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I.j.j.T

In Vera Cruz Harboura

 

From "The Argonauts. Actus Quartus" "Collected Works ii" p. 106f
"Selected Poems" p. 83ff

I hear the waters faint and far,
And look to where the Polar Star,
Half hidden in the haze, divides
The double chanting of the tides;
But, where the harbour's gloomy mouth
Welcomes the stranger to the south,
The water shakes, and all the sea
Grows silver suddenly.

As one who standing on the moon
Sees the vast horns in silver hewn,
Himself in darkness, and beholds
How silently all space unfolds
Into her shapeless breast the spark
And sacred phantom of the dark;
So in the harbour-horns I stand
Till I forget the land.

Who sails through all that solemn space
Out to the twilight's secret place,
The sleepy waters move below
His ship's imaginary flow.
No song, no lute, so lowly chaunts
In woods where still Arisbeb haunts,
Wrapping the wanderer with her tressesa
Into untold caresses.

For none of all the sons of men
That hath known Artemisb, again
Turns to the warmer earth, or wows
His secrets to another spouse.
moon resolves her beauty in
The sea's deep kisses salt and keen;
The sea assumes the lunar light,
And he - their eremite!c

In their calm intercourse and kiss
Even hell itself no longer is;
For nothing in their love abides
That passes not beneath their tides,
And whoso bathes in light of theirs,
And water, changes unawares
To be no separate soul, but be
Himself the moon and sea.

Not all the wealth that flowers shed,
And sacred streams, on that calm head;
Not all the earth's spell-weaving dream
And scent of new-turned earth shall seem
Again indeed his mother's breast
To breathe like sleep and give him rest;
He lives or dies in subtler swoon
Between the sea and moon.

So standing, gliding, undeterred
By any her alluring word
That calls from older forest glades,
My soul forgets the gentle maids
That wooed me in the scarlet bowers,
and golden cluster-woof of flowers;a
Forgets itself, content to be
Between the moon and sea.

No passion stirs their depth, nor moves;
No life disturbs their sweet dead loves;
No being holds a crown or throne;
They are, and I in them, alone:
Only some lute-player grown starb
Is heard like whispering flowers afar;
And some divided, single tune
Sobs from the sea and moon.

Amid thy mountains shall I rise,
O moon, and float about thy skies?
Beneath thy waters shall I roam,
O sea, and call thy valleys home?
Or on Daedalian oaragec fare
Forth in the interlunar air?
Imageless mirror-life! to be
Sole between moon and sea.

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      a The harbour in which this lyric was written is that of Vera Cruz. (The Poet's note Collected Works ii p. 106).

Therefore this extract from "Orpheus" has been called "In Vera Cruz Harbour". At this stage in the play Orpheus speaks to Medea and Jason.

     b Arisbe: Two persons called Arisbe in classical mythology; in this case Orpheus must hint at the Arisbe who first married Priam the old king of Troy, and later married Hyrtacus, another king friendly to the Trojans. The image then emerges of some spirit still haunting the cite where the fabulous city once stood.

     a tresses: locks of hair.

     b Artemis: Greek goddess of the hunt, the moon, virgins, birth; the Romans call her Diana.

     c eremite: a hermit, a person living secluded from the world in pursuit of a higher goal, as that enticed by Artemis to her "lovers".

     a cluster-woof of flowers: bunches (cluster) woven (woof): flowers woven in bunches into something. Either pictures of flowers on something or real flowers in special arrangements. The image here may hint at the beauty of the Dianian maids.

     b some lute-player grown star: might well hint at Orpheus himself, as legend goes his lyre got changed into the star-constellation Lyra.

     c Daedalian oarage: Daedalus the first aviator, father of Icarus. The oars of him, could mean some kind of wings bringing man to the moon (: the interlunar airs), a rather prophetic proposition by our Poet of 1904 e.v. only one year after aviation proved possible.

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