THE LOST SHEPHERD


I

            SHE walks among the starry ways,
                A crimson full-blown rose;
            Her heart bears all the yesterdays
                That love from love-dawn knows;
                   Her sunny feet are shod in gold,
                   She swings a censer rare and old ---
            Her heart the censer that she sways,
                Our Lady of the Snows.

 

II

            I passed the morning she was born
                Within the heart of day;
            A shepherd with a twisted horn
               I met upon the way.
                  The straying sheep that autumn-tide
                  Had wandered by the river-side;
            And so I spent that gladsome morn,
               And so I said my say.                    {131}

 

III

            She passes by, she passes still
               The secret ways of earth;
            She kissed Will Blake beneath the hill,
               Robbed Shelley's heart of mirth.
                  But I have stopped with love her lips,
                  And as into my arms she slips,
            I clip her close, and take my fill
               Of joy to make new birth.		 





IV



 






  

                Oh,
    holloa! holloa! the hills among,

                   And
    holloa! down the dale:

                I bear a golden lyre
    full-strung

                   With
    heart-strings bright and pale.

                      I've
    lilies from the fountain-head,

                      And
    purple flags and roses red,

                And all the songs of
    Pan have flung

                   Their
    fragrance in my tale.		
  












V






  

                And
    but as yesterday it seems

                   She
    tripped me as I ran,

                And scattering all my
    half-fledged dreams,

                   Hailed
    me a foolish man.

                      Perchance
    my dreams shall wing their way

                      To
    some such other fool, perfay ---

                God stop his mouth to
    still his screams,

                   And
    help him if He can!
                         {132}		
  












VI






  

                Under
    the willows the stream runs strong

                   When
    the wind is shrill and high;

                I wandered on, and I
    wandered long,

                   Under
    the fleecy sky.

                      A
    voice came out of a cloud to me,

                      Saying,
    "Hast thou brought thy heart with thee?"

                And much I marvelled,
    and won a song,

                   And
    so the day passed by.		
  












VII






  

                I was
    a shepherd in other days,

                   Ere
    ever the earth was old;

                I wandered far into the
    Northern ways

                   To
    bring back my sheep to the fold.

                      Heyday!
    but the time was drear and long,

                      For
    I lost my pipe and my mountain-song,

                And all the others of
    my sweet lays

                   Lost
    all their wonted gold.		
  












VIII






  

                Greece
    and Rome and the Pagan lands

                   I
    knew ere the Christ was born;

                I whistled songs
    between my hands,

                   And
    blew through an old ram's horn.

                      I
    was wise indeed!  For I lost my way

                      Over
    the hills one summer's day,

                And near where Venus'
    stature stands

                   I
    lingered all forlorn.
                          {133}

    		
  







 



IX






  

    
                Laughing eyes and clear
    brown skin,

                   And
    dark locks ripping wide,

                Where the sunbeams play
    and the eddies spin

                   I saw
    my face in the tide.

                      But
    I knew the trick Narcissus had done,

                      So
    I shook back my hair to stare at the sun;

                My slim brown body I'd
    keep within

                   The
    shade of the green hillside.		
  












X






  

                I
    found the groves of Pan; I came

                   At
    length to a daisied field,

                And the sun shone out
    with his yellow flame

                   That
    makes the harvest yield.

                      Yellow
    and purple are corn and grape,

                      But
    scarlet the god when he takes his shape

                At the sound of the
    awful hidden name

                   In
    earth's eclipse revealed.

    		
  







 



XI






  

                And as
    he clasped me, slim and slight,

                   I
    roared with the pain he gave,

                And he cried, "I
    will hold thee here all night,

                   My
    beautiful, dark-haired slave;

                      Kiss
    my lips and laugh in my eyes,

                      And
    I'll bring magic out of the skies,

                And thy flame shall
    yield to my eyes' fierce light

                   Ere
    thine ashes are laid in the grave!"
               {134}		
  












XII






  

                Then
    did I learn the lore of Earth,

                   For
    mine was the light of Pan;

                The barren riddle
    unsolved by birth

                   Was
    solved as the hot fire ran.

                      The
    god's tongue flashed, and he roared with glee

                      At
    each spasm he drew from the breast of me,

                And the mystery of
    Panic mirth

                   Lay
    bare in the sight of a man.		
  












XIII






  

                And
    many a love long since I've known,

                   And
    many a city rare;

                I have sung and harped,
    I have fought and flown,

                   I
    have wandered everywhere.

                      But
    the thought of that day by the water-side,

                      The
    god's hot breath and the hidden bride,

                Makes me more shy as I
    wander alone,

                   Unknowing
    whither I fare.		
  












XIV






  

                And in
    the morning Pan rose and fled,

                   And
    left me alone to sleep;

                And long I lay in a
    slumber dead.

                   Then
    on hands and knees did I creep

                      Back
    to the shade of the sheltering trees;

                      And
    I found my sheep on the shady leas;

                And my body was
    flushed, and my cheeks were red,

                   And
    my eyes too bright to weep.
                    {135}

    		
  







 



XV






  

                After
    long dreamless sleep I knew

                   The
    tale that had fled my tongue,

                I found in far in the
    water blue,

                   In
    the song by the skylark sung,

                      In
    the melody slow of the waving corn,

                      In
    the rushing of wind through the vines re-born,

                And wherever the
    water-lilies grew,

                   And
    the green, green willows swung.

    		
  







 



XVI






  

                And
    still the lady of my dream

                   As a
    light before me goes;

                I see her in the sun's
    last gleam,

                   In
    the moonlight on the snows.

                      Ah!
    chiefly then her song is sung,

                      When
    the moon o'er the dark green woods is hung;

                She is born at midnight
    on the stream,

                   A
    starry, full-blown rose.		
  







 



 



VICTOR B. NEUBURG.     



{136} 



 






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