Cale Young Rice

“ Fear fighting with Desire—
Which to O-Shichi took the shape of Fudo, god of fire.
XIII
And Fudo won her: for that night
Did fond O-Shichi dare
To set aflame her father's house,
Hoping again to share
The temple with her acolyte,
Her lover-priest, who, spent
With speechless passion for her face, in vain strove to repent.
XIV
But ah! what destiny can do
Is not for folly's hand.
[Pg 38] The flames O-Shichi kindled were
From sea to Shiba fanned.
And it was learned a love-sick girl
Had charred a thousand homes.
Then were the fury-smitten folk like to a sea that foams. ”

“ Vanished upon the winds: now had O-Shichi's fate awoke.
VI
And waited. For at morning priests
In pity of her years
[Pg 34] And desolation led her back
Behind the great god's spheres;
The great god Buddha, who of beasts
And men all mindful was.
O Buddha, in thy very courts O-Shichi learned love's laws!
VII
Love of the body and the soul,
Not of Nirvana's state!
Love that beyond itself can see
No beauty wise or great.
O-Shichi for a moon—a whole
Moon happy there beheld
The young boy-priest whose yearning e'er into his eyes upwelled. ”

“ Lamora. Ah! What is love,
Brude wise and noble?
[Pg 148] Is it this burning
Far in my breast
Melting my soul to thine?
Is it this power
Hid in my eyes
Shaping thy face
On hill and cloud?
Is it this whisper,
As of sea-waves,
Singing thy name to me?
Yea! So now we may sleep.
[They lie down. Horma, the hag, who has heard them, creeps maundering up and gazes at them.
Horma. Owl and eaglet?
Have they fled?
Then let witch-toads sing!
Oaths forgotten,
Would they wed?
Then let bull-bats,
[Pg 149] Wild a-wing,
Flap the moon from heaven!
Deep in the forest—
Ha! ho! ho! ”

“ From faith and dream, star, flower, and song, and sea.
But seek that soul and soul may meet together
Knowing they have forever been but one—
Meet and be surest when ill's chartless weather
Drives blinding gales of doubt across their sun. ”

“ Lamora (entering in despair) . Mother! sweet mother,
Far in the Eastland,
Soon must thy daughter
Pass from earth's day!
Ne'er shall a boy-babe
Suck from her bosom
Valor to strangle
Wolves in the lair!
Never shall husband
From the red war-fields
Bring her the foeman's spoils!
Cormo (behind her) . Lamora, proud one—
Lamora. ”

“ His dead lost body: prepare his wake!"
(And back it plunged to the sea!)
[Pg 98]
Three waves of the sea came up on the wind to me.
One bore—
And swept on the shore—
His pale, pale face I shall kiss no more!
Ah, woe to women death passes o'er! ”

“ So did I, Brude, swear—
Till I saw Lamora!
Her eyes are love-fires,
Her words are sorcery
Stronger than god-laws!
But ... who comes hither?
[Has heard a moan.
Hither harasser
Of these my thoughts?
[Pg 141] Ha! is it Lamora
Followed by Cormo?
Curses like vampires
Fall on his head! ”

“ That alway billow thro me their slow fire
Fed by the agony of new-broke hearts!
How loose me from too long commisery
For those whom unrequiting Time has given
To the altar of the aching world's unrest!
A grief immitigable to the Hand
Whose mystery of returning sun can heal
Winter away, seems here; a grief but calm
Of immortality can make forgiven! ”

“ While thro unfathomable dark the Prize
Seemed sinking, as my soul, from heaven above.
Love, say you? love? and hate rent us apart?
I tell you hate alone so tears the heart.
[Pg 111] VII (To Him After His Death)
God who can bind the stars eternally
With but a breath of spirit speech, a thought;
Who can within earth's arms lay the mad sea
Unseverably, and count it as sheer naught ”

“ So charm and lift my heart from heartless drooping
When other healings all were asked in vain?
Yes—there are witcheries in the things of earth
That breathe with an illimitable voice
Wisdom and calm to us, and lure to birth
Dim intimations bidding us rejoice
Even in the great mystery of Pain. ”

“ Thro the death-fog
Unto the blest.
[Pg 150] But side by side,
And ere they come.
[Hands him her knife.
Here we shall die.
But in the Meadows
Where the thin shades
Wander and wander,
Ever in love we'll live!
Fold first thy arms around me.
[They embrace.
Brude (starting from her) . Hear! they have come—
Cormo! The Queen!...
Lamora. Then strike! for thy face
Alone would I see in death!
Brude (killing her then himself) . Cormo!... Queen!... Death!
Ye shall never ... tear us apart!
[Falls with her in his arms, as Boadicea and warriors enter.
[Pg 151] Boadicea (seeing them) . ”

“ Charm that Druids prize.
Brude (with a sudden cry) . Corlun, the gods
Wait for thy soul!
[Slays him.
Lamora, fly!
With me, fly—
Thro the black forest!
[Has cut her bonds.
Great Lactantius,
Maker of gods,
Loves not the maiden's death-cry!
[They escape.
Druids (in terror) . Corlun is slain!
Corlun! slain!
Woe to the Druids!
[Pg 147] Woe from the heavens! ”

“ Northward the twilight thro dark drifts
Of cloud-wreck lingers cold.
Southward the sated lightning sinks
Beneath the wooded wold.
Eastward immovable deep shade
Is sealed with mystery.
Westward a memory of dead gold
Wakes on a sunset sea.
Under, is earth's still orbiting;
Over, a clearing star:
In all, the spirit litany
Of life's strange avatar.
[Pg 87]
UNCROWNED
I am not other than men are, you say? ”

“ Must to ancestral tablets pray—not to her Moto-San!
X
Not unto him, her love, who sways
Her breast, as moon the tide,
[Pg 36] Whose breath is incense—Ah, again
To see him softly glide
Before the grave god-idol's gaze
Of inward ecstasy,
To watch the great bell boom for him its mystic sutra-plea.
XI
But weeks grew into weariness,
And weariness to pain,
And pain to lonely wildness, which
Set fire unto her brain.
And, "I will see my love!" distress
Made fair O-Shichi cry,
"Tho for ten lives away from him I then must live and die." ”

“ When they open, you will lack
Many a thing—but most the fair,
Brave chance to shoot in the back!
O that a man
Should write such words
Of any soul alive!
That any shameless ear should hear—
And still in stealth connive
To burn and to ban,
From home and help,
The weak who fear the rack!
That he could wait till Justice turns,
Then shoot—shoot in the back!
[Pg 135]
BRUDE [2] (A Dramatic Fantasy)
[2] This sketch, written in 1898, was in no sense conceived for the stage.
Dealing with:
Boadicea, queen of the Britons.
Lamora, a Gaulish captive.
Brude, a Druid.
Cormo, a warrior. ”

“ Cormo. Then thou shalt die! shalt die!
Druids shall gash
[Pg 143] Streamings of life
Out of thy shrinking sides!
Lamora. Then die I will!...
But not thro fear.
Coward of Britons,
Will I e'er mother
Child of thy loins.
Rather let flames,
Tongues of the gods,
Suck the red life from my breast.
Yea, let the gods,
Glutless as men,
And, as women,
Treacherous, vain—
Strike, at the call of thy Queen!
[Goes, followed by Cormo.
Brude (coming forward) . No! thou shalt live, live, live!
[Goes into cave, then comes forth with a knife.
[Pg 144]
Scene III: Midnight. ”

“ Lamora's given,
O gods!
Orpo! Ai!—
Her skyward soul
Thro the dank dark shall rise,
As the morn's sun
[Pg 145] Unto your halls
Far o'er the skies.
And she shall say
Thus Druids crave
Help of the helpers of men.
Druids (incanting around the cavern) . Orpo!—Ai!—
Serpents are spawned
Of devils' spit,
O gods!
Orpo!—Ai!—
Spit boiled with blood
In caverns lit
By fungous fangs
From Mona's wood.
[They circle. Brude steals behind Corlun.
Orpo!—Ai!—
Serpents are spawned
In magic broth
To coil and wriggle,
[Pg 146] Writhe and twist ”

“ Shriek cut ear and brain with slivering
[Pg 89] Stings of terror, sin, unrest—
Christ! it raised the dead
Out of the moat's black bed.
Nine times—and then across the thickening reek a rusty draw was dropped;
Thro portcullis sped a quickening
Shadow past to where with sickening
Feet, befixed by awe I stopped—
There she laughed a laugh
No devil's soul could quaff.
I swear its clamor tore the stuttering leaves from shrub and shrunken tree ”

“ Horma, a wandering hag.
Scene: A Hall of hewn wood, on the island of Mona, in which Boadicea sits enthroned and attended. On her right, warriors, long-haired, [Pg 136] mustached and painted with woad. On the left, a band of Druids robed in white: among them Brude, whom she watches jealously from time to time. On the floor in front of her cringes Lamora, held by Cormo.
Boadicea. Britons, hear!
Ye know how my lord,
Caerleon's liege,
Swore feal to the Romans
His lorn wife and daughters—
When the wolf, Death,
Gnawed life from his heart. ”

“ They pursue confusedly.
Scene IV: Dawn; far in the forest. Enter Brude and Lamora faintingly to a spot where Horma, the hag, unseen by them is gathering herbs.
Lamora. Strength no more
Wings me for flight. ”

“ For no soul has he to lose
On a mistress who can dole
Kisses that drug as poison-dews.
[Pg 97]
SEA-MAD (A Breton Maid)
Three waves of the sea came up on the wind to me!
One said:
"Away! he is dead!
Upon my foam I have flung his head!
Go back to your cote, you shall never wed!—
(Nor he!) "
Three waves of the sea came up on the wind to me. ”

“ Druids (bowing with weird signs) . Great is the Queen.
Her Druids hear.
But shall no gift be made?
Boadicea. Yea ... since Lactantius,
God more than all gods,
Will not be soothed
By sheep or cattle,
On your high altar
Slay ye this maiden of Gaul!
[Points to Lamora, who cries out to her, then to Brude:
Lamora. Nay, Queen, O pity!
O, Brude, win pity!
Let her not yield me
Prey to the gods.
Rather in battle
'Gainst the hard Roman
Would I be trampled
Into the grave.
[Pg 139] Trampled by war-hoofs ... ”

“ Boadicea. Proud-lip! mocker!
Dare you sputter
Shame on the awful gods?
[Strikes her down.... Brude watches helpless.
Corlun (coming forward) . Kneel, Druids, kneel!
Then bear her away!
Meet me at midnight,
Druids' day,
Deep within Mona's wood.
[They kneel, then go, bearing Lamora.
Scene II: Sunset. A rocky cave near the forest. Brude facing back and forth with restless muttering.
Brude. O thou Lactantius,
Whom other gods
[Pg 140] Worship with trembling,
While their star-chariots
Roll to the sea!
Symbolled by circles,
Endless in being,
Dost thou love life-blood
As Druids say? ”