Gebir | Page 8

words:
"Ye men of Gades, armed with brazen shields,
And ye of near
Tartessus, where the shore
Stoops to receive the tribute which all owe

To Boetis and his banks for their attire,
Ye too whom Durius bore
on level meads,
Inherent in your hearts is bravery:
For earth
contains no nation where abounds
The generous horse and not the
warlike man.
But neither soldier now nor steed avails:
Nor steed
nor soldier can oppose the gods:
Nor is there ought above like Jove
himself;
Nor weighs against his purpose, when once fixed,
Aught
but, with supplicating knee, the prayers.
Swifter than light are they,
and every face,
Though different, glows with beauty; at the throne

Of mercy, when clouds shut it from mankind,
They fall
bare-bosomed, and indignant Jove
Drops at the soothing sweetness of
their voice
The thunder from his hand; let us arise
On these high
places daily, beat our breast,
Prostrate ourselves and deprecate his
wrath."
The people bowed their bodies and obeyed:
Nine mornings with
white ashes on their heads,
Lamented they their toil each night
o'erthrown.
And now the largest orbit of the year,
Leaning o'er
black Mocattam's rubied brow,
Proceeded slow, majestic, and serene,

Now seemed not further than the nearest cliff,
And crimson light
struck soft the phosphor wave.
Then Gebir spake to Tamar in these

words:
"Tamar! I am thy elder and thy king,
But am thy brother too,
nor ever said,
'Give me thy secret and become my slave:'
But haste
thee not away; I will myself
Await the nymph, disguised in thy
attire."
Then starting from attention Tamar cried:
"Brother! in sacred truth it
cannot be!
My life is yours, my love must be my own:
Oh, surely
he who seeks a second love
Never felt one, or 'tis not one I feel."
But Gebir with complacent smile replied:
"Go then, fond Tamar, go
in happy hour--
But ere thou partest ponder in thy breast
And well
bethink thee, lest thou part deceived,
Will she disclose to thee the
mysteries
Of our calamity? and unconstrained?
When even her love
thy strength had to disclose.
My heart indeed is full, but witness
heaven!
My people, not my passion, fills my heart."
"Then let me kiss thy garment," said the youth,
"And heaven be with
thee, and on me thy grace."
Him then the monarch thus once more addressed:
"Be of good
courage: hast thou yet forgot
What chaplets languished round thy
unburnt hair,
In colour like some tall smooth beech's leaves
Curled
by autumnal suns?"
How flattery
Excites a pleasant, soothes a painful shame!
"These," amid stifled blushes Tamar said,
"Were of the flowering
raspberry and vine:
But, ah! the seasons will not wait for love;
Seek
out some other now."
They parted here:
And Gebir bending through the woodlands culled

The creeping vine and viscous raspberry,
Less green and less
compliant than they were;
And twisted in those mossy tufts that grow

On brakes of roses when the roses fade:
And as he passes on, the
little hinds
That shake for bristly herds the foodful bough,
Wonder,

stand still, gaze, and trip satisfied;
Pleased more if chestnut, out of
prickly husk
Shot from the sandal, roll along the glade.
And thus unnoticed went he, and untired
Stepped up the acclivity;
and as he stepped,
And as the garlands nodded o'er his brow,

Sudden from under a close alder sprang
Th' expectant nymph, and
seized him unaware.
He staggered at the shock; his feet at once

Slipped backward from the withered grass short-grazed;
But striking
out one arm, though without aim,
Then grasping with his other, he
enclosed
The struggler; she gained not one step's retreat,
Urging
with open hands against his throat
Intense, now holding in her breath
constrained,
Now pushing with quick impulse and by starts,
Till the
dust blackened upon every pore.
Nearer he drew her and yet nearer,
clasped
Above the knees midway, and now one arm
Fell, and her
other lapsing o'er the neck
Of Gebir swung against his back incurved,

The swoll'n veins glowing deep, and with a groan
On his broad
shoulder fell her face reclined.
But ah, she knew not whom that
roseate face
Cooled with its breath ambrosial; for she stood
High on
the bank, and often swept and broke
His chaplets mingled with her
loosened hair.
Whether while Tamar tarried came desire,
And she grown languid
loosed the wings of love,
Which she before held proudly at her will,

And nought but Tamar in her soul, and nought
Where Tamar was
that seemed or feared deceit,
To fraud she yielded what no force had
gained -
Or whether Jove in pity to mankind,
When from his crystal
fount the visual orbs
He filled with piercing ether and endued
With
somewhat of omnipotence, ordained
That never two fair forms at
once torment
The human heart and draw it different ways,
And thus
in prowess like a god the chief
Subdued her strength nor softened at
her charms--

The nymph divine, the magic mistress, failed.

Recovering, still half resting on the turf,
She looked up wildly, and
could now descry
The kingly brow, arched lofty for command.

"Traitor!" said she, undaunted, though amaze
Threw o'er her varying
cheek the air of fear,
"Thinkest thou thus that with impunity
Thou
hast forsooth deceived me? dar'st thou deem
Those eyes not hateful
that have seen me fall?
O heaven! soon may they close on my
disgrace.
Merciless