LIST to this legend, which an antique poet
Hath left among the musty tomes of eld,
Like a flushed rosebud pressed between the leaves
Of some worn, dark-hued volume. What a light
Of healthful bloom about it! What an air
Seems breathing round its delicate petals still!
Wilt thou not take it, lady,–thou, whose face
Is lovely as a lost Arcadian dream,–
And place it next thy heart, and keep it fresh
With balmy dews thy gentle spirit sends
Up to the deep founts of the tenderest eyes
That e’er have shone, I think, since in some dell
Of Argos and enchanted Thessaly,
The poet, from whose heart-lit brain it came,
Murmured this record unto her he loved?
The Story
Glaucus, a young Thessalian, while the dawn
Of a fresh spring-tide brightened copse and lawn,
Sauntered, with lingering steps and dreamy mood,
Adown the fragrant pathway of a wood
Which skirted his small homestead pleasantly,–
And there he saw a tall, majestic tree,
An oak of untold summers, whose broad crown,
Quivering as if in some slow agony,
And trembling inch by inch forlornly down,
Threatened, for want of a kind propping care,
To leave its breezy realm of golden air,
And from its leafy heights, with shriek and groan,
Like some proud forest empire overthrown,
Measure its vast bulk on the greensward lone.
Glaucus beheld and pitied it. He saw
The approaching ruin with a touch of awe,
No less than genial sympathy,– for men,
In those old times, pierced with a wiser ken
To the deep soul of Nature, and from thence
Drew a serene and mystic influence,
Which thrilled all life to music. Therefore he
Called on his slaves, and bade them prop the tree.
Musing he passed to a still lonelier place
In the dim forest, by this act of grace,
Lightened and cheered, when, from the copse-wood nigh,
There dawned upon his vision suddenly
A shape more fair and lustrous than the star
Which rides o’er Cloudland on her sapphire car
When vesper winds are fluting solemnly.
“Glaucus,” she said, in tones whose liquid flow,
Mellow, harmonious, passionately low,
Stole o’er his spirit with a strange, wild thrill,
“I am the Nymph of that fair tree thy will
Hath saved from ruin; but for thee my breath
Had vanished mistlike,–my glad eyes in death
Been sealed for evermore. Yes! but for thee
I must have lost that half-divinity
Whose secret essence, spiritually fine,
Hath warmed my veins like Hebe’s heavenly wine.
No more, no more amid my rippling hair
Could I have felt soft fingers of the air
Dallying at dawn or twilight,–on my cheek
Have felt the sun rest with a rosy streak,
Pulsing in languor; nor with pleasant pain
Drooped in the cool arms of the loving Rain,
That wept its soul out on my bosom fair.
But now, in long, calm, blissful days to be,
This life of mine shall lapse deliciously
Through all the seasons of the bounteous year;
Beneath my shade mortals shall sit, and hear
Benignant whispers in the shimmering leaves;
And sometimes, upon warm and odorous eves,
Lovers shall bring me offerings of sweet things,–
Honey and fruit,–and dream they mark the wings
Of Cupids fluttering through the oak-boughs hoar.
All this I owe thee, Glaucus,–all, and more!
Ask what thou wilt!–thou shalt not ask in vain!”
Then Glaucus, gazing in her glorious eyes,
And rallying from his first unmanned surprise,
Emboldened, too, by her soft looks, which drew
A spell about his heart like fire and dew
Mingled and melting in a love-charm bland,–
And by the twinkling of her moon-white hand,
That seemed to beckon coyly to her side,
And by her maiden sweetness deified,
And something that he deemed a dear unrest
Heaving the unveiled billows of her breast–
(As if her preternatural part, as free
And wild as any nursling of the lea,
Yearned wholly downward to humanity)–
Emboldened thus, I say, Glaucus replied:
“O fairest vision! be my love,–my bride!”
Over her face there passed an airy flush,
The roseate shade, the twilight of a blush,
Ere the low-whispering answer pensively
Stirred the dim silence in its tranc
(Paul Hamilton Hayne)
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Based on Topics: Man Poems, Light Poems, Sadness Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Nature Poems, Faces Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Youth Poems, Fairness Poems, Dreams Poems, Summer PoemsBased on Keywords: tranc, spiritually, argos, propping, glaucus, love-my, preternatural, oak-boughs, dark-hued, copse-wood, love-charm