XVIII.
"Thou shalt forget Hermione; forget Thy lord, thy lofty palace, and thy kin;Thy hand within a stranger's shalt thou set, And follow him, nor deem it any sin;And many a strange land wand'ring shalt thou win, And thou shalt come to an unhappy town, And twenty long years shalt thou dwell therein, Before the Argives mar its towery crown.
XIX.
"And of thine end I speak not, but thy name, -Thy name which thou lamentest,--that shall be A song in all men's speech, a tongue of flame Between the burning lips of Poesy;And the nine daughters of Mnemosyne, With Prince Apollo, leader of the nine, Shall make thee deathless in their minstrelsy!
Yea, for thou shalt outlive the race divine, XX.
"The race of Gods, for like the sons of men We Gods have but our season, and go by;And Cronos pass'd, and Uranus, and then Shall Zeus and all his children utterly Pass, and new Gods be born, and reign, and die, -But thee shall lovers worship evermore What Gods soe'er usurp the changeful sky, Or flit to the irremeable shore.
XXI.
"Now sleep and dream not, sleep the long day through, And the brief watches of the summer night, And then go forth amid the flowers and dew, Where the red rose of Dawn outburns the white.
Then shalt thou learn my mercy and my might Between the drowsy lily and the rose;There shalt thou spell the meaning of delight, And know such gladness as a Goddess knows!"XXII.
Then Sleep came floating from the Lemnian isle, And over Helen crush'd his poppy crown, Her soft lids waver'd for a little while, Then on her carven bed she laid her down, And Sleep, the comforter of king and clown, Kind Sleep the sweetest, near akin to Death, Held her as close as Death doth men that drown, So close that none might hear her inward breath -XXIII.
So close no man might tell she was not dead!
And then the Goddess took her zone,--where lies All her enchantment, love and lustihead, And the glad converse that beguiles the wise, And grace the very Gods may not despise, And sweet Desire that doth the whole world move, -And therewith touch'd she Helen's sleeping eyes And made her lovely as the Queen of Love.
XXIV.
Then laughter-loving Aphrodite went To far Idalia, over land and sea, And scarce the fragrant cedar-branches bent Beneath her footsteps, faring daintily;And in Idalia the Graces three Anointed her with oil ambrosial, -So to her house in Sidon wended she To mock the prayers of lovers when they call.
XXV.
And all day long the incense and the smoke Lifted, and fell, and soft and slowly roll'd, And many a hymn and musical awoke Between the pillars of her house of gold, And rose-crown'd girls, and fair boys linen-stoled, Did sacrifice her fragrant courts within, And in dark chapels wrought rites manifold The loving favour of the Queen to win.
XXVI.
But Menelaus, waking suddenly, Beheld the dawn was white, the day was near, And rose, and kiss'd fair Helen; no good-bye He spake, and never mark'd a fallen tear, -Men know not when they part for many a year, -He grasp'd a bronze-shod lance in either hand, And merrily went forth to drive the deer, With Paris, through the dewy morning land.
XXVII.
