Classic Poem

All glamour, golden beauty arched with blue,
Eleusis, vale of peace, enchanted lay —
Meadows, and by the mountain road one house,
Dark trees, beneath their shadow a clear well,
And far away the immeasurable sea
Faint-sounding; drunk with autumn savors, earth
Rich harvest-scent was breathing, and burnt leaves —
When down the road a lonely wanderer came,
An aged form, that step by step between
Some place far back and some place far beyond
Measured the weariness. Grey was her hair,
Her eyes were grieving, her firm lips were proud;
Her body, tall and stately, mantle-wrapped,
Majestic swayed like wheat in summer wind,
As slowly to the wellside she drew near —
There darkly paused, with folded patient hands,
Fixed as a carven stone.
Over the world
The magic gleam shone brighter, the low sun,
Slanting, reached to the grass beneath the trees
And robbed the well of shadow, save where still
The woman stood. Suddenly from the house
A radiant boy came running with light foot,
Balancing on his shoulder a water-jar —
Then at the shadow waiting unawares,
Marble-like, with bowed and grieving head,
He curbed his dancing mood and walked sedate,
Shamefaced before a stranger. While he drew,
She watched in silence till the jar was full,
Then in low tones that thrilled with pleasure-pain
Like the delirious chill from autumn fields
Swift after sunset —
" Doth thy mother live,
A rich woman, that without envy looks
On strangers' children? Who of yon wide house
Is master? "
Brimming with joy to share, " Celeus,
My father — hark, my one brother weeping, born
This very day! "
He paused for sheer delight,
And she, kindling with sudden hope — " What woman
Ministers to thy mother and the child?
Where is thy father? Run to him — bid him say
If there be timely service I can do,
Service that wisdom asks and practised hands;
Tell him, brief is the shelter age desires,
But long the recompense of pity endures. "
Eagerly on his errand sped the boy,
Tasting a new adventure; soon he brought
His father, walking slow, whose earnest words
Challenged her —
" Woman, what thing of grief art thou,
Shadowing these waters with unbidden gloom?
What thing of grief and age, that dost desire
To handle joy newborn? "
Her quiet voice
Like a soft rainfall sang —
" Bitter the bread
The stranger eats and earns not; gods nor men
Who suffer alms are free; let me but serve.
Only to abide a little, to be still,
To seek for nothing, to buy with quiet hands
A quiet heart " —
" Quietness and to spare, "
Celeus broke in, " room by the hearth enough,
And work enough; abide here, since thou wilt. "
When he had spoke, the boy, as if to unfold
Kindness out of the scant and measured words,
Reached for her hand and slowly toward the home,
Silently to the doorway, brought her. There
With lifted arms of prophecy she prayed —
" To all this house the immortal gods be friends,
And chiefly to this lad, who gave me rest.
Master of field and meadow shall he be,
To plow, to plant, to reap — him and his sons
The earth obey forever! "
His boyhood felt
Exquisite shadowed beauty, earth under stars;
Her words startled like bird-notes in the dawn;
Suddenly for her presence the house seemed small.