Robert Bridges

“ My ears are callous to the threats of Zeus,
The direful penalties his oath hath laid
On every good that I in heart and hand
Am sworn to accomplish, and for all his threats,
Lest their accomplishment should outrun mine,
Am bound the more. Nay, nor his evil minions,
Nor force, nor strength, shall bend me to his will. ARGEIA.
Alas, alas, what heavy words are these,
That in the place of joy forbid your tongue, 43
That cloud and change his face, while desperate sorrow 880
Sighs in his heart? I came to share a triumph:
All is dismay and terror. What is this? ”

“ And seeing none that coud have spoken word,
She waited: when again Lady, draw near;
Enter! was cried; and now more voices came
From all the air around calling her name,
And bidding her rejoice and have no fear. 11
And one, if she would rest, would show her bed,
Pillow’d for sleep, with fragrant linen fine;
One, were she hungry, had a table spread
Like as the high gods have it when they dine:
Or, would she bathe, were those would heat the bath;
The joyous cries contending in her path,
Psyche, they said, What wilt thou? all is thine. ”

“ As stirs the frail and careful being, who here, 20
The king of sorrows, melancholy man,
Bows at his labour, but in heart erect
A god stands, nor for any gift of god
Would barter his immortal-hearted prime.
Could I but win this world from Zeus for mine,
With not a god to vex my happy rule,
I would inhabit here and leave high heaven:
So much I love it and its race of men,
Even as he hates them, hates both them, and me
For loving what he hates, and would destroy me,
Outcast in the scorn of all his cringing crew,
For daring but to save what he would slay:
And me must first destroy. ”

“ Springing, themselves are changed; even as the trees
Or birds or beasts of earth, which now arise
To being, now in turn decay and die.
The heaven and earth thou seest, for long were held
By Fire, a raging power, to whom the Fates
Decreed a slow diminishing old age, 580
But to his daughter, who is that gentle goddess,
Queen of the clear and azure firmament,
In heaven called Hygra, but by mortals Air,
To her, the child of his slow doting years,
Was given a beauteous youth, not long to outlast
His life, but be the pride of his decay,
And win to gentler sway his lost domains. ”

“ Mistress!’ cried she; ‘Hath my beardless son
Been hunting for himself his lovely game?
Some young Orestiad hath his fancy won?
Some Naiad? say; or is a Grace his flame?
Or maybe Muse, and then ’tis Erato,
The trifling wanton. Tell me, if thou know,
Woman or goddess is she? and her name.’
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Then said the snowy gull, ‘O heavenly queen,
What is my knowledge, who am but a bird?
Yet is she only mortal, as I ween,
And namèd Psyche, if I rightly heard.’—
But Aphrodite’s look daunted his cheer,
Ascare he fled away, screaming in fear,
To see what wrath his simple tale had stirr’d. ”

“ As countrymen who bring their wheat to mart,
Set out their show along the walls apart
By their allotted stations, each in place; 10
Thus she, and felt no weariness,—such strength
Hath duty to support our feeble frame,—
Till all was set in order, and at length
Up to the threshold of the shrine she came:
When lo! before her face with friendly smile,
Tall as a pillar of the peristyle,
The goddess stood reveal’d, and call’d her name. 11
‘Unhappy Psyche,’ said she, ‘know’st thou not
How Aphrodite to thy hurt is sworn? ”

“ I dream of love, and in the light of morn
Tremble, beholding all things very fair
And strong with strength that puts my strength to scorn.
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O my goddess divine sometimes I say:—
Now let this word for ever and all suffice;
Thou art insatiable, and yet not twice
Can even thy lover give his soul away:
And for my acts, that at thy feet I lay;
For never any other, by device
Of wisdom, love or beauty, could entice
My homage to the measure of this day.
I have no more to give thee: lo, I have sold
My life, have emptied out my heart, and spent
Whate’er I had ”

“ Hail! cried they, wife of Eros, adorèd queen!
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A hurtling of the battl’d air disturb’d
Her sunken sense, and waked her eyes to meet
The kingly bird of Zeus, himself that curb’d
His swooping course, alighting at her feet;
With motion gentle, his far-darting eye
In kindness dim’d upon her, he drew nigh,
And thus in words unveil’d her foe’s deceit: 25
‘In vain, poor Psyche, hast thou hither striven
Across the fiery plain toiling so well;
Cruelly to destruction art thou driven
By her, whose hate thou canst not quit nor quell. ”

“ Whate’er their sounds be, now all mean the same,
Denoting each the fair that none can find;
Or if I say them, ’tis as one long blind
Forgets the sights that he was used to name.
Now if men speak of love, ’tis not my love;
Nor are their hopes nor joys mine, nor their life
Of praise the life that I think honour of:
Nay tho’ they turn from house and child and wife
And self, and in the thought of heaven above
Hold, as do I, all mortal things at strife. ”

“ Nor fear’d to meet the goddess in her chafe,
So she her self-surrender might secure,
And not be given of other for the price;
Nor was there need of any artifice
Her once resplendent beauty to obscure. 16
For now so changed she was by heavy woe,
That for the little likeness that she bore
To her description she was fear’d to go
Within the fane; and when she stood before
The priestess, scarce coud she with oath persuade
That she was Psyche, the renownèd maid,
Whom men had left the temple to adore. ”

“ With rolling wheel, driver and flagging jade,
Rich men and beggars, children, priests and wives.
New homes on old are set, as lives on lives;
Invention with invention overlaid:
But still or tool or toy or book or blade
Shaped for the hand, that holds and toils and strives.
The men to-day toil as their fathers taught,
With little better’d means; for works depend
On works and overlap, and thought on thought:
And thro’ all change the smiles of hope amend
The weariest face, the same love changed in nought:
In this thing too the world comes not to an end. ”

“ What earthly soil it had afore possest;
Since to man’s purer unsubstantial part
The brightness of her presence was addrest:
And such as mock’d at God, when once they saw
Her heavenly glance, were humbl’d, and in awe
Of things unseen, return’d to praise the Best. 7
And so before her, wheresoe’er she went,
Hushing the crowd a thrilling whisper ran,
And silent heads were reverently bent;
Till from the people the belief began
That Love’s own mother had come down on earth,
Sweet Cytherea, or of mortal birth
A greater Goddess was vouchsaf’t to man. ”

“ All beauty, like a strength where graces cling,—
The jewel and heart of light, which everything
Wrestled in rivalry to hold enshrined.
Ah! since thou’rt fled, and I in each fair sight
The sweet occasion of my joy deplore,
Where shall I seek thee best, or whom invite
Within thy sacred temples and adore?
Who shall fill thought and truth with old delight,
And lead my soul in life as heretofore?
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The work is done, and from the fingers fall
The bloodwarm tools that brought the labour thro’:
The tasking eye that overrunneth all
Rests, and affirms there is no more to do. ”

“ She must see others bleed,
At others’ misery moan,
And learn the common suffering is her own,
From which it is no freedom to be freed:
Nay, Nature, her best nurse,
Is tender but to breed a finer sense,
Which she may easier wound, with smart the worse
And torture more intense. 1210
And no strength for thee but the thought of duty,
Nor any solace but the love of beauty. ”

“ Floated the freighted thorn where Psyche lay:
Whence she unhook’d the golden wool at ease,
And back to heaven for passage swift gan pray.
And Hermes, who was sent to be her guide
Ifso she lived, came down at eventide,
And bore her thither ere the close of day. 17
But when the goddess saw the locks of gold
Held to her hands, her heart with wrath o’erran:
‘Most desperate thou, and by abetting bold,
That dost outwit me, prove thee as I can.
Yet this work is not thine: there is but one
Of all the gods who coud the thing have done.
Hast thou a friend too in the lusty Pan? ”

“ Before poor Psyche on the stair that knelt,
Whose new-nursed hope at that display was checkt,
And all her happier thoughts gan fade and melt.
She saw no kindness in such haughty mien,
And venturing not to look upon the queen,
Bow’d down in woe to hear her sentence dealt.
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And thus the goddess spake, ‘In vain thou suest,
Most miserable Psyche; though my heart
Be full of hate for her whose hate thou ruest,
And pride and pity move me to thy part:
Yet not till Zeus make known his will, coud I,
Least of the blameless gods that dwell on high,
Assist thee, wert thou worthier than thou art. ”

“ Round the fire in measured dance,
While the sun in heaven descending
Sees our happy feast have ending. 1485
Weave ye still your joyous song,
While we bear the wood along.
Semichorus. But O return,
Return, thou flower of the gods!
Remember the limbs that toil and the hearts that yearn,
Remember, and soon return!
To prosper with peace and skill
Our hands in the works of pleasure, beauty and use.
Return, and be for us still
Our shield from the anger of Zeus. ”

“ Scarce on mankind, O Inachus, for Zeus
A second time failing will not again
Measure his spite against their better fate.
And now the terror, which awhile o’er Earth 42
Its black wings spread, shall up to Heaven ascend
And gnaw the tyrant’s heart: for there is whispered
A word gone forth to scare the mighty gods;
How one must soon be born, and born of men, 860
Who shall drive out their impious host from heaven,
And from their skyey dwellings rule mankind
In truth and love. So scarce on man will fall
This evil, nay, nor on thyself, O king ”

“ And Psyche for her fall was quite forgiven,
Since ’gainst herself when tempted to rebel,
By others’ malice on her ruin driven,
Only of sweet simplicity she fell:—
Wherein who fall may fall unto the skies;—
And being foolish she was yet most wise,
And took her trials patiently and well. 26
And Aphrodite since her full defeat
Is kinder and less jealous than before,
And smiling on them both, calls Psyche sweet;
But thinks her son less manly than of yore:
Though still she holds his arm of some renown,
When he goes smiting mortals up and down,
Piercing their marrow with his weapons sore. ”

“ Sweet Psyche, with command their wont to do. 25
But in what secret chamber their foul task
These soul-tormentors plied, or what their skill,
Pity of tender nature may not ask,
Nor poet stain his rhyme with such an ill.
But they at last themselves turn’d from their rack,
Weary of cruelty, and led her back,
Saying that further torture were to kill. 26
Then when the goddess saw her, more she mockt,
‘Art thou the woman of the earth,’ she said,
‘That hast in sorceries mine Eros lockt,
And stood thyself for worship in my stead? ”

“ Till time should bring back flame to smithy and hearth,
Or Zeus relent. Now at these gates I stand, 110
At this mid hour, when Inachus comes forth
To offer sacrifice unto his foe.
For never hath his faithful zeal forborne
To pay the power, though hard, that rules the world
The smokeless sacrifice; which first today
Shall smoke, and rise at heaven in flame to brave
The baffled god. See here a servant bears 10
For the cold altar ceremonial wood:
My shepherd’s cloak will serve me for disguise. SERVANT.
With much toil have I hewn these sapless logs. ”

“ Is one whose love and courage stir for thee;
Who being of manlike spirit, by many shifts
Has stayed the hand of the enemy, who crieth
Thy world is not destroyed, thy good shall live:
Thou hast more power for good than Zeus for ill,
More courage, justice, more abundant art,
More love, more joy, more reason: though around thee
Rank-rooting evil bloom with poisonous crown,
Though wan and dolorous and crooked things 501
Have made their home with thee, thy good shall live. ”

“ Take up thy pyx; to Aphrodite go,
And claim the promise of thy mighty foe;
Maybe that she will grant it to thee now.
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‘If she should yet refuse, despair not yet!’
Then Psyche, when she felt his arms restore
Their old embrace, and as their bodies met,
Knew the great joy that grief is pardon’d for;
And how it doth first ecstasy excel,
When love well-known, long-lost, and mournèd well
In long days of no hope, comes home once more. ”

“ And now the thought came o’er her that in death
There was a cure for sorrow, that before
Her eyes ran Lethe, she might take one breath
Of water and be freed for evermore.
Leaning to look into her tomb, thereon
She saw the horror of her image wan,
And up she rose at height to leap from shore. 11
When suddenly a mighty voice, that fell
With fury on her ears, their sense to scare,
That bounding from the tree trunks like the yell
Of hundred brazen trumpets, cried ‘Forbear!
Forbear, fond maid, that froward step to take,
For life can cure the ills that love may make ”

“ EROS & PSYCHE
MARCH
1
In midmost length of hundred-citied Crete,
The land that cradl’d Zeus, of old renown,
Where grave Demeter nurseried her wheat,
And Minos fashion’d law, ere he went down
To judge the quaking hordes of Hell’s domain,
There dwelt a King on the Omphalian plain
Eastward of Ida, in a little town. 2
Three daughters had this King, of whom my tale
Time hath preserved, that loveth to despise
The wealth which men misdeem of much avail,
Their glories for themselves that they devise ”

“ Her fainting strength forsook her; on her knees
Down by the bed she sank; the shameless knife
Fell flashing, and her heart took thought to seize
Its desperate haft, and end her wicked life.
Yet coud she not her loving eyes withdraw
From her fair sleeping lover, whom she saw
Only to know she was no more his wife. 19
O treasure of all treasures, late her own! ”

“ Have lost with use, like earthly robes, their adorning,
As earthly joys the charm of a first delight, 831
And some are fallen from awe to neglect and scorning;
Until—
O tarry not long, dear needed sprite!
Till thou, though uninvited, with fancy returnest
To hallow beauty and make the dull heart bright:
To inhabit again thy gladdened kingdom in earnest;
Wherein—
from the smile of beauty afar forecasting
The pleasure of god, thou livest at peace and yearnest
With wonder everlasting. ”

“ After long sleep when Psyche first awoke
Among the grasses ’neath the open skies,
And heard the mounting larks, whose carol spoke
Delighted invitation to arise,
She lay as one who after many a league
Hath slept off memory with his long fatigue,
And waking knows not in what place he lies: 2
Anon her quickening thought took up its task,
And all came back as it had happ’d o’ernight ”