Helen Redeemed and Other Poems

_Helen's women are lying alone in the twilight hour. Chthonoë presently rises and throws a little incense upon the altar flame. Then she begins to speak to the Image of Aphrodit...

Midway her round of solitude She used to haunt a dead sea-wood Where among boulders lifeless trees Stuck rigid fingers to the breeze-- That stream of faint hot air that flits Ai...

There in her cage roamed Helen light and fierce, Unresting, with bright eyes and straining ears, Nor ever stayed her steps; but first the hall She ranged, touching the pillars;...

So in her high passion she rent herself And rocked, or hid her face upon the shelf Of the grim wall, lest he should see the whole Inexpiable sorrow of her soul. But he by pity p...

He in their love went sunning, took his ease In house and hall, at council or at feast, Careless of what was greatest or what least Of all his deeds, so only by his side She lay...

But thou didst rise, Maid Helen, as from sleep, A final tryst to keep With thy true lover, in whose hands thy life Lay, as in arms; his wife In heart as well as deed; his wife,...

That same night, as she used, fair Helen went Among the suppliants in the hall, and lent To each who craved the bounty of her grace, Her gentle touch on wounds, her pitiful face...

Love owes tribute unto Death, Being but a flower of breath, Ev'n as thy fair body is Moment's figure of the bliss Dwelling in the mind of God When He called thee from the sod, L...

Now hath the King his witless welcome paid, And now invoked the gods, and the cold shade Which once was Hector; now, being upheld By two his sons, with shaking hands of eld The...

Before you pass and leave me gaunt and chill Alone to do what I have joyed in doing In your glad sight, suffer me, nor take ill If I confess you prize and me pursuing. As the ra...