Fell into dust immediately. And even as these, the images

Of awe and worship,-even as these,-
So, smitten with the sun's increase,
Her glory mouldered and did cease
From immemorial Nineveh.

The day her builders made their halt,
Those cities of the lake of salt
Stood firmly 'stablished without fault,
Made proud with pillars of basalt,
With sardonyx and porphyry.
The day that Jonah bore abroad
To Nineveh the voice of God,
A brackish lake lay in his road,
Where erst Pride fixed her sure abode,
As then in royal Nineveh.

The day when he. Pride's lord and Man's,
Showed all the kingdoms at a glance
To Him before whose countenance
The years recede, the years advance,
And said, Fall down and worship me :-
Mid all the pomp beneath that look,
Then stirred there, haply, some rebuke,
Where to the wind the salt pools shook,
And in those tracts, of life forsook,

That knew thee not, O Nineveh !

Delicate harlot! On thy throne
Thou with a world beneath thee prone
In state for ages sat'st alone;

And needs were years and lustres flown Ere strength of man could vanquish thee:

Whom even thy victor foes must bring,
Still royal, among maids that sing
As with doves' voices, taboring
Upon their breasts, unto the King,-
A kingly conquest, Nineveh !

. Here woke my thought. The wind's slow sway

Had waxed; and like the human play Of scorn that smiling spreads away, The sunshine shivered off the day:

The callous wind, it seemed to me, Swept up the shadow from the ground: And pale as whom the Fates astound, The god forlorn stood winged and crown'd;

Within I knew the cry lay bound

Of the dumb soul of Nineveh.

And as I turned, my sense half shut
Still saw the crowds of kerb and rut
Go past as marshalled to the strut
Of ranks in gypsum quaintly cut.
It seemed in one same pageantry

They followed forms which had been

erst;

To pass, till on my sight should burst
That future of the best or worst
When some may question which was
first,

Of London or of Nineveh.

For as that Bull-god once did stand
And watched the burial-clouds of sand,
Till these at last without a hand
Rose o'er his eyes, another land,
And blinded him with destiny:-
So may he stand again; till now,
In ships of unknown sail and prow,
Some tribe of the Australian plough
Bear him afar,-a relic now

Of London, not of Nineveh!

place

ASPECTA MEDUSA

(For a Drawing)

seen

MASTER of the murmuring courts
Where the shapes of sleep convene !-

Lo! my spirit here exhorts
All the powers of thy demesne
For their aid to woo my queen.
What reports

Yield thy jealous courts unseen?

Vaporous, unaccountable,

Dreamland lies forlorn of light,
Hollow like a breathing shell.
Ah! that from all dreams I might

Choose one dream and guide its flight!
I know well

What her sleep should tell to-night.

There the dreams are multitudes:
Some that will not wait for sleep,
Deep within the August woods;
Some that hum while rest may steep

Weary labor laid a-heap;
Interludes,

Some, of grievous moods that wee

Poets' fancies all are there:

There the elf-girls flood with wings
Valleys full of plaintive air:
There breathe perfumes; there a
rings

Whirl the foam-bewildered spring
Siren there

Winds her dizzy hair and sings.

Thence the one dream mutually

Dreamed in bridal unison,
Less than waking ecstasy;
Half-formed visions that make m
In the house of birth alone;
And what we,

At death's wicket, see, unknown.

But for mine own sleep, it lies

In one gracious form's control,
Fair with honorable eyes,
Lamps of a translucent soul;
O their glance is loftiest dole,
Sweet and wise,
Wherein Love descries his goal.

Reft of her, my dreams are all
Clammy trance that fears the sky:
Changing footpaths shift and fall;
From polluted coverts nigh,
Miserable phantoms sigh:
Quakes the pall,

And the funeral goes by.

Master, is it soothly said
That, as echoes of man's speech
Far in secret clefts are made,
So do all men's bodies reach
Shadows o'er thy sunken beach,-
Shape or shade
In those halls portrayed of each?
Ah! might I, by thy good grace
Groping in the windy stair,
(Darkness and the breath of space,
Like loud waters everywhere),
Meeting mine own image there
Face to face,
Send it from that place to her!

Nay, not I; but oh! do thou,

Master, from thy shadow kind Call my body's phantom now: Bid it bear its face declin'd Till its flight her slumbers find, And her brow

Feel its presence bow like wind.

My hair was over in the grass,
My naked ears heard the day pass.

My eyes, wide open, had the run
Of some ten weeds to fix upon;
Among those few, out of the sun,
The woodspurge flowered, three cups in

one.

From perfect grief there need not be Wisdom or even memory:

One thing then learnt remains to me.The woodspurge has a cup of three. 1870

THE HONEYSUCKLE

I PLUCKED a honeysuckle where

The hedge on high is quick with thorn And climbing for the prize, was torn And fouled my feet in quag-water:

And by the thorns and by the wind The blossom that I took was thinn'd And yet I found it sweet and fair. Thence to a richer growth I came,

Where, nursed in mellow intercourse The honeysuckles sprang by scores. Not harried like my single stem,

All virgin lamps of scent and dew. So from my hand that first I threw. Yet plucked not any more of them. 1870 A LITTLE WHILE

A LITTLE while a little love

The hour yet bears for thee and me Who have not drawn the veil to see If still our heaven be lit above. Thou merely, at the day's last sigh, Hast felt thy soul prolong the tone, And I have heard the night-wind cry

And deemed its speech mine own.

TROY TOWN X

HEAVENBORN HELEN, Sparta's queen,
(O Troy Town!)

Had two breasts of heavenly sheen,
The sun and moon of the heart's desire:
All Love's lordship lay between.

(0 Troy's down,
Tall Troy's on fire!)

Helen knelt at Venus' shrine,

(O Troy Town!)

Saying "A little gift is mine,
A little gift for a heart's desire.
Hear me speak and make me a sign!
(O Troy's down,
Tall Troy's on fire!)

Look, I bring thee a carven cup;
(0 Troy Town!)
See it here as I hold it up,-
Shaped it is to the heart's desire,
Fit to fill when the gods would sup.
(0 Troy's down,
Tall Troy's on fire!)
It was moulded like my breast;
(0 Troy Town !)
He that sees it may not rest,
Rest at all for his heart's desire.
O give ear to my heart's behest!

(O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) *See my breast, how like it is; (O Troy Town!) See it bare for the air to kiss! is the cup to thy heart's desire? O for the breast, O make it his! (0 Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!) Yea, for my bosom here I sue : (0 Troy Town!) Thou must give it where 't is due, ve it there to the heart's desire. Whom do I give my bosom to?

(O Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!)

Each twin breast is an apple sweet! (0 Troy Town!)

Ince an apple stirred the beat

If thy heart with the heart's desire : ay, who brought it then to thy feet? (0 Troy's down,

Tall Troy's on fire!)

They that claimed it then were three : (0 Troy Town!) or thy sake two hearts did he

Make forlorn of the heart's desire. Do for him as he did for thee!

(O Troy's down,
Tall Troy's on fire!)

"Mine are apples grown to the south,
(0 Troy Town!)
Grown to taste in the days of drouth,
Taste and waste to the heart's desire :
Mine are apples meet for his mouth!"
(0 Troy's down,
Tall Troy's on fire!)

Venus looked on Helen's gift,

(0 Troy Town!) Looked and smiled with subtle drift, Saw the work of her heart's desire:"There thou kneel'st for Love to lift! (0 Troy's down. Tall Troy's on fire!)

Venus looked in Helen's face,

(O Troy Town!)

99

Knew far off an hour and place,
And fire lit from the heart's desire;
Laughed and said, "Thy gift hath
grace!,"

(0 Troy's down, Tall Troy's on fire!)