Produced by Al Haines
THE DELUGE
AND OTHER POEMS
BY
JOHN PRESLAND
AUTHOR OF "MANIN AND THE DEFENCE OF VENICE"
"MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS," ETC.
LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1911
_All rights reserved_
CONTENTS
The Deluge
Sonnets--
To J. F. W.
To Andrew Chatto
November
To a Robin in December
A January Morning
February
To April--I
To April--II
To Daniel Manin
To the Leaders of both Parties
Consolation
Tapestry
Wisdom and Youth
A Villa on the Bay of Naples
A Song
The Ballad of a Sea-Nymph
Chrysanthemums
A Courtly Madrigal
In Arcadia
A Ballad of King Richard
In the Valley of the Shadow
THE DELUGE
"The Sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were
fair."--_Genesis_ vi. 2.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
_The Seeker after Truth_
_His Wife_
_His Mother_
_Chorus_
SCENE I
_The wife and the mother spinning_
THE WIFE (_sings_)
Love, it is dark among your roses,
The face of the moon is turned away,
The nightingale is silent and lonely;
Lean from your window a little way!--
Lean but a little way towards me,
Out of the window where jasmines twine,
Open the lattice, softly, slowly,
Till the light of your eyes shall gladden mine.
Love, it is dark among your roses;
And how, since the nightingales are fled,
Can I tell your heart how my heart is lowly,
To touch the ground where your sandals tread?
This is your garden; these your flowers;
These stars have seen you; these dews have known;
And now your eyes and your smile you give me--
Give me your love, and be all mine own!
THE MOTHER
Sing that again, the music soothes my ear.
THE WIFE
My husband made it for me ere we wed,
And sang it in my garden; I arose
And leaned down to him, and my fingers gave
To all his kisses. Ah! those days were sweet.
THE MOTHER
Not sweet now?
THE WIFE
I am happy in his love
And thank God for it, nay, propitiate
With vows and offering; I fear a wrath
Called down on too great happiness; I fear--
I know not what--Oh, I possess a gift
So rare and precious, that, like men who go
Laden with rubies, I am grown suspect
Of all the earth and heaven, feel the stars
Peer covetously on me. Every hour
That he is from my side a cloud of woe
Settles upon me like a swarm of bees.
Ah, is it possible that we can sin
In happiness, against a jealous God?
THE MOTHER
Nay, nay, these foolish thoughts! your wits are strayed
With too much brooding: let me bind afresh
The knot of scarlet lilies in your hair;
They fade already, for the sun is high
Towards the noon: Ah, child, what waits for you
But love, and yet more love, and happiness,
And children of delight, and in old age
Respect of all the peoples, and at last
Death in his arms and burial in peace?
Still do you tremble, what is it you fear?
THE WIFE
Can you not feel a something in the air,
A warning, or a presence, or the weight
Of some unguessed-at horror, that, like dust
Impalpable and deadly, clings and kills?
There is some terror--'tis my heart that speaks
And warns me--ah! would God indeed, your son,
(My love and husband) had another father
Than that celestial being. This it is
That puts eternal sadness on his brow,
And shade within his eyes I cannot lift,
Even with kisses; 'tis the angel nature
That makes him sit spell-woven in a trance,
Chin in his hand, and eyes on vacancy,
And lips all bare of love, the while his soul
Struggles against the bonds of finity.
THE MOTHER
Ah, how you love him!
THE WIFE
More because of it,
This kingdom infinite I cannot know
Though loving him.
THE MOTHER
Alas! so did I love.
THE WIFE
Tell me of love.
THE MOTHER
Beloved, what should I tell
That his lips have not taught you?
THE WIFE
Tell of yours;
So that I may compare your flowers with mine,
Your doubts and times of joy, and how arose
The sudden and sweet passion in your heart;
Did the world burst forth, like a flower from bud,
All suddenly in beauty, when you met?
THE MOTHER
Ah, how your words have wakened memory,
And bitter-sweet, like love itself, it is.
THE WIFE
The first time that you met?
THE MOTHER
Ah, that first time!
It was a night of gods, a night of love.
The earth was still beneath a summer sky
So thickly sown with stars, that it appeared
A vase of ebon in a silver shroud;
No breath there stirred, the hot air seemed to hang
In heavy folds, like silken tapestry,
Clinging, caressing; all the birds were still,
No nightingale with her ecstatic pain
Transfixed the silence; earth was dead asleep,
Sunk in a scented languor; every flower
Steamed all its odour forth, as it would pour
Its soul before the mystery of love.
And I into the night had stolen forth,
Oppressed, with pain or joy, I knew not which,
Knew only that the blood throughout my veins
Did run like liquid fire, head to foot
I tingled with sensation, all my hair
Stirred, as with separate life within itself;
And as I plucked the flowers and wove them in,
Purple and waxen, languorously sweet,
They seemed anticipation of a touch
Should make each thread of hair become a bird,
Fluttering with outstretched wings. From off my breast
I flung my garment back; the soft air wooed
Like sleepy lips ere love is yet awake.
Then, as I lingered in the dusky depths,
All flower-shadowed, blacker than the night,
Blacker than shadows cast by palace walls
Upon a moonlit night, there, in that web
Of close-knit darkness, suddenly there came
The wonder unto me, the god, my love--
Within mine ears there was a silver silence,
And in my heart a golden burst of song,
The darkness burned around me, with a light
Born from the other worlds, and there he stood,
Radiant, godlike, purple were his wings
And splashed with fire, purply-black his hair
And crowned with stars for flowers; in his eyes
My soul sank into passion and was drowned.
CHORUS
Oh, what a pair of birds,
Hidden among the leaves!
He a god and she a maid,
Deathless lips on mortal laid;
(Nothing death retrieves.)
There a son of God
And child of mortal seed
Met and kissed as love with love;
Oh the leaves were thick above,
No stars saw the deed.
No stars, but the eye of God?
Ah, perchance He saw
How a god to mortal prayed
And the fatal compact made
'Gainst eternal law.
Veiled and still the night.
So, a fount of tears
Springs at first unseen, unguessed,
Till at last the flood confessed
Gushes down the years.
Son of a son of God
And the daughter of men too frail!
Union of the nature's twain?
Only sorrow and want and pain,
Striving without avail;
Desire for wings of a god
Tied to the will of a man;
Memory of a boundless space,
(Where stars and spheres their dance enlace)
With the threescore human span
Hung like a bridge, in the gulf
Of God's eternity.
Oh a mind to know and a heart to crave
Beyond the horizon of the grave
To the bounds of infinity!
Yet ever Fate compels
This infinite desire
To match with cramped and finite brain;
And all of heaven earth may gain
Is smoke, where should be fire.