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Mild Hermes1 spake, and touched her with his wand, That calms all fear: "Such grace hath crowned thy

prayer,

Laodamia, that at Jove's command

Thy husband walks the paths of upper air;
He comes to tarry with thee three hours' space :
Accept the gift, behold him face to face!"

Forth sprang the impassioned queen her lord to clasp ;
Again that consummation she essayed;
But unsubstantial form eludes her grasp
As often as that eager grasp was made.
The phantom parts-but parts to re-unite,
And re-assume his place before her sight.

"Protesiláus, lo! thy guide is gone!

Confirm, I pray, the vision with thy voice: This is our palace, yonder is thy throne:

Speak, and the floor thou tread'st on will rejoice.

Not to appal me have the gods bestowed

This precious boon, and blest a sad abode."

"Great Jove, Laodamia, doth not leave
His gifts imperfect: spectre though I be,
I am not sent to scare thee or deceive,
But in reward of thy fidelity;

And something also did my worth obtain,
For fearless virtue bringeth boundless gain.

Thou know'st the Delphic2 oracle foretold

That the first Greek who touched the Trojan strand Should die; but me the threat could not withhold: A generous cause a victim did demand; And forth I leapt upon the sandy plain,

A self-devoted chief, by Hector slain."

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Supreme of heroes, bravest, noblest, best!
Thy matchless courage I bewail no more,

1 The Greek name for Mercurius.

2 The oracle at Delphi in Greece was very famous.

LAODAMIA.

Which then, when tens of thousands were deprest
By doubt, propelled thee to the fatal shore;
Thou found'st, and I forgive thee; here thou art,
A nobler counsellor than my poor heart.

But thou, though capable of sternest deed,
Wert kind as resolute, and good as brave;
And he whose power restores thee hath decreed
That thou should'st cheat the malice of the grave;
Redundant are thy locks, thy lips as fair

As when their breath enriched Thessalian air.

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No spectre greets me,—no vain shadow this:
Come, blooming hero, place thee by my side!
Give, on this well-known couch, one nuptial kiss
To me, this day a second time thy bride!"
Jove frowned in heaven; the conscious Parcæ' threw
Upon those roseate lips a Stygian hue.

"This visage tells thee that my doom is past:
Know, virtue were not virtue if the joys
Of sense were able to return as fast

And surely as they vanish. Earth destroys
Those raptures duly-Erebus2 disdains :
Calm pleasures there abide-majestic pains.
Be taught, O faithful consort, to control
Rebellious passion for the gods approve
The depth, and not the tumult, of the soul;
A fervent, not ungovernable love.

Thy transports moderate; and meekly mourn
When I depart, for brief is my sojourn."

"Ah, wherefore? Did not Hercules by force
Wrest from the guardian monster of the tomb
Alcestis, a reanimated corse,

Given back to dwell on earth in vernal bloom?

1 The Fates.

2 Hades, or the place of departed souls.

3 The wife of Hercules, whom he is said to have rescued by force from Hades.

Medea's1 spells dispersed the weight of years,
And Eson stood a youth 'mid youthful peers.

The gods to us are merciful, and they

Yet further may relent: for mightier far Than strength of nerve and sinew, or the sway Of magic potent over sun and star,

Is love, though oft to agony distrest,

And though his favourite seat be feeble woman's breast.

But if thou go'st, I follow-" "Peace!" he said.

She looked upon him, and was calmed and cheered; The ghastly colour from his lips had fled;

In his deportment, shape, and mien appeared Elysian beauty, melancholy grace,

Brought from a pensive though a happy place.

He spake of love, such love as spirits feel
In worlds whose course is equable and pure;
No fears to beat away, no strife to heal,

The past unsighed for, and the future sure;
Spake of heroic arts in graver mood
Revived, with finer harmony pursued;

Of all that is most beauteous, imaged there
In happier beauty; more pellucid streams,
An ampler ether, a diviner air,

And fields invested with purpureal gleams;
Climes which the sun, who sheds the brightest day
Earth knows, is all unworthy to survey.

Yet there the soul shall enter which hath earned
That privilege by virtue. "Ill,” said he,
"The end of man's existence I discerned,
Who from ignoble games and revelry

Could draw, when we had parted, vain delight,
While tears were thy best pastime day and night.

1 A sorceress.

2 Elysium, that part of Hades in which the souls of the blessed dwelt.

LAODAMIA.

And while my youthful peers before my eyes (Each hero following his peculiar bent) Prepared themselves for glorious enterprise

By martial sports; or, seated in the tent,
Chieftains and kings in council were detained,
What time the fleet1 at Aulis lay enchained,-

The wished-for wind was given :-I then revolved
The oracle upon the silent sea;

And if no worthier led the way, resolved

That of a thousand vessels mine should be The foremost prow in pressing to the strand, Mine the first blood that tinged the Trojan sand.

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Yet bitter, oft-times bitter, was the pang
When of thy loss I thought, beloved wife ;
On thee too fondly did my memory hang,
And on the joys we shared in mortal life;
The paths which we had trod, these fountains, flowers,
My new-planned cities and unfinished towers.

But should suspense permit the foe to cry,

Behold, they tremble!-haughty their array,
Yet of their number no one dares to die?'
In soul I swept the indignity away;

Old frailties then recurred; but lofty thought,
In act embodied, my deliverance wrought.

And thou, though strong in love, art all too weak
In reason, in self-government too slow;

I counsel thee by fortitude to seek

Our blest re-union in the shades below.
The invisible world with thee hath sympathised,
Be thy affections raised and solemnised.

Learn by a mortal yearning to ascend
Towards a higher object,-love was given,
Encouraged, sanctioned, chiefly for that end;
For this the passion to excess was driven,

1 The fleet of the Grecian armament against Troy was long detained at Aulis, in Boeotia, by contrary winds.

That self might be annulled; her bondage prove
The fetters of a dream, opposed to love."

Aloud she shrieked, for Hermes re-appears!

Round the dear shade she would have clung: 'tis vain,
The hours are past,—too brief had they been years,
And him no mortal effort can detain :
Swift tow'rd the realms that know not earthly day,
He through the portal takes his silent way,
And on the palace-floor a lifeless corse she lay.
By no weak pity might the gods be moved;
She who thus perished not without the crime
Of lovers that in Reason's spite have loved,
Was doomed to wander in a grosser clime,
Apart from happy ghosts, that gather flowers
Of blissful quiet 'mid unfading bowers.

Yet tears to human suffering are due;
And mortal hopes defeated and o'erthrown
Are mourned by man, and not by man alone,
As fondly he believes.-Upon the side
Of Hellespont1 (such faith was entertained)

A knot of spiry trees for ages grew

From out the tomb of him for whom she died ;
And ever, when such stature they had gained,
That Ilium's walls were subject to their view,
The trees' tall summits withered at the sight,-
A constant interchange of growth and blight.

Sonnet, to Sleep.

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A FLOCK of sheep that leisurely pass by,
One after one; the sound of rain, and bees
Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas,
Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky,—
By turns have all been thought of; yet I lie

1 Now called the Dardanelles, a narrow strait, near the shores of which Troy stood.

2 A name for Troy.

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