Yale University Prize Poem 1902 . , -- X -\ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES YALE UNIVERSITY PRIZE POEM 1902 YALE UNIVERSITY PRIZE POEM 1902 ODYSSEAN SONNETS BY ARTHUR STANLEY WHEELER NEW HAVEN RYDER'S PRINTING HOUSE 1902 PREFATORY NOTE. These sonnets received the fifth award of the prize offered by Professor Albert S. Cook of Yale University, for the best unpublished verse. They are thus printed in accordance with the wish of the donor that there may be no break in the set. A. S. W. NAUSICAA. The skies o'er Scheria are always blue Because of one fair presence on the isle, One heart that knows nor evil thought nor guile, A maiden ever innocently true. No aftermath of rosemary and rue Is thine, Nausicaa. No lurking wile Lies hid beneath the charm of that swift smile That fades as lightly as it lightly grew. Thy lamp once shed a soft and silvery beam Athwart the Wanderer from overseas, Who, tasting bitterly his soured lees. Forbore to mar thy delicate pure dream And so departing, left the lily-maid A memory to cherish unafraid. 5 TELEMACHUS. Faint shadow of a much enduring race ! Thy father wrought thee in his youthful days Before his harsh experience could blaze Its weight of knowledge on thy infant face. Thou soughtst him far, from place to distant place And wandering childlike through the fateful maze Around him woven, met the pitying gaze Of king and queen and curious populace. Strong arm and faithful heart, men say of thee. Yet followed thou as follows daylight dusk. One story drags thee later over sea, To eat from Circe's hand the trodden husk. I rather picture thee in after years At Ithaca forgetting hopes and fears. 6 PENELOPE. Calm guiding spirit of the Odyssey! I see thy face as one who mounts the crest Of some great wave on the tumultuous breast Of Ocean, fearing with the next to be Plunged down to death, flung high sees suddenly The pale moon shining seaward, lightly drest In whitest gauze of clouds. She charms to rest The fierce waves' fury by her purity. And so by purity thy modest fame Has lived ; and by one other thing, a wraith That fleeting flies beyond the grasp of men. Good women have it, like a cyclamen That blossoms white in souls untouched of blame, Pure-passioned flower of love. We call it Faith. 7 ODYSSEUS. Broad hand on helm he faces down the gale, Surge-tossed beneath a close-hung leaden sky. Wan froth from wild waves fiercely flung leaps high And now a stronger blast bears off the sail, Yet neither wave nor bitter wind avail To dim the steadfast courage of that eye, To wring from those close lips one coward's cry, One least admission that a man can fail. He hears to leeward roaring on the rocks Wild breakers striking at the clouds with foam. He feels beneath his feet the sundering shocks That shake his ship from shattered stem to stern. The sea strives vainly, since she cannot turn His thoughts from One who waits for him at home. 8 CALYPSO. High on a crag above the restless sea In weary woe Calypso waiting stands, Forever stretching out her long thin hands, A mute embodiment of agony. The last light fails, the wet winds rise, but she Hopes on, with haggard eyes like burning brands Searing the darkness, while the loosened strands Of all her wondrous hair float wildly free. Forgotten are the dreams of other days, Her soul is flame, her parted lips are dry. The languorous noonings in the dark cool caves Were centuries ago. How long he stays ! Her fate is fixed, a goddess cannot die, And ah, the ceaseless beating of the waves ! 9 TELEGONUS. My mother sits within her silver hall And sings some low sweet song of mystery, But I hear sullen murmurs from the sea, The dull insistent sounding of the call That lures me ever outward to my fall And great Odysseus'. Lo, the prophecy Looms like a tall Olympus over me And covers all Aaea with a pall. The breeze blows from the shore, my swift ship waits, Straining to start, an all too eager steed To bear a laggard rider to his need. My doom is nigh, no man escapes the Fates. Raise the white sail ; my father's son am I And still must slav mv father ere I die. HELEN. In Lacedaemon lay thy brethren cold Before the plain of Troy was waste with war. That thou hadst died with them were better far Than to have been the cause of woe untold. For O, thou statue of supernal mold, That man is safe who hangs his mortal car Behind the splendor of a falling star, Compared to those who saw thy tresses' gold. I see thee stately in thy husband's halls ; Wild memories have marred thy deathless face, But still thy marvellous and mystic grace Breathes music like a melody that falls. I would that I, too, lay upon that plain Had I for beauty such as thine been slain. CASSANDRA. At last thy tortured spirit has its rest, Dark prophetess, thy passioning is done. No more the mercilessly burning sun Can parch those lips envenomed at behest Divine. Great beauty made thy life a jest, More strangely sad than any since begun, More salt with tears than all the streams that run Unknown to man beneath the ocean's breast. The winds that sweep Mycenae's arid plain Have piled the dust of ages o'er thy head ; The walls that ran with blood when thou wert slain Have crumbled down above their famous dead, But still whene'er those wandering winds arise, The ground gives up thy wild prophetic cries. 12 CLYTEMNESTRA. My first-born perished on a foreign strand At Aulis 'mid the empery of ships. In dreams I see my own heart's blood that drips From her white throat beneath a father's hand. Maddened I cried : "Lo now ! He burst the band That bound us. Thus his right to kiss my lips, Nay, even touch these slender finger-tips, Is gone, effaced like letters writ on sand." Then came Aegistheus, flame on bitter flame, For ten great years our burning lit the skies. Meseemed my life was one long swooning kiss. The king returned ; we slew and felt no shame, But yet there runs red mist before mine eyes And in my ears the sudden serpent's hiss. 13 235132 ilTY of CALIFORNIA AT . MN 21. 1908 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 001 220 290 9