This mind that injured, be an aimless balm.
Or if there be some other world, with no
Bloom, neither rippling sound, nor early smell,
Nor leaves, nor pleasant exchange of human speech;
Only a dreadful pacing to and fro

Of spirits meditating on the sun;

A land of barèd boughs and grieving wind;
Yet would I not forego the doom, the place,
Whither my poets and my heroes went

Before me; warriors that with deeds forlorn
Saddened my youth, yet made it great to live;
Lonely antagonists of Destiny,

That went down scornful before many spears,
Who, soon as we are born, are straight our friends;
And live in simple music, country songs,

And mournful ballads by the winter fire.

Since they have died, their death is ever mine;
I would not lose it. Then, thou speak'st of joy,
Of immortality without one sigh,

Existence without tears for evermore.

Thou wouldst preserve me from the anguish, lest
This holy face into the dark return.
Yet I being human, human sorrow miss.
The half of music, I have heard men say,

Is to have grieved; when comes the lonely wail
Over the mind; old men have told it me,
Subdued after long life by simple sounds.
The mourner is the favorite of the moon,
And the departing sun his glory owes
To the eternal thoughts of creatures brief,
Who think the thing that they shall never see.
Since we must die, how bright the starry track!

How wonderful in a bereavèd ear

The Northern wind; how strange the summer night,

The exhaling earth to those who vainly love.
Out of our sadness have we made this world
So beautiful; the sea sighs in our brain,
And in our heart that yearning of the moon.
To all this sorrow was I born, and since
Out of a human womb I came, I am

Not eager to forego it; I would scorn
To elude the heaviness and take the joy,

For pain came with the sap, pangs with the bloom:
This is the sting, the wonder. Yet should I
Linger beside thee in felicity,

Sliding with open eyes through liquid bliss.
For ever; still I must grow old. Ah, I

Should ail beside thee, Apollo, and should note
With eyes that would not be, but yet are dim,
Ever so slight a change from day to day

In thee my husband; watch thee nudge thyself
To little offices that once were sweet:

Slow where thou once wert swift, remembering

To kiss those lips which once thou couldst not leave.
I should expect thee by the Western bay,

Faded, not sure of thee, with desperate smiles,
And pitiful devices of my dress

Or fashion of my hair: thou wouldst grow kind;
Most bitter to a woman that was loved.

I must ensnare thee to my arms, and touch
Thy pity, to but hold thee to my heart.
But if I live with Idas, then we two

On the low earth shall prosper hand in hand
In odors of the open field, and live

In peaceful noises of the farm, and watch
The pastoral fields burned by the setting sun.
And he shall give me passionate children, not
Some radiant god that will despise me quite,

But clambering limbs and little hearts that err.
And I shall sleep beside him in the night,
And fearful from some dream shall touch his hand
Secure; or at some festival we two

Will wander through the lighted city streets;
And in the crowd I'll take his arm and feel
Him closer for the press. So shall we live.
And though the first sweet sting of love be past,
The sweet that almost venom is; though youth,
With tender and extravagant delight,

The first and secret kiss by twilight hedge,
The insane farewell repeated o'er and o'er,
Pass off; there shall succeed a faithful peace;
Beautiful friendship tried by sun and wind,
Durable from the daily dust of life.

And though with sadder, still with kinder eyes,
We shall behold all frailties, we shall haste
To pardon, and with mellowing minds to bless.
Then though we must grow old, we shall grow old
Together, and he shall not greatly miss

My bloom faded, and waning light of eyes,
Too deeply gazed in ever to seem dim;
Nor shall we murmur at, nor much regret
The years that gently bend us to the ground,
And gradually incline our face; that we
Leisurely stooping, and with each slow step,
May curiously inspect our lasting home.
But we shall sit with luminous holy smiles,
Endeared by many griefs, by many a jest,
And custom sweet of living side by side;
And full of memories not unkindly glance

Upon each other. Last, we shall descend

Into the natural ground-not without tears-
One must go first, ah god! one must go first;

3

After so long one blow for both were good;
Still like old friends, glad to have met, and leave
Behind a wholesome memory on the earth.

And thou, beautiful god, in that far time,
When in thy setting sweet thou gazest down
On this gray head, wilt thou remember then
That once I pleased thee, that I once was young?"

When she had spoken, Idas with one cry
Held her, and there was silence; while the god
In anger disappeared. Then slowly they,
He looking downward, and she gazing up,
Into the evening green wandered away.

CENONE1

Stephen Phillips

HERE lies a vale in Ida, lovelier

THERE

Than all the valleys of Ionian hills.

The swimming vapor slopes athwart the glen,

1 Paris, also called Alexander, "was the second son of Priam and ecuba. Before his birth Hecuba dreamed that she had brought forth a rebrand, the flames of which spread over the whole city. Accordingly, as on as the child was born, he was exposed on Mt. Ida, but was brought › by a shepherd, who gave him the name of Paris. He succeeded in scovering his real origin, and was received by Priam as his son. He arried Enone, the daughter of the river god Cebren, but he soon derted her for Helen. The tale runs that when Peleus and Thetis solemnized ir nuptials, all the gods were invited to the marriage with the excepin of Eris, or Strife. Enraged at her exclusion, the goddess threw a Iden apple among the guests, with the inscription to the fairest." ereupon Hera [or Here], Aphrodite and Athena [or Pallas], each imed the apple for herself. Zeus ordered Hermes to take the goddesses Mt. Ida, and to entrust the decision of the dispute to the shepherd ris. The goddesses accordingly appeared before him. Hera promised the sovereignty of Asia, Athena renown in war, and Aphrodite the rest of women for his wife. Paris decided in favor of Aphrodite, and e her the golden apple. Under the protection of Aphrodite, Paris sailed to Greece, and was hospitably received in the palace of Menes at Sparta. Here he succeeded in carrying off Helen, the wife of nelaus, who was the most beautiful woman in the world. Hence arose Trojan war. Before her marriage with Menelaus, she had been ed by the noblest chiefs of all parts of Greece. Her former suitors resolved to revenge her abduction, and sailed against Troy."-By nission from Smith's Smaller Classical Dictionary, Everyman's Library ion, published by E. P. Dutton & Company.

Puts forth an arm, and creeps from pine to pine,
And loiters, slowly drawn. On either hand
The lawns and meadow-ledges midway down
Hang rich in flowers, and far below them roars
The long brook falling thro' the cloven ravine
In cataract after cataract to the sea.

Behind the valley topmost Gargarus

Stands up and takes the morning; but in front
The gorges, opening wide apart, reveal

Troas and Ilion's columned citadel,

The crown of Troas.

Hither came at noon

Mournful Enone, wandering forlorn.

Of Paris, once her playmate on the hills.

Her cheek had lost the rose, and round her neck
Floated her hair or seemed to float in rest.

She, leaning on a fragment twined with vine,
Sang to the stillness till the mountain-shade
Sloped downward to her seat from the upper cliff.

“O mother Ida, many-fountained Ida,
Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die.
For now the noonday quiet holds the hill;
The grasshopper is silent in the grass;
The lizard, with his shadow on the stone,
Rests like a shadow, and the winds are dead.
The purple flower droops, the golden bee
Is lily-cradled: I alone awake.

My eyes are full of tears, my heart of love,
My heart is breaking and my eyes are dim,
And I am all aweary of my life.