown, when the few faint stars are hung Dim overhead in fields of hyacinth blue; When, lifted between sea and sky, those isles North-gazing change from rose and blossoming rue To privet paleness ; and dark harbour piles Bar the wide fire-irradiate west ; wherethrough Declining day, like a dead hero, smiles. VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. VI. H .OURS, weeks, and days bring round the golden moon ; While I still wait : I 'mid these solemn firs, Late-flowering meadows and grey mountain spurs, Watch summer fade and russet hues imbrune The stern sad hills. All while thy smooth lagoon Invites me ; like a murmured spell recurs, When south winds breathe and the cloud-landscape stirs, One sombre sweet Venetian slumberous tune. Arise : ere autumn's penury be spent ; Ere winter in a snow-shroud wrap the year ; Ere the last oleanders droop and die ; Take we the rugged ways that southward lie ; Seek by the sea those wide eyes sapphire-clear, Those softened stars, that larger firmament. STELLA MAR IS. STELLA MARIS. i. 1 MUSED on these last miseries of mankind : On souls that, fainting, feed a nameless thirst ; On hearts that long, with self-loathed longing cursed ; On loves that know themselves shameful and blind Fierce cruel loves that crucify the mind ; Dry hearts that throb and throb, yet cannot burst ; Souls that will hope, when hope is proved the worst Of torments : and I cried, Dwells there behind This world of phantoms which allure and fade This bubble-world, wherein 't is hell to feel, Since action bred by feeling breaks the seal Which seemed to clasp truth in the dreams we made Dwells there, unseized, unseen, what, once dis- played, Would prove our Maya-world of wishes real ? VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. ii. 1V1 Y spirit adream in Venice by the sea, Roofed with that crystal dome of luminous sky, Where the towered islands of enchantment lie, Dallied with dark seductive reverie ; For soothing my life's smart with sympathy, In self-contented calm, with curious eye, Into despair's abyss I dared to pry, Nor feared that Maya might descend on me. Then o'er a level space of storm-swept sand, Unsought, unsummoned, crept the stealthy shade, And beckoned me with thin compulsive hand, And showed me Thee ! And, lo, thou wast arrayed In flame by my soul's conflagration fanned ! The charm was woven, and my will obeyed. STELLA MARIS. 13 in. V ENICE, thou Siren of sea-cities, wrought By mirage, built on water, stair o'er stair, Of sunbeams and cloud-shadows, phantom-fair, With naught of earth to mar thy sea-born thought !' Thou floating film upon the wonder-fraught Ocean of dreams ! Thou hast no dream so rare As are thy sons and daughters, they who wear Foam-flakes of charm fr6m thine enchantment caught ! O dark brown eyes ! O tangles of dark hair ! O heaven-blue eyes, blonde tresses where the breeze Plays over sun-burned cheeks in sea-blown air ! Firm limbs of moulded bronze ! frank debonair Smiles of deep-bosomed women ! Loves that seize- Man's soul, and waft her on storm-melodies ! i 4 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. IV. JT^ AIR is the sea ; and fair the sea-borne billow, Blue from the depth and curled with crested argent : Fair is the sea ; and fair the smooth sea-margent, The brown dunes waved with tamarisk and willow : Fair is the sea ; and fair the seaman's daughter, Fairer than all fair things in earth and ocean : Fair is the sea; and fair the wayward motion, The wavering glint of light on dancing water : Fair is the sea ; and fair the heavens above it, And fair at ebb the grass-green wildernesses : Fair is the sea ; and fair the stars that love it, Rising from waves new-washed with orient tresses : Fair is the sea ; of all fair sea-things fairest, Stella, thou sea-born star art best and rarest ! STELLA MARIS. 15 W HEN thou wert born, star of the salt sea-spray, Deep slumber brooded on the swarth lagoon ; The western heavens were silvered with a moon Sinking beneath those Alpine ramparts grey : 'Twas the first morning of the month of May ; Long whispering wavelets lapped the Lido dune ; Shy breezes with a soft low under-tune Plained to the orient skies of dawn's delay. Then rose the star, Diana, and the foam, Touched by her saffron tresses, throbbed with morn ; Night fled, light sped through all the ethereal dome ; Earth thrilled and felt the advent of her god ; But when his feet the blue sea-pavement trod, In that first marriage moment thou wert born. 16 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. V^xHILD of the sea and sun-god, thou foam-born, White as the foam, and as the dawn-star golden, Healthful as scent of May-bloom unbeholden In the dewed day-spring of the amorous morn ! Thou from that birth-hour blossoming still hast worn The aureole of thy mystic morning splendour, Glamour of sea-waves petulant and tender, Perfume of air from pure sea-spaces borne. Thou too along the sandy sea-marge roaming In childhood's happier days hast caught'the motion Of billows rippling from the far free ocean ; Hast heard and learned the music of the water, When through the veiled night or violet gloaming The great sea spake from silence to his daughter. S'lELLA MARIS. \1 VII. SAW thee first, and knew not I should love thee, Pacing the meadows where narcissus flowers Star the green grass, and clustering stars above thee Hung the white blossoms of acacia bowers. Those rathe acacia branches wove a slender Lattice of light and trembling leaves to shield thee; Soft was the shade, and soft the shadowy splendour Of sunbeams shed through flowers that half con- cealed thee. Lap-full of stars, white buds and golden, fragrant With perfume of the spring in all their bloom, Singing a morning song to match the vagrant Larks high in air above that leafy gloom, Star of my soul, thou stood'st, and far before thee Slept the blue sea, heaven's broad blue caverns o'er thee. i8 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. /~\S o'er a landscape when the winds are free Cloud-shadows sail, and 'neath the changeful skies All changes ; for one scene is paradise, Another steeped in brooding mystery : So seems thy spirit when I gaze on thee; For now thy smile is heaven, and now there rise Visions of passionate hope that vex thine eyes, And now thy mood is mere tranquillity. Nor dare I dream, howe'er I muse upon The life beneath those radiant limbs of thine, That thou thyself art ; like the form divine That stirred to greet that sculptor's orison, Thou needest love to wake thee; would 'twere mine To be for thee thy soul's Pygmalion ! STELLA MARIS. 19 IX. J. HESE salt sea-lakes, these smooth moon-silvered rrteres, Have moods of petulant mischief, perilous wrath ; When to the skies the churned foam scuds in froth ; When black as hate around chafed harbour piers Suck snake-like eddies ; when the weltering broth, Thick with brewed charms, 'neath close entangled spears Of fiends in conflict scattering threats and fears, Pants in short gasps ; when damned Ashtaroth Drives Venus from her sphere ; and on the bar Of Lido all night long the ruinous boom Of breakers in rebellion, joust and jar, Drowning the rain-drenched heavens with spouted spoom, Threatens another deluge. Thus, my star, Hast thou thy moods of tempest and of doom ! 20 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. x. JL FEAR thee when those fervent heavens of light Aslumber in thine eyes of amethyst Leap into sudden balefires ; or some mist, Blown like Scirocco in the sun's despite Across the firmament of life's delight, O'erspreads thy brow with cloud-films that resist Love's proffered prayers and God-sent eucharist, Drawing from unknown depths their power to blight. I know not what of ominous from hell Weighs on my heart's joy when I see thee thus, Like to lost souls that suffer and rebel ! Some doom, thy doom or mine, pursuing thee, Rending our lives asunder, threatens us. Natheless I find nor will nor force to flee ! STELLA MARIS. 21 XI. 1 MAY not flee, for I am wholly thine, Already thine, and dare not dream of loss ! Swift-winged chance, the mystic albatross, With plumes too mighty and with charms divine, Hath borne me here a suppliant to thy shrine In love's enchanted isle, and now doth cross On pinions which the waves with foam emboss Those dim irremeable wastes of brine. I must abide ; for chance hath flung me here : Yea, though the summer hours so swiftly flown Count but few weeks, they yet were all love's own: Love reckons not by time ; his dateless sphere Circles in rest for ever round God's throne Eternity 's irrevoluble year. 22 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. XII. .Til USHED is the music ; all those crowds are gone. Flown are the passing strangers, whose dark eyes Were bent my soul of souls to scrutinise, Darting their wistful flame from foreheads wan. Moonlight with lamplight blending slants upon The tower that rears yon angel to the skies, Where the grey miracle of Venice lies Bare to the stars 'neath heaven's pavilion. I only wake. I at this hour, when morn Whitens the first faint pallor of the north, Walk amid ghosts, and restless wander forth, Pacing the sombre verge of waves forlorn. These wait for day, disquieted. I wait, And want thee, and repine, and weep my fate. STELLA MARIS. LxESTLESS I wander through these windy ways And water-paths, where Auster swells the tide Surging from Adria's sand-banks o'er the wide Salt lakes low-lying and Venetian maze Of marble basements. Like a ghost at gaze Hurrying I thread the labyrinth hungry-eyed, Seeking the one to whom my heart's voice cried Through dim-remembered antenatal days. Week-long 1 watch and wander ; find not thee : Nay, though one spoken word might bring thee near, My lips are mute. Surely 'twas shown to me, How without speech, some while, like morning clear, Thy swift bright eyes unsummoned o'er the sea, Should dawn, and mine make answer : I am here. 24 VAGABUNDULI LIB ELL US. XIV. IGHT, saith the proverb in thy speech, my star ! Night is the mother of thoughts infinite. Now lovers lone, drowned in the deep midnight, Their treasury doors of countless thoughts unbar. Yea, those who love, twined from the loved one, are Vexed with a thousand shades of vain delight ; A thousand wakeful dreams with winnowing flight Wave from their restless pillow sleep afar. O star, my star ! many as stars above thee, Numberless are the thoughts wherewith I love thee ! From eve to dawn, waking, I toss and languish : For thee, for thee, I find no snatch of slumber : The very moonbeams on my bed in anguish Wail and lament so that I find no slumber ! STELLA MARIS. 25 xv. 1 HOU wilt not always have thy seventeen years : Thou wilt not always have those hues so fair : Thou wilt not always have that golden hair : Thou wilt not always have a man to love thee ! Time splits the marble walls with strength of years : Time makes a lover's heart revive from pain : Time cleaves the mountain-flank with constant strain : With time I'll force thy heart of stone, and love thee ! heart of stone, and soul of cruelty ! How many sighs hast thou drawn forth from me ! My heart burns upward like a firebrand when 1 hear the folk around me speak of thee : My heart burns up and flames within me then, Hearing thy name upon the lips of men ! 26 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. XVI. J_-/IDST thou but know, star of my soul's unrest, What pains I suffered for thy sake, my own, When thou wert warmly housed, and I alone, I, wretched I, the cold, hard pavement pressed ! The rain was like rose-water to my breast ; The lightnings signs of love in mercy shown ; The storm a shower of sweets around me thrown ; While I beneath thy window found no rest ! While I beneath thy window made my bed, Thou wert asleep, and with the spirit's eyes I saw thee slumbering in the gates of dreams, And seemed to see beneath the calm moonbeams Thy pure white bosom all uncovered, Thou loveliest angel flown from paradise ! STELLA MARIS. 27 XVII. JTOETS and lovers, when the world was young, Saw from still waves, from solitary flowers, And far blue mountain-tops in tranquil hours, Fair human forms emergent. Daphne clung Close to the whispering laurel ; Naiads flung White arms from troubled fountains ; rainbow showers Drew Iris down the clouds ; and windy bowers With midnight cries of Faun and Satyr rung. These dreams are flown : we have outworn romance And mythic fable. Yet thy wonderland, Thy Venice, from her blossom-like expanse Of sea and sky commingling sends forth Thee, To greet the soul that seeks her, and to stand Fit incarnation of her deity. 28 VAGABUXDULI LIBELLUS. XVIII. YEA, 'twas for Thee we waited. Thou didst lean Forth from inanimate loveliness, a soul Completing and interpreting the whole Of that which Venice and her people mean. For me no longer like a painted scene Or undecipherable antique scroll, Rise palace-fronts around and waters roll, Idle imagination's void demesne. Spirit in thee meets spirit. That last bliss We long for, when we gaze with ardent eyes, Striving the world's delight to humanise ; Hands that will clasp our hands, lips that might kiss, A heart that with our heart can sympathise ; I find in thee : but, ah, need more than this ! STELLA MARIS. 29 XIX. HEART, that it were possible to stay On that first ledge of feeling, when the eyes, Inebriate with milk of paradise, Swim in the splendour of love's orient day ; Nor seek from beauty more than right to pay The adoration of the soul, and rise Strengthened by worship to eternalize, Through art, her message ere she meet decay \ Man is too covetous : the poet's dream, The painter's vision, voice of seraphim Rising like altar-flame into the sky Of music, these, though fair, content not him ; For he must drink of passion's fiery stream, Nor knows if Love will find him ere he die. 30 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. J. HO U art so frank, so musical ; thy smile And speech responsive to the negligent Lilt of thy limbs ; thy laughter rippling sent Like waves in summer round a windless isle ; That I dare half believe no purposed wile, Dark scheme or greed for gain or discontent, Lurk in thy breast, but fair thoughts innocent, Unbargained love and friendship void of guile. Dare I believe this ? Dare I dream that thou, The dawn-star of this Maya-city spread A foam-film on the waters, 'neath that brow Alive with latent lightnings, and the head Medusa-like where smouldering passions glow, Hidest no mystery, no deep shame, no dread ? STELLA MARIS. 31 XXI. VV HAT force compels my soul in Thee to find The out-flood of her pent-up harmonies ? Why wakest thou the notes she pined to seize, Locked in the lonely caverns of her mind ? What is there in thee that thou canst unbind The sealed fount of sacred memories, Stirring dim musical remembrances Of life in God ere earth's life made me blind ? Is it the rhythm of thy strength at rest, Or rhythm of thy limbs so lightly swung, Or of the heart atremble in thy breast, Or of swift words that dance upon thy tongue ? Nay, these were well : yet 't was upon thine eyes Gazing, my soul remembered Paradise. 32 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. XXII. VJTVE me thyself! It were as well to cry : Give me the splendour of this night of June! Give me yon star upon the swart lagoon Trembling in unapproached serenity ! Our gondola that four swift oarsmen ply, Shoots from the darkening Lido's sandy dune, Splits with her steel the mirrors of the moon, Shivers the star-beams that before us fly. Give me thyself! This prayer is even a knell, Warning me back to mine own impotence. Self gives not self; and souls sequestered dwell In the dark fortalice of thought and sense, Where, though life's prisoners call from cell to cell, Each pines alone and may not issue thence. STELLA MARIS. 33 XXIII. J_ WERE prudence, therefore, to delude desire With possible fruition ; from afar To watch smooth waters silvered by the star, And the moon's mirrored loveliness admire. 'Twere prudence, ere flame fell, to crush that pyre The thought of thee built in my soul, and bar Her door against thy battail carrying war Into the conquered town with sword and fire. For yon stars errant of the homeless sky None wail but children, yet unlearned to know The laws that circumscribe humanity : But to man's burning heart what power shall show This common prudence ? Human 't is to cry For stars that like our soul's star throb and glow. 34 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. XXIV. /\RT thou love- worthy ? Shall a wretch set free By those thy succourable fervid eyes, Which with his long life-torment sympathise, Crying : We comprehend thy pain and thee ! Shall such a wretch weigh if thou worthy be, Nor welcome love, though even in reckless wise Love wing his wavering way through stormy skies, Shrouded in doubt and instability ? Not I ! No more I seek than what thou bringest ; And all thou askest, thou shalt have from me. Give me thyself! Nay, if to gold thou clingest, Gold in abundance I will shower on thee ! Thine eyes my hope are. It were heaven to gain Communion with thee, even in the clasp of pain ! STELLA MARIS. 35 XXV. OPARE me not ihou I I would not have thee hide The furnace of that fierce imperious gaze, Nor pray thee for love's sake to veil the rays Streaming from thy white soul, thou deified Dream of lust intellectual, carnal pride ! What though I swoon on the world's stony ways Desiring thee, though 'wildered in thy maze Of loveliness I roam unsatisfied : Though thou shouldst be for me incarnate hell, Damnation palpable, a living flame, Grave of mine honour, murderer of my name ; Nay, though thy love be thirst insatiable, Want unassuaged and passion without aim ; Thine am I, thine, thou irresistible ! 36 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. XXVI. VV AS it for naught then that my feet were set Upon that upward and disconsolate way, Which scales through darkness and the heart's dismay From earth to heaven's star-cinctured parapet, Where stationed on cold thrones the wise forget Joy and the passionate gust of winds at play Fluttering youth's roses in the disarray Of petulant will untaught, untutored yet ; If now, even now, when manhood's soberer blood Through steadier veins should drive a tardier flood, Now when life's race toward noon is well-nigh run, Keen gust of joy fraught with a fiery zest On vexed anticipation's torturing quest Hounds my tired soul lashed with love's malison ? STELLA MAR1S. 37 XXVII. .LVEBUKE me not ! I have nor wish nor skill To alter one hair's breadth in all this house Of Love, rising with domes so luminous And air-built galleries on life's topmost hill ! Only I know that fate, chance, years that kill, Change that transmutes, have aimed their darts at us ; Envying each lovely shrine and amorous Reared on earth's soil by man's too passionate will. Dread thou the moment when these glittering towers, These adamantine walls and gates of gems, Shall fade like forms of sun-forsaken cloud ; When dulled by imperceptible chill hours, The golden spires of our Jerusalems Shall melt to mist and vanish in night's shroud ! 38 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. XXVIII. J. DREAMED we were together on blue waves Sailing at eventide an unknown deep, Where charmed islands bathed in summer sleep, Breathed shrill sea-music from their agate caves : Love, the immortal youth of sixteen years, With wings upon his shoulders and a star Trembling above those eyes that pierce so far Beyond the future of man's hopes and fears, Steered us with singing : but I might not heed ; For with a dread my gaze was fixed on high, Where burned the broad red sail against the sky, And on the sail the semblance of a steed, White as sea-foam and winged, which snorting bore A dead man o'er blue waves for evermore. STELLA MARIS. 39 XXIX. JVlYSTERIOUS Night! Spread wide thy silvery plume ! Soft as swan's down, brood o'er the sapphirine Breadth of still shadowy waters dark as wine ; Smooth out the liquid heavens that stars illume ! Come with fresh airs breathing the faint perfume Of deep- walled gardens, groves of whispering pine; Scatter cool dews, waft pure sea-scent of brine ; In sweet repose man's pain, man's love resume ! Deep-bosomed Night ! Not here where down the marge Marble with palaces those lamps of earth Tremble on trembling blackness; nay, far hence, There on the lake where space is lone and large, And man's life lost in broad indifference, Lift thou the soul to spheres that gave her birth ! 40 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. XXX. 1 MPASSIONED Night ! Queen of our heart's unrest ! The slow dark waters journeying toward the sea Plash with a soft low moaning melody Like the half-heard sad music of man's breast. O conscious Night ! What murmurings unexpressed Throb through the pulse of thy tranquillity ! We are alone with love and death and thee, Silent, forlorn, disconsolate, oppressed. The dusky waves stream on ; the ruffling barque With sails outspread that scarcely feel the breeze, Glides on her passage through the glimmering dark : These yearn for sleep in calm unfathomed seas ; She longs for anchorage ; while heaven's huge arc Swarms with tired travelling stars that find no ease. STELLA MARIS. 41 XXXI. 1 HROUGHOUT the close inextricable coil Of man's life-tissues appetite, thought, will, Sense, conscience, instinct, choice of good or ill There floats a fine elixir, subtlest oil, Liquidest ether : substance is but foil To this pure quintessence of powers that fill The horn of life's abundance, and distil Spirit through nerves that vibrate, thews that toil. This, only this, forms man's last uttermost force ; And this finds no assuagement for the thirst Enormous laid on being, till the whole Inextricable coil, the sum of soul, In every filament be satiate first ; Then self drains joy at life's transcendent source. 42 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. XXXII. H . OW shall the soul on that last ledge of being, That thin fine tongue, keen quivering promontory Thrust into utmost seas of gloom or glory Beyond the extremest verge of mortal seeing How sever true from false before her fleeing, Summon and satisfy those feudatory Powers which reiterate their wrangling story, How drink at length the bliss of their agreeing ? Fate weaves our arras-web : some selves are woven For clear melodious issues, calm solutions, Real or ideal, twin sides of joy's gold medal ; Others, too crossly spun, too deeply cloven, In conflict clasp unharmonized illusions, Grope with dumb hands on keys, numbed feet on pedal. STELLA MARIS. 43 1 S love that last supremest consummation, That final concord where all powers agree, Commingling thought with sense, setting self free, Soothing the tyrant will with joy's oblation ? No need to pause for doubt or consultation ; Those wrangling partners in man's empery, Brief parley made, proclaim their jubilee : Love, only love fulfils life's aspiration ! True : but how rare, how mystical a jewel Must that love be which mid the vexed confusion Of sense, will, reason, shields the soul from peril ! How sinister, how ruinously cruel, The fate of him who blinded by illusion O'erlooks one flaw in love's enchanted beryl ! 44 VAGABUNDUL1 LIBELLUS. xxxiv. i~lOW often have I now outwatched the night Alone in this grey chamber toward the sea Turning its deep-arcaded balcony ! Round yonder sharp acanthus-leaves the light Comes stealing, red at first, then golden bright ; Till when the day-god in his strength and glee Springs from the orient flood victoriously, Each cusp is tipped and tongued with quivering white. The islands that were blots of purple bloom, Now tremble in soft liquid luminous haze, Uplifted from the sea-floor to the skies ; And dim discerned erewhile through roseate gloom, A score of sails now stud the waterways, Ruffling like swans afloat from paradise. STELLA MARIS. 45 XXXV. AT came at length, our meeting. Her white dress, Those summer robes she then so lightly wore, Were changed for winter's livery, and the shore Of Lido where she stood, now 'neath the stress Of rude Borrin with wavelets numberless Moaned to grey lands and cloud-capped mountains hoar. Her cheeks were bronzed with sunshine ; yet she bore Light in her eyes from heaven's deep wilderness, Blue lustre linking her to skies and seas, Clear elemental splendour. Grave and few, Meant for bystanders, were our words ; but these Bound soul with soul ; from brow to forehead flew Prayer and compliance. Were those effluences, So strongly felt, felt only by us two ? 46 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. XXXVI. J. HE heavens are one dusk sapphire ; one dark gem The sea-floor spread beneath that windless blue : The moon ascendant like a live coal through Infinite depths of ocean, steals on them. From burning rose to gold, from gold to true Silver she soars with lifted diadem, Scaling the skies, and with her lustrous hern Sweeping the lesser lamps of night from view. All the pure ardent stars that were so white, Sink into space ; she brooks no rival near : The seas her mirror, and the heavens her sphere. Only she dares not quench that breathing light Which in this dark room shines and outshines her, Stella, sole empress o'er the queen of night. STELLA MARIS. 47 xxxvn. C OILVERY mosquito-curtains draped the bed : A lamp stood on the table ; but its light Startled no whit the drowsy wings of night, Nor had the mystery of darkness fled. She slumbered not : flawless from foot to head ; Fair ivory body clothed in fairest white ; No bar between her beauty and my sight : Silence and storm-throes on our souls were shed. Storm in the flakes of refluent hair that fret Those brows imperious ; in the smouldering fire Of clear blue eyes love's tear-dews never wet ; Scorn frozen on firm lips, and petulant ire Ready to leap from that marmoreal breast. How awful was this motionless unrest ! 48 VAGABUNDULI LI BELL US. XXXVIII. ixND then she rose ; and rising, then she knelt ; And then she paced the floor with passionate tread ; And then she sank with that imperial head Bowed on bare knees : her broad arms made a belt To clasp them ; dark rebellious hair was shed In tempest o'er fixed ardent eyes which dwelt, Searching my heart's heart; yea, my manhood felt From that tense huddled form intensest-dreed. Nerves quaked ; veins curdled ; thin compulsive flame Thrilled through her crouching flesh to my couched soul Expectant ; lingering minutes winged with blame Swept over us with voiceless thunder-roll, While the vast silence of the midnight stole, Merging our sin, a shuddering sea of shame ! STELLA MARIS, 49 XXXIX. OHE was a woman ; therefore was she one, Worshipping whom a man of woman born Shrinks like a guilty thing surprised by morn From thoughts of self and sin's dominion. I clasped her in my arms ; yet might not shun The awful oath of that allegiance sworn To Beauty, when the soul was less forlorn Circling with gods round heaven's unfaltering sun. I drank her lips ; as thirsty flowers drink rain, Kisses 1 drank sweeter than honey-dews ; Yet though their arrowy perfume smote my brain, Love lurked not there, whose breath lifts earth to heaven ; Love, for whose sake man's frailties are forgiven, Love cried : Less than Love's best thou shalt refuse 1 50 VAGABUNDULI L1BELLUS. XL. OIDE unto side, we watched the ascendant day : But naught of faith, nothing of hope we spake : Breezes of morning thrilled the salt sea-lake ; While my will wavered yet twixt yea and nay. Suddenly, passion's red flower faded away ; Maya some little time forebore to shake Her painted lure, while the dull frozen ache Of disappointment turned my life's light grey. Scorn spake, self-scorn aping satiety : " There neither is, nor can there ever be, Twixt that white body and thy weak heart's desire, Communion ! Touch, taste, handle ! fierce self-blame Shall feed on thee, fervid with venomed fire. For gold she sells herself. Thine is the shame ! " STELLA MARIS. 51 XLI. " Q OHAME and Desire, twin brethren, are the brood Of thoughts diseased, which sound thoughts over- reach ; Self-gendering and self-slaughtering, each by each Slain and impregnated ; incestuous blood, Seed fratricidal. These find sweetest food In brains of fools, whose blood stale customs bleach; Who drug remorse with paradox, and preach Confusion, prating of vice gilt with good. Look on the girl there, thou thrice-cozened fool Fooled by desire, by shame, by thought's disease ! Let her greed send thy paltering soul to school ! Thought, shame, desire, she hath not. Sense and will On what she grasps, without misgiving seize. Herself she yields, throat, passion, purse to fill." VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS, XLII. w, INGED arrows from the armoury of scorn Flew home, and stung my spirit; my heart, un- quelled, With indignation those fierce gibes repelled ; And like the nightingale against a thorn Leaning her wounded breast from eve till morn, Made music out of misery, which held The ear of grief attentive, and refelled Despair with arguments from anguish torn. " Taunt me no taunts ! Have I not felt and seen That beauty like to this which I let shine Undimmed in lily-white marmoreal sheen, Nor dared to mar with lustre less divine, Must, shall be proved love-worthy, even though we, Seeker and sought, souls most unworthy be ? " STELLA MAKIS. 53 XLIII. /xH might it be that thou, who like the Dawn, Or Nereid rising from thine own blue sea, In supple strength and fearless nudity, With calm wide eyes of azure unwithdrawn, Bared thy white limbs, and let thy beauty dawn In moonbeams whiter than the moon for me ; Thou wild as Adria's waves that cradled thee, Swift as a sleuth-hound, slender as a fawn ; Ah might it be that thou, even thou, couldst give What the soul yearns for; not this passionate feast Which makes the satiate man go forth a beast ! I crave no life-gift ; let the guerdon be Than thought more frail, than time more fugitive, So but we blend one moment, thou with me ! 54 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. X-LIV. .L/REAMER ! I cast beyond the moon, and crave Impossibility. These longings are Mere madness, like to theirs who clasp a star, Or pluck the North-lights on their plumes to wave. Desire so sublimate digs her own grave : Substance for shadow bartering, peace for war, We seek we know not what ; yet, seeking, mar Such goods as God to lowlier lovers gave. Delight still flies before us : still we groan Mid dreams emergent from our own heart's gloom ; Which, bright as dawn by traitorous fancy shown, Turn, when we wake and face our hopeless doom, To fiends of midnight vengeance, and the tomb Gapes to engulf us wrecked and overthrown. STELLA MAR1S. 55 XLV. J_ AKE it, oh take it, take thy gold ! The shame Shall rest with me, the bitter barren bliss Of dreaming on a joy so brief as this. Thou hast no suffering, and, I think, no blame. Abide for me the everlasting flame, The worm that dies not, and the snakes that hiss Round souls that seek impossibilities, Lost in their lake of longing without aim. Is g there no spell then to assuage this smart? None ; for we truly know not what we crave. Knowing, we might appease the clamorous heart But lust contents it not ; and storms that rave O'er the soul's seas, are stilled by no fine art. Ah God, will peace be found even in the grave ? 56 VAGABUNDULI LIB ELL US. XLVI. X RATE not of peace ! Peace hides in prison cells And beds of sickness. Tis not peace I want, But life in floods, fretful, extravagant, Boiling perennial from the world's hot wells : Such life as in thy nerve, thy sinew, dwells, Child of the waves and sun-god, arrogant With blood and brine, like sea-winds petulant, Rude as sea-billows when the tempest swells. Thou then hast sold thyself? And I have bought Bought what ? The intolerable sense of sin. This anguish is too sharp. Souls cannot win Life from the bargain base their greeds have wrought. Flesh fattens flesh ; but flesh-fed souls go thin. That golden glorious body gave me naught. STELLA MARIS. 57 XLVII. OHE then is flown, flown with her smile supreme Of hard imperial scorn defying pain, And never, never will come back again : Those oars that sweep her from me, lash the stream Of tides in-flowing gilt with morning's gleam : Night and the stars have flown ; day now doth reign In garish glory over earth and main : Stella hath fled, and fled with her my dream. O dream that followest on the paths of night ! O joy that wast too frail to bear the light ! O heart that in thy depth didst doubt of love ! That love, so late attained, pursued so long, Why couldst thou not have plucked the fruit thereof? O rebel will, 'tis thou hast wrought me wrong ! VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. XLVIII. JL DO remember while I muse upon The peevish impotence of my mistrust, Puling at love because forsooth love must Build divers shrines for man's devotion ; I do remember how I strove with one, The rapier of whose keener thought was thrust Down to the soul's core, severing love from lust With touch more fine and firmer vision. This truth he spake, " Toward undiscovered things Thou shalt not soar on those dark dragon wings Fledged by gaunt appetite from glut of pain ! The soul's adventure frank and free as air Whereof thou pratest, oh, my friend, beware, 'Tis but a blind love-blasting hurricane ! " STELLA MARIS. 59 XLIX. J. S there no way by tyrannous strength of will To shape life's course across the trackless deep, Choosing our own star from the stars that sweep Heaven's concave ? Or must man one fate fulfil By patient tendance on the pole-star still, The sole star all must serve who fain would keep Safe steerage through the waves that round them leap, The storms that scatter and the rocks that kill ? I have not lived my own philosophy ! How could I live it ? for the joy I sought Was intermixed with so much subtlest ill, That when I grasped that cup, the good in me Stood forth in scorn, and I, in trammels caught Of my own strength, was forced the wine to spill. 60 VAGABUNDULI LI BELL US. 1VJ USING on Venice and the thought of thee, Thou resolute angel, sleep o'erspread my brain ; Brief solace blossomed from the root of pain, For in my dream thou wert at one with me : No longer restless like that clear blue sea, No longer lost in schemes of sordid gain, No longer unattainable by strain Of futile arms and false love's mockery ; But tranquil, with thy large eyes fixed on mine ; Love's dove-wings moving on thy soul's abyss ; Thy lips half-opened, and thy breast divine Scarce heaving with an unacknowledged bliss ; And all the golden glory that is thine, Communicated in a long close kiss. STELLA MARIS. 61 LI. V_JREY chamber; thou the shrine where love's star shone, She from whose brow dawned heaven's day, though the doom Of life enveloped that clear light with gloom, Tempering rays too keen to gaze upon ! Grey chamber, eastward turning ; shadows wan Begin to fade, while from her orient room Riseth the morn unheeded, to illume Venice with gold and barred vermilion ! Grey chamber, thou dost greet the expected dawn, Which with slow shuddering steps leads forth the day : Hast thou forgotten the Star, whose beams with- drawn Left thee, despite of earth's light, cold alway? Thou hast forgotten : but my lost heart in pawn Hungers for her, and loathes thee, chamber grey ! 62 VAGABUNDULI LIB ELL US. LII. _L HEY write me, Stella, write me thou art mad ! Strange truth to say, this comforts me somewhat. Knowing thee severed from life's common lot, I bow to Him who made thee, yea am glad. In lieu of that fierce calenture I had Transmitted from thine eyes, my heart so hot Is cooled with tenderness ; I fear thee not, Nor loathe, nor long. Nay, though my soul is sad, Sad for thee, my soul's sister, loveliest one That e'er these shameful sorrowing eyes shall shun, Yet art thou sacred now, assoiled of sin : And I can shed kind tears, nor curse our fate ; I understand thee now, and weeping win Solace : we both have fallen, but God is great. STELLA MARIS. 63 LIII. 1 DARE believe, now that I know the blight Which preys on thy life's bloom Thou, far but dear, Far from these arms for ever, ever near To the dark spirit which felt thy spirit's light I dare believe two souls in thee unite, Two angels who divide the luminous sphere Of thy terrestrial loveliness, and steer Crosswise thy worldly course with warring might. The one descended from those heavens where dwelt My soul with thine in antenatal rest, Leans from thine eyes, and whispers : We have felt! The other risen from hell, more fierce, more strong, To wreak on suffering lives his suffered wrong, Drives me, lured, loathing, from his home, thy breast ! 64 VAGABUNDUL1 LIBELLUS. LIV. S. SPIRIT of light and darkness ! I no less Twy-natured, but of more terraqueous mould, In whom conflicting powers proportion hold With poise exact, before thy proud excess Of beauty perfect and pure lawlessness Quail self-confounded ; neither nobly bold To dare for thee damnation, nor so cold As to endure unscathed thy fiery stress. Both of thine angels wound me ; and so tame Is this mixed essence of my earthlier mind, That seeking joy of sense, I light on shame ; Flying from shame, desire's loathed dungeon find ; Attack, retreat ; clasp and unclasp ; and win Neither the wage of virtue nor of sin. Sl^ELLA MARIS. 65 LV. w, HAT wrong, what wrong, what keen incurable wrong Have I then wrought thy spirit, that thou shouldst flee Into the void uncomforted of me ? Hath scorn, self-scorn, wielding pride's fiery thong, Wounding thy womanhood, with scorpion-strong Poison of fretful rage envenoming thee, Driven my soul's bliss forth across the sea Vexed with fierce storm where fiends in conflict throng? Madness dwells near to love ! Ah, well away, My love was madness ! Thy love too, my dear, Bred madness ! And so vilely tuned this fear Feeding on our twinned lives, that not one ray Smote through the darkness of that ominous day When the last first sole hour for hope was here I 5 66 VA CAB UND ULI LI BELL US. LVI. Y_/H pity, pity, pity for the doom Which broods o'er souls thus disinherited, Shorn thus of dear delights, the daily bread Of natural comrades travelling through life's gloom! We finelier spun, from fate's indifferent loom Flung forth for diverse issues, we must tread Dim paths environed with lonely dread, Tracts which no stars of mutual love illume. We clasped but in convulsion : clasping thus, The best thy wild free passionate nature, wrought Of sea- waves and of sunbeams, could make mine, Met in my dolorous heart mere depth of thought And lair of dark rebellion. Thou didst shine : I spurned thee : then black night swept over us. STELLA MARIS. 67 LVII. V_xOULD I but reach that dark sequestered land, Where she now dwells ringed round with mystery ; Hear her cry : Friend, I look for help to thee ! Could she but read my thoughts and understand What those long midnight hours for her have planned ! Sit by my side, and speak the truth to me ; Bless me with trust, sister to brother be ; Temper with love the flame her beauty fanned I Nay, but I crave o'ermuch. Mine was the crime ; Mine be the retribution. What I sought, She gave ; and did but claim the wage of guilt. How should she plunge down through this tortuous thought, Up through these spirals of repentance climb, Or save me from the cell my self had built? 68 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. LVII1. /\H, could I think that Christ for thee and me Yearneth, to bring back both into His fold, Arraying this weak flesh with wings of gold, Preparing us a place where angels be ! Yearns He for our lost lives, as I for thee Yearn in this solitude, whence I behold The wondrous heavens and world in cloud-wreaths rolled, But seek in vain thy spirit's self to see ? Seraph of light and darkness, spurn the gloom ! Shine forth in thy best beauty like the sun ! Burn till thy keener loveliness illume The carnal mesh around that radiance spun ! Or must I still strive on for thee with doom, And weep as Christ weeps o'er a soul unwon ? STELLA MARTS. 69 LIX. J. HE good thou cravest might have once been thine, Hadst thou not made thy will the instrument Of forceful folly, on vain rapture bent. Thou from the boughs didst rend that fruit malign, Which, slowly ripening 'neath the touch divine Of hours and days and seasons, should have leant At last to bless thee with the full content Of lives conjoined in friendship's holiest shrine. Now with intemperate fingers having torn, Thou findest beauty but a poisonous lure Unto thy soul's destruction, joy a thorn, Love's orient wings smirched with the mire impure Of frustrate lust, friendship no sooner born Than lettered with disease what skill can cure ? 70 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. LX. 1V1 ETHOUGHT in sleep, nay not in sleep, far more In clear-eyed visions of the wakeful night, Stella came aureoled with silvery light, Standing at my bedside as heretofore She stood, a breathing statue, marble-white, With calm beseeching eyes, hands that implore, And on her lips, from that celestial shore Where our souls met, a message winged with might. Ah, strange ! Yet wherefore strange ? For friend knows friend Only through spirit-thrills that touch the mind To act of divination : thus we lend Each to the other potencies which bind Twinned selves in quintessence, thoughts that portend Those last best aptitudes the senses blind. STELLA MARIS. 71 LXI. _L OISED in mid air and gloom, on sails outspread, Chimaera trembles. Whether our flight is flown ; Whether outsoaring this Cimmerian zone, Where fear dwells and the soul with doubt is fed, Deathward the wings that bore us shall be sped ; I know not. Reason upon my spirit's throne Now waits, illumined by the rays that shone Still from thine eyes and archangelic head. This interstellar darkness, shed between Clairvoyance and illusion, doubt-beset, Sharpens the soul's sight. I have clearly seen, Here on heaven's boundary line, hell's parapet, That Thou within thine inmost heart's serene Love-worthy art, and Love shall fold thee yet. 7* VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. LXII. JTl USH, I have fallen ; my feet are on firm ground ; Chimaera like the thunderstorm withdraws ; And I am left to sober natural laws, A calm grey sky, a landscape cloud-embrowned. How looks the plain, the footing I have found ? Stern, but not desolate ; and through the flaws Of tempest shines one star, whose lustre draws My tortured soul into her peace profound. Praise, praise to God ! Surely 'twas God who willed This whirlwind where my life was well-nigh lost. I feel Him ; with heaven's hope my heart is filled. Where God is, I am, and Thou art. The cost Shall not be counted, when at length in Him Both blend, as blend we must, spirit and limb. STELLA MARIS. 73 * LXIII. VV HO reads may wonder that so crude a fact Mere love 'twixt man and maid, lawless, unwed Should by sheer force of scrupulous thought be led To such fine issues. Twas a trivial act. From the bare natural feast of sense and tact Springs healthy flesh new-born, exhilarated : Why should the heart then starve ? Why prowl, unfed, Lion-like, through waste wild, cave, cataract ? Verily, there's the problem. Yet should he Have found, or dreamed to find in her the goal, Whither he voyaged with a hungering soul ; But finding it, have found therewith that she Loved not as he loved think you then his whole Life-wisdom saved him from blank misery ? 74 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. LXIV. nn JL HIS man, whose impotence shows manifest In the cold light of life's philosophy, From love sought some clear joy, fairer, more free, More exquisite, than earthly love possessed. Tired of seclusion, stirred by vague unrest, His spirit's sails in rash precipitancy Took flight across the wide and treacherous sea Of Beauty, winged for a false adventurous quest. Beauty seduced him. There are souls who pay Such vows to Aphrodite that she seems Consolidate with Goodness pure as day, And Truth transcending Fancy's loftiest dreams : Who saith that Loveliness can be mere clay, Against their heart's best hope, their faith blas- phemes. STELLA MARIS. 75 LXV. A, .RE these then lost in everlasting night ? Is there no substance in that ancient lore Which taught the expectant spirit how to soar Heavenward on plumes uplift by Beauty's might ? To form the rays of that celestial light Which from the throne of thrones for evermore Streams on the hosts of angels that adore, Goodness and Truth with Loveliness unite. Earth sunders what the eternal will made one : Truth veils the splendour that would sear our eyes : Goodness conceals her charms in coarse homespun : Beauty puts on that sensual disguise, Which when men fain Would clasp her, bids him shun Gross Circe-spells that blind and brutalize. 76 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. LXVI. are the sisters soldered by a bond Which even on earth is holy. Therefore we Who follow love with vain temerity, Deeming that wanton lord some vagabond, Who with light heart will laughingly abscond, Leaving his debts unpaid, careless and free, Find to our cost that by some stern decree Duty still rules us with inflexible wand. Loveliness stirs the soul's most sacred thirst For unattainable good transcending sense ; And loyalty, which slumbered when the first Whirlwind of passion blurred truth's excellence, Resumes her sway o'er tempers gently nursed. From love true men still crave life-permanence. STELLA MARIS. 77 LXVII. )EAUTIFUL wert thou ! What was then thy gift Of irresponsible beauty on our earth ? I found in thee no toy for trivial mirth ; Nor bred beneath thy radiance plumes to lift The adventurous soul above this mundane drift Of cares diurnal. When I test the worth Of that thy flawless diamond, from the birth Of passion to its death, I still must sift Love's problem thus : Love, be it high or low, Is no light-winged slight indifferent thing, But a close bond wedding two selves in one ; However disparate those selves may grow Toward diverse issues. Beauty thus doth bring Man back through love to law no life may shun. AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 81 WINTER NIGHTS IN THE HIGH ALPS, i. 1 \| OTES of a mute, not melancholy world, A world of snows and darkness and moon-sheen, Of still crystalline air and stars serene,. And stationary pines in slumber furled : Notes of the sober night, when drift is whirled By tireless winds over the solemn scene, When the lake-pavement groans, and mists between The shadowy mountain tops are coldly curled : Notes of a meditative man who walks Those white fields and that ice-floor all alone, Yet draws warm life from winter's frozen wells : Notes of a soul that most divinely talks Unto herself in silence, and hath known The God that in the mystic moon-world dwells. 82 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. II. JL SEND them to you, friends, whose feet are far, Moving upon a loved and populous land In sweet society and mutual band Of fellowship, star linked to breathing star ! Fain would I sometimes be where pictures are, And music, and the clasp of hand to hand ; Where men I love with loveliest women stand, And theatres their wonder-world unbar ; Where London's eddying ocean on its surge Tosses the thunder of souls armed for strife, And streets, aflame all night, with forceful urge Of multitudes in conflict quicken life ; Where chaff from wheat of hearts keen passions purge, And each tense hour with throes of fate is rife. AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 83 III. VV ITH you I may not dwell. Yet man is great ; And the mind triumphs over place and time : I therefore, doomed to weave my lonely rhyme, Here 'mid these pines, these moon-scenes desolate, Have found therein a joy that mocks at fate ; And stationed on a specular mount sublime, Have scanned yon fields low-lying, whence I climb To commune with the stars inviolate. The sempiternal stars, the flawless snows, The crystal gems fashioned by art of frost, The thin pure wind that whence it listeth blows, The solitude whereon the soul is tossed In contemplation of the world's huge woes ; These things suffice. Life's labour is not lost. 84 VAGABUNDULl LIBELLUS. IV. JT* RIENDS have I found here too : this peasant folk, Comradely, frank, athletic ; men who draw Their lineage from a race that never saw Fear on the field, but with firm sinewy stroke Those knightly ranks, Burgundian, Austrian, broke, And bade the Italian tyrant far withdraw ; These vales, these hills have known no lord but law Since Freedom for this people first awoke. Their joys austere, their frugal style be mine ; Low houses builded of the rude rough stone, Raftered and panelled with smooth native pine ; Here let me rest heart-whole, nor rest alone ; High thoughts be my companions ; words divine Of poets; these are still the spirit's own. AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 85 FOR A PICTURE. DREAM of deep green England came to me, Musing 'mid snows here by the slumberous stove : Warm summer evening faded o'er a grove Massed into leafy darkness, tree by tree, From saffron sky down to short turf, where he Who filled the foreground, like a beardless god, In coarse brown working clothes divinely trod, Shouldering his joiner's tools, stately and free. Like a young god he moved. And each strong limb, Unconscious of its strength, played tranquilly. The day's work dealt, this hour for love and home, This cool dark dewy hour, his own, had come, This hour for greetings at the gate, when she Who trembled 'neath his clasp, should cling to him. 86 VAGABUNDULI LIBELLUS. THE AVERAGE MAN. V V HO is my chosen hero ? I have none. This young man is enough for me : brave, chaste, Faithful to duty, by no vice debased, Lord of himself, yet serving every one ; Fair, with frank eyes, and jocund as the sun; Smiling from full glad lips ; so amply graced With natural persuasion, pure from waist To feet and shoulder, that no man doth shun, Nor woman neither, his compulsive charm. These great good gifts he ne'er hath used for harm. From his stout limbs, true heart, strong-fibred brain, Sweetness flows into life, like sweet fresh air From mountains blown over a bed of pain. I seek naught human loftier, naught more rare. AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 87 ADOLESCENTI. JL OO blessed thou, couldst thou self-conscious be Of thine own blessedness ! couldst thou but live Contented with those gifts the minutes give ; Thy bare existence being felicity ! No burden of the world's pain weighs on thee : Thou ne'er hast felt fate's worst imperative : Those weariest words Forget, Forgo, Forgive, Are found not yet in thy philosophy. Thrice blessed thou ! Though one had eminent wealth, Fame, knowledge, wisdom, mastery of his art ; Yet were he naught matched with thine ignorance, Thy poverty, thine insignificance ! To thee, being young, God giveth the better part ; Unworn, unvexed, unwearied, thou hast health ! 88 VAGABUNDULI LI BELL US. A PROBLEM OF THE NIGHT. _T ULL well we know that each star is a sun, Circled with congregated worlds that move In rhythmic choirs around one heart of love Vibrating flames which through their orbits run. Faith too hath held that of these worlds each one Pulses with life and life-pangs like our own ; For some are fledglings, some to full age grown, Some over-worn, their labours told and done. These thoughts perplex me not. Far more I muse, On winter nights, when the wide heavens lie bare, Why is it that one region shines so fair With fabled constellations, fiery spears, Orbs within orbs, which cross and interfuse, While yon black gulf yawns well-nigh void of spheres ? AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 89 THREE SISTERS. Reason, Will, the Heart. IVE me the dagger ! Let me deal death's blow ! ' Cried Reason in her scorn, when craven Will, Quailing before some apprehended ill, Had let my guilty Heart unmurciered go. Phantom-like o'er smooth wreaths of winter snow, Where passion slept her last sleep in the chill Of frozen hope, these twain swept up the hill, And found their sister sunk in tearless woe. My Heart, when she beheld them, rose and knelt : " Spare me not, dreadful sisters ! Slay, but hear ! For your sakes I would suffer worse than death. Yet, when you've slain me, say : Through her we felt." Then, when those unrelenting ones were near, She kissed their hands and yielded up her breath. 90 VAGABUNDUL1 LIBELLVS. IN BLACK AND WHITE WINTER ETCHINGS. I. The Chorister. ONOW on the high-pitched minster roof and spire : Snow on the boughs of leafless linden trees : Snow on the silent streets and squares that freeze Under night's wing down-drooping nigh and nigher. Inside the church, within the shadowy choir, Dim burn the lamps like lights on vaporous seas ; Drowsed are the voices of droned litanies ; Blurred as in dreams the face of priest and friar. Cold hath numbed sense to slumber here ! But hark, One swift soprano, soaring like a lark, Startles the stillness ; throbs that soul of fire, Beats around arch and aisle, floods echoing dark With exquisite aspiration ; higher, higher, Yearns in sharp anguish of untold desire ! AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 91 II. The Zither-Player. L HREE stealthy winter months of frost and storm Have piled this mountain-pass from peak to peak With trackless avalanche and snow-wreaths bleak, Obliterating road-marks, blurring form. One thing alone upon the waste is warm : One low-roofed house, where struggling men may seek Shelter, when whirled tornadoes round them shriek, And the snow-fiends of wild December swarm. In the pine-panelled room, beside the stove, A crone sleeps crouching o'er her spinning-wheel, An old man groans upon the bed above ; The while a youth, whose eyes through twilight rove In search of something which the sad hours steal, Draws from thrilled zither-strings the dirge of love. 92 VAGABUNDULI LJBELLUS. III. At Midnight. Jr ROM dreams I wake; dreams of warm summer night ; Deep night on stately cities ; luminous seas, Ruffled in rosy sunset with a breeze, Breathing from unnamed mountains far from sight. From dreams I wake ; dream-lands where hope is bright, And love the nursling of light melodies, And joy a winged thing too swift to seize, And mere existence an unmixed delight. Then from my bed I rise : the frozen vale Whitens before the window 'neath a cloud, Snowing incessantly; winter death-pale Heaps drift on drift, wraps shroud o'er sheeted shroud, Round the gaunt forest-slopes that guard this gaol ; Where hopes decay, where dreams are disallowed. AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. 93 IV. The Jodeller, .L