TO MY PEN

I

 
    Thou feeble implement of mind,
      Wherewith she strove to scrawl her
        name;
    But, like a mitcher, left behind
      No signature, no stroke, no claim,
        No hint that she hath pined—
 
 
    Shall ever come a stronger time,
        When thou shalt be a tool of skill,
      And steadfast purpose, to fulfil
    A higher task than rhyme?
 

II

 
    Thou puny instrument of soul,
      Wherewith she labours to impart
    Her efforts at some arduous goal;
      But fails to bring thy coarser art
        Beneath a fine control—
 
 
      Shall ever come a fairer day,
        When thou shalt be a buoyant plume,
        To soar, where clearer suns illume,
      And fresher breezes play?
 
 
     Thou weak interpreter of heart,
       So impotent to tell the tale
     Of love's delight, of envy's smart,
       Of passion, and ambition's bale,
         Of pride that dwells apart—
 
 
       Shall I, in length of time, attain
         (By walking in the human ways,
          With love of Him, who made and sways)
       To ply thee, less in vain?
 
 
     If so, thou shalt be more to me
       Than sword, or sceptre, flag, or crown;
     With mind, and soul, and heart in thee,
       Despising gold, and sham renown;
 
 
         But truthful, kind, and free—
       Then come; though now a pithless quill,
         Uncouth, unfledged, indefinite,—
         In time, thou shalt be taught to write,
       By patience, and good-will.
 

LITA OF THE NILE

A TALE IN THREE PARTS

PART   I

I

 
     "KING, and Father, gift and giver,
     God revealed in form of river,
     Issuing perfect, and sublime,
     From the fountain-head of time;
 
 
     "Whom eternal mystery shroudeth,
       Unapproached, untracked, unknown;
     Whom the Lord of heaven encloudeth
       With the curtains of His throne;
 
 
     "From the throne of heaven descending,
     Glory, power, and goodness blending,
     Grant us, ere the daylight dies,
     Token of thy rapid rise,"
 

II

 
     Ha, it cometh! Furrowing, flashing,
       Red blood rushing o'er brown breast;
     Peaks, and ridges, and domes, dashing
       Foam on foam, and crest on crest!
 
 
     'Tis the signal Thebes hath waited,
     Libyan Thebes, the hundred-gated:
     Rouse, and robe thee, River-priest
     For thy dedication feast!
 
 
     Follows him the loveliest maiden,
       Afric's thousand hills can show;
     White apparel'd, flower-laden,
       With the lotus on her brow.
 

III

 
     Votive maid, who hath espousal
     Of the river's high carousal;
     Twenty cubits if he rise,
     This shall be his bridal prize.
 
 
     Calm, and meek of face and carriage,
       Deigning scarce a quicker breath,
     Comes she to the funeral marriage,
       The betrothal of black death.
 
 
     Rosy hands, and hennaed fingers,
     Nails whereon the onyx lingers,
     Clasped, as at a lover's tale,
     In the bosom's marble vale.
 

IV

 
     Silvery scarf, her waist enwreathing,
       Wafts a soft Sabaean balm;
     Like a cloud of incense, breathing
       Round the column of a palm:
 
 
     Snood of lilies interweaveth
     (Giving less than it receiveth)
     Beauty of her clustered brow,
     Calmly bent upon us now.
 
 
     Through her dark hair, spread before
       See the western glory wane,
     As in groves of dim Cytorus,
       Or the bowers of Taprobane!
 

V

 
     See, the large eyes, lit by heaven,
     Brighter than the Sisters Seven,
     (Like a star the storm hath cowed)
     Sink their flash in sorrow's cloud.
 
 
     There the crystal tear refraineth,
       And the founts of grief are dry;
     "Father, Mother—none remaineth;
       All are dead; and why not I?"
 
 
     Yet, by God's will, heavenly beauty
     Owes to Heaven alone its duty;
     Off ye priests, who dare adjudge
     Bride, like this, to slime and sludge!
 

VI

 
     When they tread the river's margent,
       All their mitred heads are bowed—
     What hath browned the ripples argent,
       Like the plume of thunder-cloud?
 
 
     Where yestreen the water slumbered,
     With a sickly crust encumbered,
     Leapeth now a roaring flood,
     Wild as war, and red as blood.
 
 
     Every billow hurries quicker,
       Every surge runs up the strand;
     While the brindled eddies flicker,
       Scourged as with a levin brand.
 

VII

 
     Every bulrush, parched and welted,
     Lifts his long joints yellow-belted;
     Every lotus, faint and sick,
     Hangs her fragrant tongue to lick.
 
 
     Countless creatures, lone unthought of,
       Swarm from every hole and nook;
     What is man, that he make nought of
       Other entries in God's book?
 
 
     Scorpions, rats, and lizards flabby,
     Centipedes, and hydras scabby,
     Asp, and slug, and toad, whose gem
     Outlasts human diadem.
 

VIII

 
     Therefore hath the priest-procession
       Causeway clean of sandal-wood;
     That no foul thing make transgression
       On the votive maiden's blood.
 
 
     Pure of blood and soul, she standeth
     Where the marble gauge demandeth,
     Marble pillar, with black style,
     Record of the rising Nile,
 
 
     White-robed priests around her kneeling,
       Ibis-banner floating high,
     Conchs, and drums, and sistrals pealing,
       And Sesostris standing nigh.
 

IX

 
     He, whose kingdom-city stretches
     Further than our eyesight fetches;
     Every street it wanders down
     Larger than a regal town;
 
 
     Built, when each man was a giant,
       When the rocks were mason's stones,
     When the oaks were osiers pliant,
       And the mountains scarcely thrones;
 
 
     City, whose Titanic portals
     Scorn the puny modern mortals,
     In thy desert winding-sheet,
     Sacred from our insect feet.
 

X

 
     Thebes No-Amon, hundred-gated,
       Every gate could then unfold
     Cavalry ten thousand, plated,
       Man and horse, in solid gold.
 
 
     Glancing back through serried ranges,
     Vivid as his own phalanges,
     Every captain might espy
     Equal host in sculpture vie;
 
 
     Down Piromid vista gazing,
       Ten miles back from every gate,
     He can see that temple blazing,
       Which the world shall never mate.
 

XI

 
     But the Nile-flood, when it swelleth,
     Recks not man, nor where he dwelleth;
     And—e'en while Sesostris reigns—
     Scarce five cubits man attains.
 
 
     Lo, the darkening river quaileth,
       Like a swamp by giant trod,
     And the broad commotion waileth,
       Stricken with the hand of God I
 
 
     When the rushing deluge raging
     Flung its flanks, and shook the staging,
     Priesthood, cowering from the brim,
     Chanted thus its faltering hymn.
 

XII

 
     "Ocean sire, the earth enclasping,
       Like a babe upon thy knee,
     In thy cosmic cycle grasping
       All that hath been, or shall be;
 
 
     "Thou, that art around and over
     All we labour to discover;
     Thou, to whom our world no more
     Than a shell is on thy shore;
 
 
     "God, that wast Supreme, or ever
       Orus, or Osiris, saw;
     God, with whom is no endeavour,
       But thy will eternal law:
 

XIII

 
     "We, who keep thy feasts and fastings,
     We, who live on thy off-castings,
     Here in low obeisance crave
     Rich abundance of thy wave.
 
 
     "Seven years now, for some transgression,
       Some neglect, or outrage vile,
     Vainly hath our poor procession
       Offered life, and soul to Nile.
 
 
     "Seven years now of promise fickle,
     Niggard ooze, and paltry trickle,
     Freshet sprinkling scanty dole,
     Where the roaring flood should roll.
 

XIV

 
     "Therefore are thy children dwindled,
       Therefore is thine altar bare;
     Wheat, and rye, and millet spindled,
       And the fruits of earth despair.
 
 
     "Men with haggard bellies languish,
     Bridal beds are strewn with anguish,
     Mothers sell their babes for bread,
     Half the holy kine are dead.
 
 
     "Is thy wrath at last relaxing?
       Art thou merciful, once more?
     Yea, behold the torrent waxing!
       Yea, behold the flooded shore!
 

XV

 
     "Nile, that now with life-blood tidest,
     And in gorgeous cold subsidest,
     Richer than our victor tread
     Stirred in far Hydaspes' bed;
 
 
     "When thy swelling crest o'er-waveth
     Yonder twenty cubit mark,
     And thy tongue of white foam laveth
     Borders of the desert dark,
 
 
     "This, the fairest Theban maiden,
     Shall be thine, with jewels laden;
     Lift thy furrowed brow, and see
     Lita, dedicate to thee!"
 
 
     Thus he spake, and lowly stooping
       O'er the Calasiris hem,
     Took the holy water, scooping
       With a bowl of lucid gem;
 
 
     Chanting from the Bybline psalter
     Touched he then her forehead altar;
     Sleeking back the trickled jet,
     There the marriage-seal he set.
 
 
     "None of mortals dare pursue thee,
       None come near thy hallowed side:
     Nile's thou art, and he shall woo thee,—
       Nile, who swalloweth his bride."
 

XVII

 
     With despair's mute self-reliance,
     She accepted death's affiance;
     She, who hath no home or rest,
     Shrank not from the river's breast.
 
 
     Haply there she shall discover
       Father, lost in wilds unknown,
     Mother slain, and youthful lover,
       Seen as yet in dreams alone.
 
 
     Ha! sweet maid, what sudden vision
     Hath dispelled thy cold derision?
     What new picture hast thou seen,
     Of a world that might have been?
 

XVIII

 
     From Mount Seir, Duke Iram roveth,
       Three renewals of the moon:
     To see Egypt him behoveth,
       Ere his life be past its noon.
 
 
     Soul, and mind, at first fell under
     Flat discomfiture of wonder,
     With the Nile before him spread,
     Temple-crowned, and tempest-fed!
 
 
     Yet a nobler creed he owneth,
       Than to worship things of space:
     One true God his heart enthroneth
       Heart that throbs with Esau's race.
 

XIX

 
     Thus he stood, with calm eyes scorning
     Idols, priests, and their adorning;
     Seeing, e'en in nature's show,
     Him alone, who made it so.
 
 
     "God of Abraham, our Father,
       Earth, and heaven, and all we