Chapter XII

Lo, this is he in whom the surgent springs
Of recollections richer than our skies
To feed the flow of tuneful strings,
Show but a pool of scum for shooting flies.

PHAÉTHÔN

ATTEMPTED IN THE GALLIAMBIC MEASURE

At the coming up of Phoebus the all-luminous charioteer, Double-visaged stand the mountains in imperial multitudes, And with shadows dappled men sing to him, Hail, O Beneficent! For they shudder chill, the earth-vales, at his clouding, shudder to black; In the light of him there is music thro' the poplar and river-sedge, Renovation, chirp of brooks, hum of the forest--an ocean-song. Never pearl from ocean-bottoms by the diver exultingly, In his breathlessness, above thrust, is as earth to Helios.

Who usurps his place there, rashest? Aphrodite's loved one it is! To his son the flaming Sun-God, to the tender youth, Phaethon, Rule of day this day surrenders as a thing hereditary, Having sworn by Styx tremendous, for the proof of his parentage, He would grant his son's petition, whatsoever the sign thereof. Then, rejoiced, the stripling answered: 'Rule of day give me; give it me, 'Give me place that men may see me how I blaze, and transcendingly, 'I, divine, proclaim my birthright.' Darkened Helios, his utterance Choked prophetic: 'O half mortal!' he exclaimed in an agony, 'O lost son of mine! lost son! No! put a prayer for another thing: 'Not for this: insane to wish it, and to crave the gift impious! 'Cannot other gifts my godhead shed upon thee? miraculous 'Mighty gifts to prove a blessing, that to earth thou shalt be a joy? 'Gifts of healing, wherewith men walk as the Gods beneficently; 'As a God to sway to concord hearts of men, reconciling them; 'Gifts of verse, the lyre, the laurel, therewithal that thine origin 'Shall be known even as when _I_ strike on the string'd shell with melody, 'And the golden notes, like medicine, darting straight to the cavities, 'Fill them up, till hearts of men bound as the billows, the ships thereon.' Thus intently urged the Sun-God; but the force of his eloquence Was the pressing on of sea-waves scattered broad from the rocks away. What shall move a soul from madness? Lost, lost in delirium, Rock-fast, the adolescent to his father, irreverent, 'By the oath! the oath! thine oath!' cried. The effulgent foreseër then, Quivering in his loins parental, on the boy's beaming countenance Looked and moaned, and urged him for love's sake, for sweet life's sake, to yield the claim, To abandon his mad hunger, and avert the calamity. But he, vehement, passionate, called out: 'Let me show I am what I say, 'That the taunts I hear be silenced: I am stung with their whispering. 'Only, Thou, my Father, Thou tell how aloft the revolving wheels, 'How aloft the cleaving horse-crests I may guide peremptorily, 'Till I drink the shadows, fire-hot, like a flower celestial, 'And my fellows see me curbing the fierce steeds, the dear dew-drinkers: 'Yea, for this I gaze on life's light; throw for this any sacrifice.'

All the end foreseeing, Phoebus, to his oath irrevocable, Bowed obedient, deploring the insanity pitiless. Then the flame-outsnorting horses were led forth: it was so decreed. They were yoked before the glad youth by his sister-ancillaries. Swift the ripple ripples follow'd, as of aureate Helicon, Down their flanks, while they impatient pawed desire of the distances, And the bit with fury champed. Oh! unimaginable glories! Unimagined speed and splendour in the circle of upper air! Higher, higher than the mountains, than the eagle fleeing arrows! Glory grander than the armed host upon earth singing victory! Chafed the youth with their spirit surcharged, as when blossom is shaken by winds, Marked that labour by his sister Phaethontiades finished, quick On the slope of the car his forefoot set assured: and the morning rose: Seeing whom, and what a day dawned, stood the God, as in harvest fields, When the reaper grasps the full sheaf and the sickle that severs it: Hugged the withered head with one hand, with the other, to indicate (If this woe might be averted, this immeasurable evil), Laid the kindling course in view, told how the reins to manipulate: Named the horses fondly, fearful, caution'd urgently betweenwhiles: Their diverging tempers dwelt on, and their wantonness, wickedness, That the voice of Gods alone held in restraint; but the voice of Gods; None but Gods can curb. He spake: vain were the words: scarcely listening, Mounted Phaethon, swinging reins loose, and, 'Behold me, companions, 'It is I here, I!' he shouted, glancing down with supremacy; 'Not to any of you was this gift granted ever in annals of men; 'I alone what only Gods can, I alone am governing day!' Short the triumph, brief his rapture: see a hurricane suddenly Beat the lifting billow crestless, roll it broken this way and that;-- At the leap on yielding ether, in despite of his reprimand, Swayed tumultuous the fire-steeds, plunging reckless hither and yon; Unto men a great amazement, all agaze at the Orient:-- Pitifully for mastery striving in ascension, the charioteer, Reminiscent, drifts of counsel caught confused in his arid wits; The reins stiff ahind his shoulder madly pulled for the mastery, Till a thunder off the tense chords thro' his ears dinned horrible. Panic seized him: fled his vision of inviolability; Fled the dream that he of mortals rode mischances predominant; And he cried, 'Had I petitioned for a cup of chill aconite, 'My descent to awful Hades had been soft, for now must I go 'With the curse by father Zeus cast on ambition immoderate. 'Oh, my sisters! Thou, my Goddess, in whose love I was enviable, 'From whose arms I rushed befrenzied, what a wreck will this body be, 'That admired of thee stood rose-warm in the courts where thy mysteries 'Celebration had from me, me the most splendidly privileged! 'Never more shall I thy temple fill with incenses bewildering; 'Not again hear thy half-murmurs--I am lost!--never, never more. 'I am wrecked on seas of air, hurled to my death in a vessel of flame! 'Hither, sisters! Father, save me! Hither, succour me, Cypria!'

Now a wail of men to Zeus rang: from Olympus the Thunderer Saw the rage of the havoc wide-mouthed, the bright car superimpending Over Asia, Africa, low down; ruin flaming over the vales; Light disastrous rising savage out of smoke inveterately; Beast-black, the conflagration like a menacing shadow move With voracious roaring southward, where aslant, insufferable, The bright steeds careered their parched way down an arc of the firmament. For the day grew like to thick night, and the orb was its beacon-fire, And from hill to hill of darkness burst the day's apparition forth. Lo, a wrestler, not a God, stood in the chariot ever lowering: Lo, the shape of one who raced there to outstrip the legitimate hours: Lo, the ravish'd beams of Phoebus dragg'd in shame at the chariot-wheels: Light of days of happy pipings by the mead-singing rivulets! Lo, lo, increasing lustre, torrid breath to the nostrils; lo, Torrid brilliancies thro' the vapours lighten swifter, penetrate them, Fasten merciless, ruminant, hueless, on earth's frame crackling busily. He aloft, the frenzied driver, in the glow of the universe, Like the paling of the dawn-star withers visibly, he aloft: Bitter fury in his aspect, bitter death in the heart of him. Crouch the herds, contract the reptiles, crouch the lions under their paws. White as metal in the furnace are the faces of humankind: Inarticulate creatures of earth, dumb all await the ultimate shock.

To the bolt he launched, 'Strike dead, thou,' uttered Zeus, very terrible; 'Perish folly, else 'tis man's fate;' and the bolt flew unerringly. Then the kindler stooped; from the torch-car down the measureless altitudes Leaned his rayless head, relinquished rein and footing, raised not a cry. Like the flower on the river's surface when expanding it vanishes, Gave his limbs to right and left, quenched: and so fell he precipitate, Seen of men as a glad rain-fall, sending coolness yet ere it comes: So he showered above them, shadowed o'er the blue archipelagoes, O'er the silken-shining pastures of the continents and the isles; So descending brought revival to the greenery of our earth.

Lither, noisy in the breezes now his sisters shivering weep, By the river flowing smooth out to the vexed sea of Adria, Where he fell, and where they suffered sudden change to the tremulous Ever-wailful trees bemoaning him, a bruised purple cyclamen.

NOTES

THEODOLINDA.

The legend of the Iron Crown of Lombardy, formed of a nail of the true Cross by order of the devout Queen Theodolinda, is well known. In the above dramatic song she is seen passing through one of the higher temptations of the believing Christian.

PHAETHON.

The Galliambic Measure.

Hermann (_Elementa Doctrinae Metricae_), after citing lines from the Tragic poet Phrynichus and from the Comic, observes:

Dixi supra, Phrynichorum versus videri puros Ionicos esse. Id si verum est, Galliambi non alia re ab his differunt, quam quod anaclasin, contractionesque et solutiones recipiunt. Itaque versus Galliambicus ex duobus versibus Anacreonteis constat, quorum secundus catalecticus est, hac forma:

The wonderful +Atys+ of Catullus is the one classic example. A few lines have been gathered elsewhere. The Laureate's +Boadicea+ rides over many difficulties and is a noble poem. Catullus makes general use of the variant second of the above metrical forms:

_Mihi januae frequentes, mihi limina tepida:_

With stress on the emotion:

_Jam, jam dolet quod egi, jam jamque poenitet._

A perfect conquest of the measure is not possible in our tongue. For the sake of an occasional success in the velocity, sweep, volume of the line, it seems worth an effort; and, if to some degree serviceable for narrative verse, it is one of the exercises of a writer which readers may be invited to share.

THE END

_Printed by_ R. & R. Clark, _Edinburgh_

* * * * *

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired.

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and small capitals (for emphasis) by +plus signs+.

Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies.