Classic Poem

I

Things of immortal beauty that are grown
Lovelier with love, with worship more divine,
Dreams that command us from the bronze or stone,
Music that draws the heart out, line by line,
Pageants of fate that from a trivial story
Took life-blood, and on humble lips began,
And oft rehearsed, grew to heroic glory,
And speak at last the destiny of man —
" Oh shroud yourselves and be of earth again;
Will you expect a passion to sustain
Your unrelenting loveliness? " we cry,
We, frailer than our fathers, and our eyes
Look down, and ask for lowlier gods to rise —
Things of immortal beauty that pass by!

II

Helen's remote forefathers would we be,
Happier the more remote, is our belief;
Excused from worship and from wonder free,
Crude beauty serves our passion rude and brief.
Such humble tribute to Oenone came
When Paris on the mountain spied her charms,
And kept his herds and followed the wild game,
And when the mood was on him, sought her arms,
Until he saw Queen Helen in her bower,
And her imperious beauty had its power.
He knew not then his poverty of heart;
He only knew he had a way with beauty,
And kiss and touch were all a lover's duty,
And not to love too much was half his art.

III

Helen's remote forefather, when he chose
An easy mate for soul and body, learned
A faith in love that out of love arose,
And beauty kindling upon beauty burned;
Some Spartan girl he took by casual choice
Brought to the vacant shrine the sacred fire,
Some grace of body, some delight of voice,
That laid a consecration on desire.
Then on the passing rapture memory fell,
And glamour even through absence kept its spell,
And the deep-brooding intervals of passion
Glimpses of this new wonder would beget —
That beauty gives love being, and is yet
Of love sustained, and takes its form and fashion.

IV

" Things of immortal beauty that are grown
Lovelier with love, with worship more divine,
Bring us to Helen on her queenly throne! " —
Whether this yearning stirred her ancient line,
Or only a blind fate around them played,
Fairer through generations fell their lot;
Radiant, more radiant, maid was born from maid,
And nobler lovers nobler loves begot,
Torch lighting torch; and the up-leaping flames,
All but immortal under earthly names,
Promised the things of beauty that abide —
A stream of gathered loveliness and growing,
Swifter with time and clearer from long flowing,
And toward eternal meaning drove the tide.

V

Leda at last no lover among men
Worthy to meet her loveliness could find;
It was a god, she thought, that wooed her then,
And matched her beauty with his heavenly mind;
Her body, yielded to his bright desire,
Took whiteness from his heart, and swanlike grace,
And, lips to lips, she learned celestial fire,
And starlike were their glances, face to face,
Till all-surrendered in delicious swoon,
Yet maiden-minded as the stately moon
That has the unceasing ardor of the sun.
She knew this miracle of ecstasy
Some birth of marvellous delight must be,
Some god-like thing exquisitely begun.

VI

Then Paris, Helen's lover, to this stream
Of loveliness unfolding, set a stay;
Led by his hand, the child of Leda's dream
Went seaward, and the sails were salt with spray,
But ere the mariners made the happy coast,
He would have turned from Helen if he could,
He would have left her when she charmed him most
To seek again Oenone in the wood.
For when he saw with terror open-eyed
That fixed immortal beauty by his side,
Impeccable, invincible, sublime,
He yearned for beauty of the earlier strain
That could relax a little and be plain,
And rest a lover's heart from time to time.