Chapter 3

I know the Bois is twinkling In a sort of hazy sheen, And down the Champs the gray old arch Stands cold and still between. But the walk is flecked with sunlight Where the great acacias lean, Oh it's Paris, it's Paris, And the leaves are growing green.

The sun's gone in, the sparkle's dead, There falls a dash of rain, But who would care when such an air Comes blowing up the Seine? And still Ninette sits sewing Beside her window-pane, When it's Paris, it's Paris, And spring-time's come again.

Madeira from the Sea

Out of the delicate dream of the distance an emerald emerges Veiled in the violet folds of the air of the sea; Softly the dream grows awakening--shimmering white of a city, Splashes of crimson, the gay bougainvillea, the palms. High in the infinite blue of its heaven a quiet cloud lingers, Lost and forgotten of winds that have fallen asleep, Fallen asleep to the tune of a Portuguese song in a garden.

City Vignettes

I Dawn

The greenish sky glows up in misty reds, The purple shadows turn to brick and stone, The dreams wear thin, men turn upon their beds, And hear the milk-cart jangle by alone.

II Dusk

The city's street, a roaring blackened stream Walled in by granite, thro' whose thousand eyes A thousand yellow lights begin to gleam, And over all the pale untroubled skies.

III Rain at Night

The street-lamps shine in a yellow line Down the splashy, gleaming street, And the rain is heard now loud now blurred By the tread of homing feet.

By the Sea

Beside an ebbing northern sea While stars awaken one by one, We walk together, I and he.

He woos me with an easy grace That proves him only half sincere; A light smile flickers on his face.

To him love-making is an art, And as a flutist plays a flute, So does he play upon his heart

A music varied to his whim. He has no use for love of mine, He would not have me answer him.

To hide my eyes within the night I watch the changeful lighthouse gleam Alternately with red and white.

My laughter smites upon my ears, So one who cries and wakes from sleep Knows not it is himself he hears.

What if my voice should let him know The mocking words were all a sham, And lips that laugh could tremble so?

What if I lost the power to lie, And he should only hear his name In one low, broken cry?

On the Death of Swinburne

He trod the earth but yesterday, And now he treads the stars. He left us in the April time He praised so often in his rhyme, He left the singing and the lyre and went his way.

He drew new music from our tongue, A music subtly wrought, And moulded words to his desire, As wind doth mould a wave of fire; From strangely fashioned harps slow golden tones he wrung.

I think the singing understands That he who sang is still, And Iseult cries that he is dead,-- Does not Dolores bow her head And Fragoletta weep and wring her little hands?

New singing now the singer hears To lyre and lute and harp; Catullus waits to welcome him, And thro' the twilight sweet and dim, Sappho's forgotten songs are falling on his ears.

Triolets

I

Love looked back as he took his flight, And lo, his eyes were filled with tears. Was it for love of lost delight Love looked back as he took his flight? Only I know while day grew night, Turning still to the vanished years, Love looked back as he took his flight, And lo, his eyes were filled with tears.

II (Written in a copy of "La Vita Nuova". For M. C. S.)

If you were Lady Beatrice And I the Florentine, I'd never waste my time like this-- If you were Lady Beatrice I'd woo and then demand a kiss, Nor weep like Dante here, I ween, If you were Lady Beatrice And I the Florentine.

III (Written in a copy of "The Poems of Sappho".)

Beyond the dim Hesperides, The girl who sang them long ago Could never dream that over seas, Beyond the dim Hesperides, The wind would blow such songs as these-- I wonder now if she can know, Beyond the dim Hesperides, The girl who sang them long ago?

IV

Dead leaves upon the stream And dead leaves on the air-- All of my lost hopes seem Dead leaves upon the stream; I watch them in a dream, Going I know not where, Dead leaves upon the stream And dead leaves on the air.

Vox Corporis

The beast to the beast is calling, And the soul bends down to wait; Like the stealthy lord of the jungle, The white man calls his mate.

The beast to the beast is calling, They rush through the twilight sweet, But the soul is a wary hunter, He will not let them meet.

A Ballad of Two Knights

Two knights rode forth at early dawn A-seeking maids to wed, Said one, "My lady must be fair, With gold hair on her head."

Then spake the other knight-at-arms: "I care not for her face, But she I love must be a dove For purity and grace."

And each knight blew upon his horn And went his separate way, And each knight found a lady-love Before the fall of day.

But she was brown who should have had The shining yellow hair-- I ween the knights forgot their words Or else they ceased to care.

For he who wanted purity Brought home a wanton wild, And when each saw the other knight I ween that each knight smiled.

Christmas Carol

The kings they came from out the south, All dressed in ermine fine, They bore Him gold and chrysoprase, And gifts of precious wine.

The shepherds came from out the north, Their coats were brown and old, They brought Him little new-born lambs-- They had not any gold.

The wise-men came from out the east, And they were wrapped in white; The star that led them all the way Did glorify the night.

The angels came from heaven high, And they were clad with wings; And lo, they brought a joyful song The host of heaven sings.

The kings they knocked upon the door, The wise-men entered in, The shepherds followed after them To hear the song begin.

And Mary held the little child And sat upon the ground; She looked up, she looked down, She looked all around.

The angels sang thro' all the night Until the rising sun, But little Jesus fell asleep Before the song was done.

The Faery Forest

The faery forest glimmered Beneath an ivory moon, The silver grasses shimmered Against a faery tune.

Beneath the silken silence The crystal branches slept, And dreaming thro' the dew-fall The cold white blossoms wept.

A Fantasy

Her voice is like clear water That drips upon a stone In forests far and silent Where Quiet plays alone.

Her thoughts are like the lotus Abloom by sacred streams Beneath the temple arches Where Quiet sits and dreams.

Her kisses are the roses That glow while dusk is deep In Persian garden closes Where Quiet falls asleep.

A Minuet of Mozart's

Across the dimly lighted room The violin drew wefts of sound, Airily they wove and wound And glimmered gold against the gloom.

I watched the music turn to light, But at the pausing of the bow, The web was broken and the glow Was drowned within the wave of night.

Twilight

Dreamily over the roofs The cold spring rain is falling, Out in the lonely tree A bird is calling, calling.

Slowly over the earth The wings of night are falling; My heart like the bird in the tree Is calling, calling, calling.

The Prayer

My answered prayer came up to me, And in the silence thus spake he: "O you who prayed for me to come, Your greeting is but cold and dumb."

My heart made answer: "You are fair, But I have prayed too long to care. Why came you not when all was new, And I had died for joy of you."

Two Songs for a Child

I Grandfather's Love

They said he sent his love to me, They wouldn't put it in my hand, And when I asked them where it was They said I couldn't understand.

I thought they must have hidden it, I hunted for it all the day, And when I told them so at night They smiled and turned their heads away.

They say that love is something kind, That I can never see or touch. I wish he'd sent me something else, I like his cough-drops twice as much.

II The Kind Moon

I think the moon is very kind To take such trouble just for me. He came along with me from home To keep me company.

He went as fast as I could run; I wonder how he crossed the sky? I'm sure he hasn't legs and feet Or any wings to fly.

Yet here he is above their roof; Perhaps he thinks it isn't right For me to go so far alone, Tho' mother said I might.

On the Tower

Under the leaf of many a Fable lies the Truth for those who look for it. Jami.

On the Tower

(A play in one act.)

The Knight. The Lady.

Voices of men and women on the ground at the foot of the tower. The voice of the Knight's Page.

The top of a high battlemented tower of a castle. A stone ledge, which serves as a seat, extends part way around the parapet. Small clouds float by in the blue sky, and occasionally a swallow passes. Entrance R. from an unseen stairway which is supposed to extend around the outside of the tower.

The Lady (unseen). Oh do not climb so fast, for I am faint With looking down the tower to where the earth Lies dreaming in the sun. I fear to fall.

The Knight (unseen). Lean on me, love, my love, and look not down.

L. Call me not "love", call me your conquered foe, That now, since you have battered down her gates, Gives you the keys that lock the highest tower And mounts with you to prove her homage true; Oh bid me go no farther lest I fall, My foot has slipped upon the rain-worn stones, Why are the stairs so narrow and so steep? Let us go back, my lord.

K. Are you afraid, Who were so dauntless till the walls gave way? Courage, my sweet. I would that I could climb A thousand times by wind-swept stairs like these, That lead so near to heaven.

L. Sir, you may, You are a knight and very valorous; I am a woman. I shall never come This way but once. (The Knight and the Lady appear on the top of the tower.)

K. Kiss me at last, my love.

L. Oh, my sweet lord, I am too tired to kiss. Look how the earth is like an emerald, With rivers veined and flawed with fallow fields.

K. (Lifting her veil) Then I kiss you, a thousand thousand kisses For all the days ere I had won to you Beyond the walls and gates you barred so close. Call me at last your love, your castle's lord.

L. (After a pause) I love you.

(She kisses him. Her veil blows away like a white butterfly over the parapet. Faint cries and laughter from men and women under the tower.)

Men and Women. The veil, the lady's veil!

(The knight takes the lady in his arms.)

L. My lord, I pray you loose me from your arms Lest that my people see how much we love.

K. May they not see us? All of them have loved.

L. But you have been an enemy, my lord, With walls between us and with moss-grown moats, Now on a sudden must I kiss your mouth? I who was taught before I learned to speak That all my house was hostile unto yours, Now can I put my head against your breast Here in the sight of all who choose to come?

K. Are we not past the caring for their eyes And nearer to the heaven than to earth? Look up and see.

L. I only see your face.

(She touches his hair with her hands. Murmuring under the tower.)

K. Why came we here in all the noon-day light With only darting swallows over us To make a speck of darkness on the sun? Let us go down where walls will shut us round. Your castle has a hundred quiet halls, A hundred chambers, where the shadows lie On things put by, forgotten long ago. Forgotten lutes with strings that Time has slackened, We two shall draw them close and bid them sing-- Forgotten games, forgotten books still open Where you had laid them by at vesper-time, And your embroidery, whereon half-worked Weeps Amor wounded by a rose's thorn. Shall I not see the room in which you slept, Palpitant still and breathing of your thoughts, Where maiden dreams adown the ways of sleep Swept noiselessly with damosels and knights To tourneys where the trumpet made no sound, Blow as he might, the scarlet trumpeter, And were the dreams not sometimes brimmed with tears That waked you when the night was loneliest? Will you not bring me to your oratory Where prayers arose like little birds set free Still upward, upward without sound of flight? Shall I not find your turrets toward the north, Where you defied white winter armed for war; Your southern casements where the sun blows in Between the leaf-bent boughs the wind has lifted? Shall we not see the sunrise toward the east, Watch dawn by dawn the rose of day unfolding Its golden-hearted beauty sovereignly; And toward the west look quietly at evening? Shall I not see all these and all your treasures? In carven coffers hidden in the dark Have you not laid a sapphire lit with flame And amethysts set round with deep-wrought gold, Perhaps a ruby?

L. All my gems are yours And all my chambers curtained from the sun. My lord shall see them all, in time, in time.

(The sun begins to sink.)

K. Shall I not see them now? To-day, to-night?

L. How could I show you in one day, my lord, My castle and my treasures and my tower? Let all the days to come suffice for this Since all the past days made them what they are. You will not be impatient, my sweet lord. Some of the halls have long been locked and barred, And some have secret doors and hard to find Till suddenly you touch them unawares, And down a sable way runs silver light. We two will search together for the keys, But not to-day. Let us sit here to-day, Since all is yours and always will be yours.

(The stars appear faintly one by one.)

K. (After a pause.) I grow a little drowsy with the dusk.

L. (Singing.) There was a man that loved a maid, (Sleep and take your rest) Over her lips his kiss was laid, Over her heart, his breast.

(The knight sleeps.)

All of his vows were sweet to hear, Sweet was his kiss to take; Why was her breast so quick to fear, Why was her heart, to break?

Why was the man so glad to woo? (Sleep and take your rest) Why were the maiden's words so few----

(She sees that he is asleep, and slipping off her long cloak-like outer garment, she pillows his head upon it against the parapet, and half kneeling at his feet she sings very softly:)

I love you, I love you, I love you, I am the flower at your feet, The birds and the stars are above you, My place is more sweet.

The birds and the stars are above you, They envy the flower in the grass, For I, only I, while I love you Can die as you pass.

(Light clouds veil the stars, growing denser constantly. The castle bell rings for vespers, and rising, the lady moves to a corner of the parapet and kneels there.)

L. Ave Maria! gratia plena, Dominus----

Voice of the Page (from the foot of the tower.) My lord, my lord, they call for you at court!

(The knight wakes. It is now quite dark.)

There is a tourney toward; your enemy Has challenged you. My lord, make haste to come!

(The knight rises and gropes his way toward the stairs.)

K. I will make haste. Await me where you are.

(To himself.) There was a lady on this tower with me----

(He glances around hurriedly but does not see her in the darkness.)

Page. My lord has far to ride before the dawn!

K. (To himself.) Why should I tarry?

(To the page.) Bring my horse and shield!

(He descends. As the noise of his footfall on the stairs dies away, the lady gropes toward the stairway, then turns suddenly, and going to the ledge where they have sat, she throws herself over the parapet.)

CURTAIN.

[End of Helen of Troy And Other Poems.]

Sara Teasdale

Sara Teasdale was born in St. Louis, Missouri, where she attended a school that was founded by the grandfather of another great poet from St. Louis--T. S. Eliot. She later associated herself more with New York City. Her first book of poems was "Sonnets to Duse" (1907), but "Helen of Troy" (1911) was the true launch of her career, followed by "Rivers to the Sea" (1915), "Love Songs" (1917), "Flame and Shadow" (1920) and more. Her final volume, "Strange Victory", is considered by many to be predictive of her suicide.

It is interesting to note that in Teasdale's Collected Works, about half of the poems in this volume--some more justly than others--have been excluded, and most of the rest have been slightly changed. Most of the poems from this volume which were selected to be included in "Love Songs" also had some minor changes. This edition preserves the original readings, but they are not to be considered authoritative.

End of Project Gutenberg's Helen of Troy and Other Poems, by Sara Teasdale