Chapter 1

IOLÄUS

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

A SON OF CAIN: POEMS. Cr. 8vo. 3/6 net.

IN THE WAKE OF THE PH[OE]NIX: POEMS. F'cap. 8vo. 3/6 net.

IOLÄUS:

THE MAN THAT WAS A GHOST

BY

JAMES A. MACKERETH

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA

1913

TO THE MEMORY OF MY FRIEND ARTHUR RANSOM

HAIL AND FAREWELL

To A.R.

We range the ringing slopes of life; but you Scale the last summit, high in lonelier air, Whose dizzy pinnacle each soul must dare For valedictions born and ventures new. From dust to spirit climb, O brave and true! Strong in the wisdom that is more than prayer; High o'er the mists of pain and of despair, Mount to the vision, and the far adieu.

Merged in the vastness, with a calm surmise Mount, lonely climber, brightened from afar; Whose soul is secret as the evening-star; Whose steps are toward the ultimate surprise: No dubious morrow dims those daring eyes-- Divinely lit whence truth's horizons are.

_The sonnets in this volume have previously appeared in the columns of "The Academy," "The Eye-Witness," and "The Yorkshire Observer." My thanks are due to the Editors of these publications for their kind permission to republish._

J.A.M.

_Stocka House, Cottingley, Bingley._

CONTENTS

Title Poem: Page

Ioläus 13

Sonnets:

The Return 67 The Soul and the Sea 69 Nations Estranged 71 The Passing-Bell 73 Condemned 75 To America. I. 77 " II. 79 To Italy. I. 81 " II. 83

IOLÄUS:

THE MAN THAT WAS A GHOST

Gold light across the golden coomb; The sun went west with horns of fire; Athwart the sweet, sea-breathing room The swallows swooped; the village spire Glowed red against a gleam of broom; While earth its scented secrets told, There, silent, sunset-aureoled, Sat Ioläus, mild and old.

In distance large the moving ships Sailed on into the evening skies. He gazed, and saw not. In eclipse He tensely sat, like one who grips Some semblance that his dream descries, With such a look of far surprise That half-uncanny seemed the man, So warped with age, so weirdly wan: He had such ghostly eyes.

Then half to self, and half to me, Aloof in passion and lone despair, He spoke like one whose secrets flee From silence unaware: Now plaintively from a grief gone blind, Heavy with cumbering care, Now, thrilling thought like a white sea-wind, His words, the echoes of his mind, Haunted the air:

... 'Tis gone like the roses of long ago: Yet a dawn's impassioned thrill Makes blush the blossom's virgin snow Far on in a faery hill. Two faces there in the glamour glow In a place that is strangely still.

On the rim of the world is a ruined tower Sky-poised above wide sea-foam, Where a beautiful spirit waits hour by hour, Far-eyed 'gainst a dawn like a phantom flower, Till a ghostly lover comes home....

To leeward spread the freshening deep Purple beneath a rosy gleam. From a high, mist-engirdled steep Thin anthems to the orient beam Came faint as languid waves of sleep That lap the lonely strands of dream.

We sank our anchor solemnly Into that lustrous, splendid sea; For we, that chased the summer's smile Across the world a wondering while, Hailed at the heart the Happy Isle, The haunted shores of Faëry!

Beyond a gently-heaving brine We broke with oars a trembling bay. The swerving water, like rare wine, Slid iridescent from our way. A lovely hand was laid on mine Pensively as to say: "Life is divine!"

The drifting, witching wonder grew. From out the burgeoning bounds of space It seemed some morn unearthly drew To that grave glamourous place, Where, fearful of some far adieu, I talked with one who never knew The peril of her face.

The joy that lives is mightier far Than foretaste of all grief unborn. The earth to youth is a silver star That glitters on the edge of morn, A star! a star! a dancing star.

The fair, the mystic, happy morn! Dawn glimmered on the gladdening sea; Each zephyr blew an elfin horn To echoes in felicity. All sounds to silver rhythm ran: Came flutings as from piping Pan In purpled hills of Arcady!

Seaward we heard the breakers roar; And the belated nightingales Sang all their moonlight raptures o'er, Enchanted still in echoing vales. We lingered by the brightening shore; We leapt upon the roseate strand: The joy that in our hearts we bore We loved, nor longed to understand. Soft siren voices evermore Chanted to chimes in Faeryland.

O, life was like a bird that sings At morning on a vernal bough! The springtide at the heart of things Sang as the spring knows how. And fair was she, and both were young; We knew not what made time so good; Nature with glamour-tutored tongue Spread glory in the blood.

We climbed the dim and dreaming streets: We reached a plateau crowned with pine: The leaning roses breathed their sweets 'Mid many a subtle-scented vine. We wreathed our brows with ivy-twine.

In mouldering majesty sublime, Misty with eld, the mute of time, A castle, dawn-enchanted, there Above th' abyss sheer, shimmering fair, Hung like a perilous dream in air. Poised on a dizzy turret high, Enfolded with the gorgeous sky, We listened, she and I, In wonder, 'mazed. Without a word A soul had spoken, soul had heard. All suddenly came, charged with tears, The sweetness of the human years.

We saw deep forests far away Kindle to meet the kiss of day; And mists with morn's delight uprise Like love thoughts in a maiden's eyes. We shared the dream that never dies.

Our hearts were hushed with vague desire; We breathed in kingdoms wildly new, Enthralled by Memnon's mystic lyre In regions whence the Ph[oe]nix flew; Dumb splendour round us blown, and higher On heaven's deep dome--the peacock's hue, Bright flakes of crimsoning fire!

Dew-fresh was all the wavering air. We heard the reef's far rollers croon About the ocean's margent, where Loitered the waning moon ... So fond the hour; the scene so fair; And fate came home so soon ... Some sorrow wept,--I knew not where. Some sudden presence made the air Chill as the breathless moon.

Silent, upon a lonelier steep, I gazed across a deeper deep, Where the pale mists pass from the isles of sleep.--

Lost voices called in other years: Old sweetness like a breaking grief Rose in the heart and stung to tears: In that clear moment brief Life's dearest, dead so long before, Returned to bless and die once more.

The faintly crooning sabbath bells At evening in the golden fells I heard; the tinkle of the rills In haunts where childish fancy fed; I saw the orchard daffodils About the calm homestead; Ah, saddest thought that ever fills An errant heart that memory thrills, The heath-smell of his homeland hills To one whose loves are dead ...

What yearnings burn the human breast; What wild desires like prisoned birds Impel the heart from east to west; What urgings baffling words Beat up from nature unexpressed Till soul distinct stands manifest, On guard for heaven, or, wanton, hurled Toward judgment through the world.

Long following beauty's floating flame Beneath the sky from sea to sea No isle of rest, no haven could claim The lonely, homeless heart in me. Sick loneliness no more should be Companion to my soul, for She To fill the questing vision came, Came down the breadths of blossoming foam To give to loveliness a name, To happiness a home!

Yet thought toward passion moved with dread, Like one who, hurrying to be wed, Steps, darkling, on the dead.

Far down we saw mute wavelets leap Feebly as though remembering sleep; The wheeling sea-birds proudly sway In glory o'er the opal bay;-- But at the heart the world grew grey; Some joy had perished from the day; Some love was grieving far away.

No voice stirred through the haunted hill Touched with the morn's inviolate gleam. All fearfully wild heart and will Drank rapture in the face of ill! Our spirits thrilled to answer thrill, And trembled in their dream.

Truth comes, and tears, and glamour goes. There's speech within the blood More eloquent than language knows, And woes make signal unto woes While pity breathes and passion blows: We looked:----we understood. On summer's heart fell winter's snows ... The death that dissipates the rose Was busy in the bud ...

The spectre beckoned: none could save ... The sundering grave ... The sundering grave! ... Our lonely love in time could be But whisper of a broken wave Lost in a boundless sea ... She spoke, so fair, so pale, so brave,---- Across infinity!

Ah meekness mute with tragedy!... My body stirred as in a grave, And looked forth wonderingly ... The everlasting sea serene 'Neath everlasting sky Shone, and across the morning sheen The deathless winds went by. And a face was there that I never had seen; And a shadow stood where a glory had been; The beauty hung at my heart like pain; And love was lovely, but life was bane, For all should die,--but the wonder remain, And the earth, and the sea, and the sky ...

The hills have winds, the fields have flowers; Not all alone is the wintry tree; The stars that gleam in cloudy bowers Have stars for company; The waste hath peace of the drifting hours; And night brings joy to the hoary sea:

But the heart of man is a lonely thing; And lone the soul of the secret vows, With its wasted love and its wounded wing, In a withered world that hath no spring, No burgeoning boughs: The soul of man is the loneliest thing In life's eternal wandering That God allows ...

O, isle of dreams, and orient shore! Ah miracle in sea and sky! Ah youth that fleeting love made soar To heaven! The glory upon high To dusk hath waned, yet comes once more A wonder and a cry!...

The ship's bell tolled off that fair land; The sails bulged buoyantly: The sun rose mute, and large, and bland; The favouring wind swung free. We stood from that enchanted strand Into the morning sea.

We rode down swinging winds away, Far o'er the moving waters wan, Seen low at pale meridan, The land was grey.

The dusk came down; and like a ghost Rose the sad moon; the waves 'gan moan: There on the deep no kindly coast,-- The dark alone.

And in two faces stared, and stared The being without blood or breath, The stilly spectre, horror-haired, That haunteth all he murdereth; At noon, at midnight stared, and stared When sunrise flashed, when sunset flared, The grizzly phantom horror-haired:--

Stalking frail beauty to her grave I saw him moving evermore A stealthy wanderer on the wave, A shrouded shadow on the shore, The worm his bondsman, and the brave His victims evermore ...

The Power that drives all mortal things, Upbuoys all being's wanderings, Moved in the void his urgent wings ...

On down the weltering world we sped; Across the lonely, drifting noon; Along the wreathëd tides we fled Beneath the memoried moon. Sad love pursued where sorrow led; And beauty, waiting to be dead, Kissed under the dead moon.

Love, speechless, yearned in hopeless eyes; And hearts that hungered craved in vain. Dumb pity heard sad pity's sighs; And grief soothed grief again. Fond smile to smile sent faint replies, And faded back to pain.

Entangled in the toils of fate, Two stood at Eden's open gate-- Banned, in a world found desolate ... And love made league with hate ... All time's long woe since man's wet eyes Peered toward a promised paradise Pressed home,--the weight of smothered cries, Dead dreams, and hopeless pain Of souls in silence slain.

We saw the loathsome waste of death; Sad soul at war with sense; And suffering doomed to lingering breath; And slandered innocence; And beauty ravished at the bloom; Saw strength flung prostrate; fall The brave, life-worsted from the womb; White truth made criminal: Impotent, passionate, counting all, We kissed----across a tomb ...

The lustrous clouds trailed proudly by: And through a rift of dazzling sky I cursed God with a dreary cry ...

The silence of the starry night; The silver of the moonlit sea; And loud in secret, stern, and trite, The pulse of destiny. Ah sadness scourged with doomed delight! Ah wondrous misery!

Pale topsails in the offing shone, And faded into foam: And down the noontide, one by one, The pale, proud ships would roam; Each sailor to his love went on; Each wanderer to his home.

And, ceasing not, death's nearing knell Tolled in a heart that dreamed no more. Our lips shook, sad as lips in hell; But, fearful of the rending shore, To fill all time with sad farewell We would have sailed for evermore!

For pleasantly a song she'd croon, And feign the world a kindly place; And tender was the haunting tune To match her haunting grace; And tenderly the witching moon Toyed with her feeling face ...

Our love was like the scent of flowers To her who watches by the bed Of one that dies in the dark hours, The one her youth had wed: At dawn she scares her tears away, And through the cloud-enamelled day Jests bravely for their bread.

She shared with all the brighter part; The witching sallies lightly flew; Her thoughts seemed, spilt by subtle art, Half tear-drops and half dew. They loved her for her gracious heart, And the glad winds blew.

The sunbeam of her fleeting life Gladdened the unsuspecting days; And all the dusky imps of strife Paled in her wisdom's lambent rays. Her laugh to _one_ was as a knife: But she had pleasure's praise.

And I who loved that conquering smile, And felt the tears in secret shed, Who watched her life with kindly guile Veiling its darlings dead, Held in a choking hush the while A heart that feigned--and bled ...

Onward with blind rebellious breast I ranged, with love, with bale opprest, Piteous, passionate, all unblest, The dispossessëd,--God-possest ...

More lonely grew the leaden wave That broke against the leaning sky; The melancholy winds 'gan rave Among the whimpering shrouds on high: Most lonely up the leaden wave Two climbed toward yet a lonelier grave-- Where only one should lie.

We neared a grey and grievous land That thundered by a wintry sea; I touched the sorrow of her hand, But nothing sad said she: She turned from love at death's command To death eternally.

We passed the numbly moaning bar; We heard the harbour bell, Its dull fog-muffled clang from far Came like a lorn death-knell. The quay-lights pushed a livid flare Through shrouding mist; and all things there Moved like grim shades in hell.

The hammer's clamp on resonant steel; The siren's shriek; the scream and whirr Reverberant from forge and wheel; The fury and the clangorous stir And plunge of traffic; Vulcan's heel Crashing on iron,--and the reel Of sense at loss of _her_.--

None guessed when, playfully, she said, With smile that brightened toward her dead, "To-day across the world I ride To meet a bridegroom, I the bride." They thought her mischief lied.

Around us was the deafening roar, A void, a wild and drear eclipse. A sadder sweetness than before Shook her pale, smiling lips; She waved adieu through vapours hoar, And vanished in the shadows frore Among the heedless ships ... In that dread lapse of all farewell The spirit, listening, plain could tell That devils laughed in drifting hell With guile upon their lips ...

The world seemed all a hollow ghost That would dissolve away; And life itself a random boast Of elements at play; And time a swift elusive gleam, And man the mockery of a dream, A foam-bell to a moment's beam Flung from the spray.

I had worshipped her with sacred sighs, Loved with the love that wondereth; My life had found her maiden-wise, And sweeter than the rose's breath; Lit by a soul in paradise The lights within her holy eyes, The lady loved of death ...

Bereft, forlorn, by passion driven, And blanched with loss, by suffering riven, With impious heart I fled from Heaven ...

Thought like a frost gripped all the brain: With frozen tears opprest, The conscious blood with sullen pain Lunged at the callous breast, Where hope and love, a pallid twain, Sat with a ghoul for guest.

Over the watery wastes I fled Where'er dim desolation led Beneath sad sun and moon! For faith was dead, and joy was dead, And love was where the phantoms tread, And bitterness was passion's bread: "Grant, jester Death," I, laughing, said, "Thy haggard fool a boon!" ...

And unforgiving, unforgiven, A derelict, by tempest driven, I drave beneath the breadth of heaven ...

Grim sorrow fell on all things fair; To dust was turned the lover's breath. Ah longing, like a pariah bare, And passion, led by lewd despair To kiss the smelling jowl of death!

As in a sunless cavern cold, Like one who flies a crime, Fearful, and old as God is old, The spirit shrank from time; For a stifled scream was the angry gold Of the weird sunset, and the noonday bold Was the stare on the face of a crime.

I saw as brain-blurred drunkards see; I felt, yet could not feel; I seemed in moving time to be In nerveless immobility As dust upon a wheel.

Some world material moved around, Mazed breadths of spume and brine; Strange voices spake as from a bound Far off, I answered with a sound, Nor knew the answer mine; And sometimes like a weary hound I heard the darkness whine.

In throbbing night 'twixt sleep and sleep My tortured spirit heard A wail that wandered down the deep, A sorrow on the windy deep Wail like a wounded bird; And I wept as a haunted man doth weep Who dare not speak a word.

Sometimes I sensed heaven's bellied gloom, Storm like dumb and pregnant doom Scowl on the waters wild; Or tempest 'neath a plunging sky Down crashing waves with haunting cry Scream like a tortured child;

A blind thing staggering in the night Strained, groaning, 'gainst a pervious power That flashed and eddied, wild and white, That wheeled and wailed from hour to hour; And, somewhere, strangely burned to sight Dawn like a doom a-flower ...

On ever onward, darkly driven, A soul, unsheltered, and unshriven, With lodestar gone, with raiment riven, Drove in the gale of the wrath of Heaven ...

The monsoon blew; the changing stars Rode by in deeper skies. At times between the raking spars I felt the blank moon rise; Or heard the chanties of the tars With a sad, sick surprise.

And once a heaven, the sapphire's hue, Flashed o'er the freshening wave; They hurt the heart as laughers do When love stands by a grave.

And now a level ocean grey Would lie along a level day, Unwhipt of wing or wind; Or sunset make a carmine stain That sucked like sadness at the brain, And sank into the mind, And touched me with some wandering pain, Some sentience of mankind again.

... And where was _she_?... Could sorrow fail In aching time ... Ah voice in vain That called for ever ... fading sail On seas forlorn; sad wind and rain Whispering ... all-wandering pain ... And in the heart the wail-- Never again on earth--never again.

So dimly to a beauteous ghost My being bowed a subject knee, And lived, with love's sad sunset lost, Alone 'mid all the sea. A leper to a lonely coast, I fled from all I cherished most; And wildly, with a bleeding boast, I clasped my agony ...

Sad nature strained the leash in vain, And flying, fled not; ever the chain Of the Fear that followed; ever again Relentless pity; guardian pain ...

Like torturing dreams the days went by, With all save self denied; And Godward went man's desolate cry, That Christ Himself had cried: Alone each soul upon its tree Cried to its kin,--but over me The darkness that crushed Calvary When God was crucified.

The present lost, I found, aghast, A dying heart, a deathless past; And, ever nigh, and mocking me, A madness, or a mystery ... And hour by hour, in peril, passed A soul toward judgment through the vast ...

Life, a vague tumult in the blood, Beat on 'gainst flesh and bone; And in its echoing solitude The heart tapped like a stone; Till like some child at dark I stood That stands fear-frozen in a wood,-- Alone--yet not _alone_.--

For mine was ghostly company: Chilled, in the eerie air I felt _myself_ bend over me, And point as with despair; And, horror-thrilled, I turned to see My body selfless there,

And separate,--a house of clay That mourned its tenant gone; Its vacant eyes would fain delay, Its piteous hands implored to stay The soul that in it shone. Where one had been, in mute dismay Two, merged in mystery, went away-- I and that other One ...

With vision blurred, and bearings lost, Streamed on amid a phantom host The man that was a ghost ...

Apart from human years I stood A naked, probing mind. Aloof I heard the beating blood, The far-brought voices of the blood, Flow round me like a wind; In an abysmal solitude I staggered like one blind.--

In wastes uncharted, far from bliss, I heard a writhing chaos hiss; And thought, that moved in time no more, Wept on some wild, pre-natal shore.--

Appalled, the boundless vision burst Through yawning gulfs of gloom; To human hunger, human thirst Infinite hell did loom; Infinite bale to vision burst In tracts of nebulous bloom; And life through peril, lorn, accurst, Passed on from doom to doom.

The depths were full of throes unknown, Weird wastes of vomited fire; Wild mists of thunderous flame were blown Athwart eclipse; I heard the groan Of travailing worlds stupendous thrown Through chaos to expire: My spirit, cowed with vastness dire, Gazed, poised in space,--alone,-- Alone as a haunted life that lies On the death-brink when a dread past cries, And the live dark burns with eternal eyes.