Chapter 5

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 knees of those two carved and gilded youths He touches while he prays, and praying soothes The crying heart of Helen. But not so Kassandra views him pray, that well of woe Kassandra, she whom Loxias deceived With gift to see, and not to be believed; To read within the heart of Time all truth And see men blindly blunder, to have ruth, To burn, to cry, "Out, haro!" and be a mock-- Ah, and to know within this gross wood-block The fate of all her kindred, and her own, Unthinkable! Now with her terror blown Upon her face, to blanch it like a sheet, Now with bare frozen eyes which only greet The viewless neighbours of our world she strips The veil and shrieketh Troy's apocalypse: "Woe to thee, Ilios! The fire, the fire! And rain, Rain like to blood and tears to drown the plain And cover all the earth up in a shroud, One great death-clout for thee, Ilios the proud! Touch not, handle not----" Outraged then she turned To Helen--"O thou, for whom Troy shall be burned, O ruinous face, O breasts made hard with gall, Now are ye satisfied? Ye shall have all, All Priam's sons and daughters, all his race Gone quick to death, hailing thee, ruinous face!" Her tragic mask she turned upon all men: "The lion shall have Troy, to make his den Within her pleasant courts, in Priam's high seat Shall blink the vulture, sated of his meat; And in the temples emptied of their Gods Bats shall make quick the night, and panting toads Make day a loathing to the light it brings. Listen! Listen! they flock out; heed their wings. The Gods flee forth of this accursèd haunt, And leave the memory of it an old chant, A nursery song, an idle tale that's told To children when your own sons are grown old In Argive bonds, and have no other joy Than whispering to their offspring tales of Troy." Whereat she laught--O bitter sound to hear! And struggled with herself, and grinned with fear And misery lest even now her fate Should catch her and she be believed too late. "Is't possible, O Gods! Are ye so doomed As not to know this Horse a mare, enwombed Of men and swords? Know ye not there unseen The Argive princes wait their dam shall yean? Anon creeps Sparta forth, to find his balm In that vile woman; forth with itching palm Mykenai creeps, snuffing what may be won By filching; forth Pyrrhos the braggart's son That dared do violence to Hector dead, But while he lived called Gods to serve his stead; Forth Aias like a beast, to mangle me-- These things ye will not credit, but I see." Then once again, and last, she turned her switch On Helen, hissing, "Out upon thee, witch, Smooth-handed traitress, speak thy secrets out That we may know thee, how thou goest about Caressing, with a hand that hides a knife, That which shall prove false paramour, false wife, Fair as the sun is fair that smiles and slays"-- And then, "O ruinous face, O ruinous face!" But nothing more, for sudden all was gone, Spent by her passion. Muttering, faint and wan Down to the earth she sank, and to and fro Rocking, drew close her hood, and shrouded so, Her wild voice drowning, died in moans away. But Helen stood bright-eyed as glancing day, Near by the Horse, and with a straying hand Did stroke it here and there, and listening stand, Leaning her head towards its gilded flank, And strain to hear men's breath behind the plank; And she had whispered if she dared some word Of promise; but afraid to be o'erheard, Leaned her head close and toucht it with her cheek, Then drew again to Priam, schooled and meek. But Menelaus felt her touch, and mum Sat on, nursing his mighty throw to come; And Aias started, with some cry uncouth And vile, but fast Odysseus o'er his mouth Clapt hand, and checkt his foul perseverance To seek in every deed his own essence.

Now when the ways were darkened, and the sun Sank red to sea, and homeward all had gone Save that distraught Kassandra, who still served The temple whence the Goddess long had swerved, Athené, hating Troy and loving them Who craved to snatch and make a diadem Of Priam's regal crown for other brows-- She, though foredoomed she knew, held to her vows, And duly paid the thankless evening rite-- There came to Paris' house late in the night Deïphobus his brother, young and trim, For speech with fair-tressed Helen, for whose slim And budded grace long had he sighed in vain; And found her in full hall, and showed his pain And need of her. To whom when she draws close In hot and urgent crying words he shows His case, hers now, that here she tarry not Lest evil hap more dread than she can wot: "For this," he says, "is Troy's extremest hour." But when to that she bowed her head, the power Of his high vision made him vehement: "Dark sets the sun," he cried, "and day is spent"; But she said, "Nay, the sun will rise with day, And I shall bathe in light, lift hands and pray." "Thou lift up hands, bound down to a new lord!" He mocked; then whispered, "Lady, with a sword I cut thy bonds if so thou wilt." Apart She moved: "No sword, but a cry of the heart Shall loose me." Then he said, "Hear what I cry From my heart unto thine: fly, Helen, fly!" Whereat she shook her head and sighed, "Even so, Brother, I fly where thou canst never go. Far go I, out of ken of thee and thy peers." He knew not what she would, but said, "Thy fears Are of the Gods and holy dooms and Fate, But mine the present menace in the gate. This I would save thee." "I fear it not," said she, "But wait it here." He cried, "Here shalt thou see Thy Spartan, and his bitter sword-point feel Against thy bosom." "I bare it to the steel," Saith she. He then, "If ever man deserved thee By service, I am he, who'd die to serve thee." Glowing she heard him, being quickly moved By kindness, loving ever where she was loved. But now her heart was fain for rest; the night Called her to sleep and dreams. So with a light And gentle hand upon him, "Brother, farewell," She said, "I stay the issue, and foretell Honour therein at least." Then at the door She kissed him. And she saw his face no more.

NINTH STAVE

THE GODS FORSAKE TROY

Now Dawn came weeping forth, and on the crest Of Ida faced a chill wind from the West. Forth from the gray sea wrack-laden it blew And howled among the towers, and stronger grew As crept unseen the sun his path of light. Then she who in the temple all that night Had kept her rueful watch, the prophetess Kassandra, peering sharply, heard the press And rush of flight above her, and with sick Foreboding waited; and the air grew thick With flying shapes immortal overhead. As in late Autumn, when the leaves are shed And dismal flit about the empty ways, And country folk provide against dark days, And heap the woodstack, and their stores repair, Attent you know the quickening of the air, And closer yet the swish and sweep and swing Of wings innumerable, emulous to bring The birds to broader skies and kindlier sun, And know indeed that winter is begun-- So seeing first, then hearing, she knew the hour Was come when Troy must fall, and not a tower Be left to front the morrow. And she covered Her head and mourned, while one by one they hovered Above their shrines, then flockt and faced the dawn.

First, in her car of shell and amber, drawn By clustering doves with burnisht wings, a-throng, Passes Queen Aphrodité, and her song Is sweet and sharp: "I gave my sacred zone To warm thy bosom, Helen which by none That live by labour and in tears are born And sighing go their ways, has e'er been worn. It kindled in thine eyes the lovelight, showed Thy burning self in his. Thy body glowed With beauty like to mine: mine thy love-laughter Thy cooing in the night, thy deep sleep after, Thy rapture of the morning, love renewed; And all the shadowed day to sit and brood On what has been and what should be again: Thou wilt not? Nay, I proffer not in vain My gifts, for I am all or will be nought. Lo, where I am can be no other thought." Thus to the wooded heights of Ida she Was drawn, hid in that pearly galaxy Of snow-white pigeons. Next upon the height Of Pergamos uplift a beam of light That for its core enshrined a naked youth, Golden and fierce. She knew the God sans ruth, Him who had given woeful prescience to her, Apollo, once her lover and her wooer; Who stood as one stands glorying in his grace And strength, full in the sun, though on her place Within the temple court no sun at all Shone, nor as yet upon the topmost wall Was any tinge of him, but all showed gray And sodden in the wind and blown sea-spray. Not to him dared she lift her voice in prayer, Nor scarce her eyes to see him. To him there Came swift a spirit in shape of virgin slim, With snooded hair and kirtle belted trim, Short to the knee; and in her face the gale Had blown bright sanguine colour. Free and hale She was; and in her hand she held a bow Unstrung, and o'er her shoulders there did go A baldrick that made sharp the cleft betwixt Her sudden breasts--to that a quiver fixt, Showing gold arrow-points. No God there is In Heaven more swift than Delian Artemis, The young, the pure health-giver of the Earth, Who loveth all things born, and brings to birth, And after slays with merciful sudden death-- In whom is gladness all and wholesome breath, And to whom all the praise of him who writes, Ever. These two she saw like meteorites Flare down the wind and burn afar, then fade. And Leto next, a mother grave and staid, Drave out her chariot, which two winged stags drew, Swift following, robed in gown of inky blue, And hooded; and her hand which held the hood Gleamed like a patch of snow left in a wood Where hyacinths bring down to earth the sky. And in her wake a winging company, Dense as the cloud of gulls which from a rock At sea lifts up in myriads, if the knock Of oars assail their peace, she saw, and mourned The household gods. For outward they too turned, The spirits of the streams and water-brooks, And nymphs who haunt the pastures, or in nooks Of woodlands dwell. There like a lag of geese Flew in long straying lines the Oreades That in wild dunes and commons have their haunt; There sped the Hamadryads; there aslant, As from the sea, but wheeling ere they crost Their sisters, thronged the river-nymphs, a host; And now the Gods of homestead and the hearth, Like sad-faced mourning women, left the garth Where each had dwelt since Troy was stablishéd, And been the holy influence over bed And board and daily work under the sun And nightlong slumber when day's work was done: They rose, and like a driven mist of rain Forsook the doomed high city and the plain, And drifted eastaway; and as they went Heaviness spread o'er Ilios like a tent, And past not off, but brooded all day long.

But ever coursed new spirits to the throng That packt the ways of Heaven. From the plain, From mere and holt and hollow rose amain The haunters of the silence; from the streams And wells of water, from the country demes, From plough and pasture, bottom, ridge and crest The rustic Gods rose up and joined the rest. Like a long wisp of cloud from out his banks Streamed Xanthos, that swift river, to the ranks Of flying shapes; and driven by that same mind That urged him to it came Simoeis behind, And other Gods and other, of stream and tree And hill and vale--for nothing there can be On earth or under Heaven, but hath in it Essence whereby alone its form may hit Our apprehension, channelled in the sense Which feedeth us, that we through vision dense See Gods as trees walking, or in the wind That singeth in the bents guess what's behind Its wailing music. And now the unearthly flock, Emptying every water, wood, bare rock And pasture, beset Ida, and their wings Beat o'er the forest which about her springs And makes a sea of verdure, whence she lifts Her soaring peaks to bathe them in the drifts Of cloud, and rare reveal them unto men-- For Zeus there hath his dwelling, out of ken Of men alike and gods. But now the brows, The breasting summits, still eternal snows, And all the faces of the mountain held A concourse like in number to the field Of Heaven upon some breathless summer night Printed with myriad stars, some burning bright, Some massed in galaxy, a cloudy scar, And others faint, as infinitely far. There rankt the Gods of Heaven, Earth, and Sea, Brethren of them now hastening from the fee Of stricken Priam. Out of his deep cloud Zeus flamed his levin, and his thunder loud Volleyed his welcome. With uplifted hands Acclaiming, God's oncoming each God stands To greet. And thus the Hierarchy at one Sits to behold the bitter business done Which Paris by his luxury bestirred.

But in the city, like a stricken bird Grieving her desolation and despair, As voiceless and as lustreless, astare For imminent Death, Kassandra croucht beneath Her very doom, herself the bride of Death; For in the temple's forecourt reared the mass Of that which was to bring the woe to pass, And hidden in him both her murderers Wrung at their nails. And slow the long day wears While all the city broods. The chiefs keep house, Or gather on the wall, or make carouse To simulate a freedom they feel not; And at street corners men in shift or plot Whisper together, or in the market-place Gather, and peer each other in the face Furtively, seeking comfort against care; Whose eyes, meeting by chance, shift otherwhere In haste. But in the houses, behind doors Shuttered and barred, the women scrub their floors, Or ply their looms as busily: for they Ever cure care with care, and if a day Be heavy lighten it with heavier task; And for their griefs wear beauty like a mask, And answer heart's presaging with a song On their brave lips, and render right for wrong. Little, by outward seeming, do they know Of doom at hand, of fate or blood or woe, Nor how their children, playing by their knees, Must end this day of busyness-at-ease In shrieking night, with clamour for their bread, And a red bath, and a cold stone for a bed Under the staring moon.

Now sinks the sun Blood-red into the heavy sea and dun, And forth from him, as he were stuck with swords, Great streams of light go upward. Then the lords Of havoc and unrest prepare their storms, And o'er the silent city, vulture forms-- Eris and Enyo, Alké, Ioké, The biter, the sharp-bitten, the mad, the fey-- Hover and light on pinnacle and tower: The gray Erinnyes, watchful for the hour When Haro be the wail. And down the sky Like a white squall flung Até with a cry That sounded like the wind in a ship's shrouds, As shrill and wild at once. The driving clouds Surging together, blotted out the sea, The beachéd ships, the plain with mound and tree, And slantwise came the sheeted rain, and fast The darkness settled in. Kassandra cast Her mantle o'er her head, and with slow feet Entered her shrine deserted, there to greet Her fate when it should come; and merciful Sleep Befriended her. Now from his lair did creep Odysseus forth unarmed, his sword and spear There in the Horse, and warily to peer And spy his whereabouts the Ithacan Went doubtful. Then his dreadful work began, As down the bare way of steep Pergamos Under the dark he sought for Paris' house.

TENTH STAVE

ODYSSEUS COMES AGAIN TO PARIS' HOUSE