Part 1
GYPSY VERSES
Gypsy Verses
_By_ HELEN HAY WHITNEY
AUTHOR OF “_Some Verses_,” “_The Bed Time Book_.”
NEW YORK
Duffield & Company 1907
COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY DUFFIELD & COMPANY
_Published October, 1907_
To
_G. V. W. because she is my friend_
CONTENTS
PAGE ATARAH 3 AGE 4 LOVE AND DAWN 5 L’AMOUR AMBIGUEUX 6 SAPPHICS 7 SATAN, PRINCE OF DARKNESS 8 IN PRISON 9 GHOSTS 10 LILIS 11 THE OLD WOMEN 12 TO HIPPOLYTUS 13 THE GARDEN HEDGE 14 THE SLAVE WOMAN 15 SONG 16 SANS-JOY 17 OUT OF THE JUNGLE 18 IN PORT 19 SONNY BOY 21 SUNRISE 22 DEAD LADIES 24 WHEN TRISTAN SAILED 25 THE BATTLE 27 RECOMPENSE 28 THE LOTUS EATERS 29 LOST APHRODITE 30 THE FOOLS 32 THE AWAKENING 33 THE DARK WOMAN 34 SUMMER SONG 35 SERAPHIS 36 VENGEMENT 37 AUTUMN LOVE 38 THE WITCH 40 THE MAN 42 DOWN IN MALDONADO TOWN 43 THE CHOICE 45 THE BROOK 46 AT THE END OF THE WORLD 47 THE GYPSY 48 BOY O’ DREAMS 49 BALLAD OF THE SLAVE 51 FOAM 53 THE SEAL 54 RELEASE 55 SIN, THE SWORD 56 FANTASTIC SPRING 57 SONG 58 CONTRAST 59 THE PRICE 60 THE KING’S DAUGHTER 61 LAIS 62 THE HERITAGE 63 THE MONK IN HIS GARDEN 64 BIANCA 65 FREE 66 BLACK AND GOLD 67 THE ANSWER 68 PEACE 69 BARNABAS 70 LOST DREAMS 71 LADY OF LIGHT 72 SONG 73 THE GYPSY BLOOD 74 AND YET 75 THRO’ THE PLEACHED ALLEYS 76
_Acknowledgment is made to Messrs. Harper and Brothers, the Century Company, and the Metropolitan Magazine for courteous permission to reproduce certain of the verses included in this volume._
GYPSY VERSES
_Oh, you were not so idle-- You wore a sprig of green; You wore a feather in your cap, The reddest ever seen._
_Your face was laughing gypsy brown, Your eyes were of the blue; You wandered up and down the world, For you had much to do._
_For oh, you were not idle, Whatever men might say-- You made the colour of the year Magnificent and gay._
ATARAH
With painted slender folded hands She waited what might come, Her head was tyred with jewelled bands, Her mouth was sweet and dumb.
Her cymar was of ardassine, Fire red from throat to hem, Broidered with Turkis stones therein-- She gave her soul for them.
Faint cassia and love-haunted myrrh Made perilous her hair, And what was Sidon’s woe to her Whose face was king’s despair?
Nor life nor love from those cold lips, But ah, in what degree, Her passionate lover leans and sips Her death-bright poesy.
AGE
Blindness, and women wailing on white seas, Seas where no placid sails have ever been, Dreams like wan demons on waste marshes seen Thro’ dulling, fevered eyes. The dregs and lees Of wine long spilt to dead divinities. Grey, empty days when Spring is never green, Can the heart answer what these riddles mean-- Can the life hold such hopelessness as these?
Love lying low in the long pleasant grass, Youth with his eager face against the sun, They may not guess the hours when these shall pass,
In what drear coin such lovely dreams are paid, At what grim cost their flowery days are won, When man is old and lonely and afraid.
LOVE AND DAWN
Dawn shaking long light pennons in the East-- Is love the least And love the greatest of the morning’s woes? See how the rose Breaks in a hundred petals down the sky. Darkness must die, And in the heart, where flutters sad desire, Wakes the new fire Silver and azure of the open day. So, grief, away! We will be glad with flagons, drown old pain, And Dawn shall bring us to her own again.
L’AMOUR AMBIGUEUX
You are the dreams we do not dare to dream, The dim florescence of a mystic rose, In poverty or pride love comes and goes, We do not question what the deeps may seem Launched on the steady current of the stream. Gaily and hardily we hear the prose; In youth, red sun, in age the charnel snows. Nor see the banks where subtle flowers gleam, In green sweet beds of moly and of thyme Wild as an errant fancy. All the while We know you, mystic rose; we know your smile, Your deep, still eyes, your fragrant floating hair, The peacock purple of the gown you wear, O lyric alchemist of rune and rhyme!
SAPPHICS
Leave the Vine, Ah Love, and the wreath of myrtle, Leave the Song, to die, on the lips of laughter, Come, for love is faint with the choric measure, Weary of waiting.
Down the sky in lines of pellucid amber Blows the hair of her whom the gods have treasured, Fair, more fair is mine in the ring of maidens, Mine for the taking.
SATAN, PRINCE OF DARKNESS
I sinned, but gloriously. I bore the fall From Heaven’s high places as becomes a king. I did not shrink before the utmost sting Of torture or of banishment. The pall Of Dis, I cried, should be the hall Where sad proud men of men should meet and sing The woes of that defeat ambitions bring Hurled from the last vain fight against the wall.
I thought I had been punished. To forego All lovely sights, the whisper of fresh rain, To brood forever endlessly on pain Yet still a Prince, Ah God, I dreamed,--and then I learned my Fate, this wandering to and fro In Devil’s work among the sons of men.
IN PRISON
Above her task the long year through She works with steady hands, The while her heart is tired with dreams Which no man understands.
For long and long ago she knew Green trees and open sky, Before the law condemned her days To doom until she die.
And so she dreams in mystic peace, Indifferent to the scene, Because her heart retains and knows The little stain of green.
GHOSTS
The long lost lights of love I know, They thrill from ultimate space, they blow Like small bewildered stars, tossed high On some unknown and passionate sky.
I know them for the loved lost lights That made the glamour of my nights Long, long ago, and now I fear Their coming, and the garb they wear.
For they are very white and cold, They are not coloured as of old, In trailing radiance, rose and red, For these are ghosts, and they are dead.
LILIS
We have forgiven you because you are so fair, Eloquent by virtue of your dark enchanting eyes, Evil to your heart of hearts, shall we blame or care, You are very beautiful, and love has made you wise.
With a splendid insolence you exist to sin, Scorn us for the weaknesses that bring us to our pain. Weak you are and false you are and never may we win, Yet we have forgiven you, and shall forgive again.
THE OLD WOMEN
We are very, very old, We have had our day, So we bend above our work While the others play.
Do they call us women, we Gaunt and grey and grim, Hideous and sexless things Weak of brain and limb?
Beauty ended, love long past, Yet, when all else flees, We are women, for we still Have our memories.
TO HIPPOLYTUS
It is too late to part. I dreamed a dream That love had loosed me, that no more your name Should vex my soul, for very pride and shame I hid you out of mind; I said, The stream Has grown too wide between us, it would seem To sunder even memory. Your fame Rang hollow on my ear, and then you came And love laughed for the lie he would redeem.
It is too late. Love will not let me go. The bare suns burn me, and the strong winds blow; I take them fearlessly, for I am wise At last; for being yours I must be brave, Tho’ you give nothing, still am I your slave, The light within my heart your eyes, your eyes.
THE GARDEN HEDGE
I live in a beautiful garden, All joyous with fountains and flowers; I reck not of penance or pardon, At ease thro’ the exquisite hours.
My blossoms of lilies and pansies, Pale heliotrope, rosemary, rue, All lull me with delicate fancies As shy as the dawn and the dew.
But the ghost--Gods--the ghost in the gloaming, How it lures me with whispers and cries, How it speaks of the wind and the roaming, Free, free, ’neath the Romany skies.
’Tis the hedge that is crimson with roses, All wonderfully crimson and gold, And caged in my beautiful closes I know what it is to be old.
THE SLAVE WOMAN
Her eyes are dark with unknown deeps, Old woes and new despair, Her shackled spirit feels the thong That breaks her body bare.
The savage master of her days Who mocks her passive pain, How should he know her scorn of him. Indifferent to the stain?
For in her heart she sees the glow Of sacrificial fires, A priestess of a mystic rite Performed on nameless pyres.
The incident of shame and toil She takes with idle breath, For she remembers Africa, And what to her is death?
SONG
The sky is more blue than the eyes of a boy, A riot of roses entangles the year; Ah, come to me, run to me, fill me with joy, Dear, dear, dear.
The air is a passion of perfume and song, The little moon swings up above, look above, I cannot wait longer, I’ve waited so long, Love, love, love.
SANS-JOY
Hide your eyes, Angels, beneath your gold phylacteries, Israfel will charm you with the magic of his song: Yet you will not smile for him, by reason of your memories, For Lucifer is absent, and the cry goes up, How long!
For his expiation you would give your dreams and destinies, Paradise is clouded by the measure of your pain; Hide your eyes, Angels, beneath your gold phylacteries, Till the jasper gates swing wide to bring him home again.
OUT OF THE JUNGLE
Out of the jungle he came, he came, Man of the lion’s breed, His heart was fire and his eyes were flame, And he piped on a singing reed.
Spring was sweet and keen in his blood, Singing, he sought his mate, The wife for the life and time of his mood, Formed for his needs by fate.
Over his reed he piped and sang, His eyes were the eyes of a man, But the jungle knew how his changes rang, For his heart was the heart of Pan.
IN PORT
Wave buffeted and sick with storm, The ships came reeling in, The harbour lights were kind and warm, And yet, so hard to win.
Like wings, the tired sails fluttered down, While night began to fall, Then came, sea-scarred, toward the town, The smallest ship of all.
At last in harbour, safe and still, No more she need be brave, No more she’d meet the winds’ rough will, The wanton of each wave.
The harbour lights! but where the moon Should murmur blessings bright, Clouded instead the dread typhoon, That thundered down the night.
What curse the luring harbour bore Of false security; The port held desolation more Than boasted all the sea.
When morning came with leering lip, What death lay on her breast, And oh! the little weary ship Was wrecked with all the rest.
SONNY BOY
(A bust by H. F.)
Grave as a little god, erect and wise, He dares the years that open to his gaze. Brave in his charming beauty, he portrays A bright eternal youth, and in his eyes Sweet moons that are no more. No sad surprise Has gloomed the gay adventure of his ways, And from the flower-lit meadow of the days He leaps clean-hearted to life’s enterprise.
SUNRISE
There was a cry from the sky, A cry at night; It wakened the breeze in the trees When the moon was white; And I, only I, Adrift on life’s terrible seas, Read the cry aright.
Pennants of gold were unrolled, They told of sun; Night’s pain with the dark and the rain, Was over and done. The travail of old Had passed from the mother again, And the fight was won.
There was a cry from the sky, And my soul was torn With a passion divine, as of wine, From the breast of morn; For I, only I, Knew the cry as the signal and sign That love was born.
DEAD LADIES
Thais and Lalage, your eyes are closed, Phryne, Aholibah, your lips are dust. Your tinkling feet are idle and composed, All your gold beauty vanished into rust.
Nor Dionysian mysteries taught you this, Since the gold serpent was your seal and sign; Tho’ deathless be the imprint of your kiss, The lips that redden are not yours, but mine.
How you would scorn us, Lalage, the lure Of your mad moments, us, the motley crew; Yet shall your beauty only so endure Imperishable, that we sing of you.
WHEN TRISTAN SAILED
When Tristan sailed from Ireland Across the summer sea, How young he was, how debonnaire, How glad he was and free. Why should he know the gales would blow, The skies be black above, How should he dream his port was Death, And Doom, whose name is Love?
The Lady Iseult, sweet as prayer, We hardly dare to pray, Pearl-pale beneath her shadow hair, Grows fairer day by day, The ichor gains her spring-kissed veins, Her skies the eyes of youth. How should she dream the ichor Love, Was hellebore in truth?
So Tristan sailed from Ireland As youth must always sail; He quaffed the cup, nor asked the wine; He dared, nor feared to fail. And be it poison, be it life, Or wrecks that strew the shore, Tristan set forth! nor ask the end, Else youth shall sail no more.
THE BATTLE
Ah, never, never, never! for the flag Is twined about my body, and my back Is braced against the wall! I know the lack Of crust and water, and a man might brag For fighting thus, yet--how a soul may lag, For want of just so little, when the rack Of hopeless strife from dawn to bivouac Finds the foe now who storms the utmost crag.
Never surrender! You who storm my heart Till I am faint with love and hunger, all Starved for your lips--how can I say “depart”? And yet--drag up the sword again--and thrust! Ah, Love, mine enemy--I will not fall Until my honour’s flag and I are dust.
RECOMPENSE
Those who ask for a star Often receive but a stone, Yet they asked for a star, Does the high thought not atone?
I, who asked but a stone, A plaything of azure or red, May I count it for gain That I won a star instead?
THE LOTUS EATERS
We have no rain, we have no sun, We only watch the moments run Like little adders thro’ the leaves, Lost ere their flitting has begun.
The cool light airs that fan our brow, What aromatic sweets they know! The tall tired trees that make our sky Are lapped in spices as they bow.
The bright-eyed flowers that form our bed, Like eager jewels, blue and red, Seem brimmed with gay immortal life, Yet we dream on when they are dead.
LOST APHRODITE
The gods upon the hills no more are seen, Couched on the virginal green, No more their cry upon the silence grieves, The shadow of dark leaves.
The blazonry of Spring must now abate, Without the purple state Of Aphrodite, amorous and frail, Cinctured with lilies pale.
She who was love and every man’s desire, Now only can inspire, The mutual love of mortals, and alone Like wind her plaints are blown.
About the unregarding world her hands Yearn forth across the lands Once passionate with her lovers, but in vain, They will not come again!
She who was Aphrodite, tho’ she gives Love to each heart that lives, Gives and receives not. She, of love the breath, Doomed now with utter death.
THE FOOLS
On the wrist a paroquet, Motley on the shoulder, We exist for joy of life, Never growing older.
Dancing down the lane of years, Rosy garlands trailing, Who would pause for time or tears, Barren days bewailing.
Brighter burden never were Than the smiles we scatter, Loving deeds and laughing love, This is our great matter.
And the wise who scorn our bells Mate with melancholy, We are wiser than the wise, Holding hands with folly.
THE AWAKENING
Perhaps the world is tired of pageantries, And all the weary women called the Hours, Jaded with jewels, shall exchange for flowers Their badge of pride. In violet harmonies, With sweet blue veils of silence o’er their eyes, They shall return to Spring’s most languorous bowers; And Light and Beauty shall come down as showers Releasing life from all its pedantries.
Only the bloomy purple hill to see Thro’ half-closed lids, and only to be blind With asphodils! Shall these things ever be? Surely the time is ripe to live for this Dawn, springing radiant from her sleep to find A world of lovers waiting for her kiss.
THE DARK WOMAN
My dark, wild woman of the braes, I know your heart, I know your ways, I know the raw, sweet food you taste, I love the colours ’round your waist.
Ribbons of green and gold you wear, Threaded about your shadowy hair, My colours--and your eyes are mine, Dark as the deeps of love--and wine.
I wake with you at budding Dawn, Leaving this life of dew-spread lawn, To join your spirit in the wild, Your brother, lover, or your child.
Take me upon your savage breast, Teach me your calms and your unrest. Take me, I know the jungle cry, Teach me your love, or let me die.
SUMMER SONG
My heart’s a yellow butterfly That flutters down the road; A beggar, tricksy, dancing thing That scorns a fixed abode.
The aigrette of the thistle bloom Becomes the swinging sign Of merry hostelries, where I May pause awhile and dine.
The sky is lapis lazuli Bestrewn by clouds of pearl,-- Who would not be a butterfly Instead of just a girl?
SERAPHIS
He tasted dragon’s blood From the dark dragon tree, In those far islands where the mood Is faery-like and free.
With cinnamon and nard His strange gay clothes were sweet, His lips were fanciful with fard, Red flames played ’round his feet.
Sharp dancing pointed flames, Detached as butterflies, He called them all by secret names, They were his ecstasies.
No love, no maiden bright Might woo him from his swoon, For he had tasted strange delight In lands beyond the moon.
VENGEMENT
What was his offense to you, You who sit thro’ dreamless days, Sifting thro’ your fingers slim Ashes in a porphyry vase?
Hatred makes your eyes grow hard, As you conjure forth his name From the dust that was his face, From the heart that was his flame.
Then she, lifting heavy eyes, Spoke: “When this man walked the world Him I loved, he loved not me; So his days to death I hurled.
“Dying, then, he touched my hand, Smiled and whispered, ‘I forgive’; This his vengeance on my soul, I must hate him while I live.”
AUTUMN LOVE
I
Once I could love this season of the year, And watch the calm and delicate decline Of Summer gladly; I could see the pine Deep green on bluest sky, and laugh for cheer Of very living. Yet I’d fain appear Th’ unhurried gourmet, tasting of my wine, Lingering o’er memories of the purpled vine, Loath for each passing moment. Ah, my dear, Now like a careless child, I toss the hours Over my shoulder, I forget the sun, The dewy dawn, the white moon and the flowers. Like a tired pilgrim with his goal in view, Looking not right nor left, I run, I run To that bright day of days that brings me you.
II
I feel as murderers feel, who, having slain Their love, laugh with red hands and do not care. I took sweet Summer by her lovely hair, Bent her white throat, and gladly saw the stain Crimson her green leaf-gown of hill and plain. I would not wait for her last kiss, nor spare One splendid flying hour, for chill and fair Autumn, my love, comes near me thro’ the rain.
Pale with mysterious wonder, her deep eyes Are wells of wisdom; fugitive, astray From a blue land that dreams beyond the skies. ’Tis done. I lay young Summer on her pyre, And turning, burn thro’ distance to the day That brings me to the lips of my desire.
THE WITCH
Whence came the fire in her eyes, eyes of a beast in the jungle, Desperate, golden and green, wild as a river in spate? Her long lithe limbs were brown, and she took the world as a leopard, Grave, disdainful and strong, takes of his prey without hate.
Glamourie slept in her eyes, terribly calm in the tumult, Hidden and secret and sweet was the smile of her crimson mouth. A marigold wound in her hair, she swayed like wind in the desert, Burning and thrilling to thirst the hearts that dream of the South.
Whence came the fire in her eyes? I, only I, knew the secret, The thing that hung on her breast, hid by her stormy hair, Amber drops on a string, her talisman, witches’ amber, Golden, yellow and brown, that only a witch may wear.
THE MAN
The flame is spent, I can no more Hold the tall candle by your door. Too often have I watched to see Your lagging steps come home to me.
The Tyrian traders taught me this. They came, perfumed with ambergris, With amethystine robes, and hair Curled by the kisses of salt air.
They mocked me for my weary hands, Holding your light as love demands, They sang the lure of poppied sleep, Their lips were warm, their eyes were deep.
The flame is spent! Your pale weak face Must seek another resting place. Win me, and hold me now who can! The Tyrian trader was a man!
DOWN IN MALDONADO TOWN
There’s a town called Maldonado, That’s the place where I would be; There’s a girl in Maldonado, And she gave her heart to me.
Starved with sixty days of sailing, How we swaggered to the shore, Hands in pockets, eyes cocked sideways, At the girl in every door.