{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_Orion_Book_III_Canto_II/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_Orion_Book_III_Canto_II","id":"wikisource_Orion_Book_III_Canto_II","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Orion/Book_III/Canto_II","summary":null,"tags":["Subpages"],"text":"ORION.\n\nCanto the Second.\n\nLevel with the summit of that eastern mount,\nBy slow approach, and like a promontory\nWhich seems to glide and meet a coming ship,\nThe pale gold platform of the Morning came\nTowards the gliding mount. Against a sky\nOf delicate purple, snow-bright courts and halls,\nTouched with light silvery green, gleaming across,\nFronted by pillars vast, cloud capitalled,\nWith shafts of changeful pearl, all reared upon\nAn isle of clear aerial gold, came floating;\nAnd in the centre, clad in fleecy white,\nWith lucid lilies in her golden hair,\nEos, sweet Goddess of the Morning, stood.\n\nFrom the bright peak of that surrounded mount,\nOne step sufficed to gain the golden floor,\nWhereon the Palace of the Morning shone,\nScarcely a bow-shot distant; but that step,\nOrion's humbled and still mortal feet\nDared not adventure. In the Goddess' face\nImploringly he gazed. \"Advance!\" she said,\nIn tones more sweet than when some heavenly bird,\nHid in a rosy cloud, its morning hymn\nWarbles unseen, wet with delicious dews,\nAnd to earth's flowers, all looking up in prayer,\nTells of the coming bliss. \"Believe\u2014advance\u2014\nOr, as the spheres move onward with their song\nThat calls me to awaken other lands,\nThat moment will escape which ne'er returns.\"\nForward Orion stepped: the platform bright\nShook, like the reflex of a star in water\nMoved by the breeze, throughout its whole expanse;\nAnd e'en the palace glistened fitfully,\nAs with electric shiver it sent forth\nOdours of flowers divine and all fresh life.\nStill stood he where he stepped, nor to return\nAttempted. To essay one pace beyond,\nHe felt no power\u2014yet onward he advanced\nSafe to the Goddess, who, with hand outstretched,\nInto the palace led him. Grace and strength,\nWith sense of happy change to finer earth,\nFreshness of nature, and belief in good,\nCame flowing o'er his soul, and he was blest.\n\n'T is always morning somewhere in the world,\nAnd Eos ever rises, circling\nThe varied regions of mankind. No pause\nOf renovation and of freshening rays\nShe knows, but constantly her love breathes forth\nOn field and forest, as on human hope,\nHealth, beauty, power, thought, action and advance.\nAll this Orion witnessed, and rejoiced.\nThe turmoil he had known, the late distress\nBy loss of passion's object, and of sight,\nWere now exchanged for these serene delights\nOf contemplation, as the influence\nThat Eos wrought around for ever, dawned\nUpon his vision and his inmost heart,\nIn sweetness and success. All sympathy\nWith all fair things that in her circle lay,\nShe gave, and all received; nor knew of strife;\nFor from the Sun her cheek its bloom withdrew,\nAnd, ere intolerant noon, the floating realm\nOf Eos\u2014queen of the awakening earth\u2014\nWas brightening other lands, wherefrom black Night\nHer faded chariot down the sky had driven\nBehind the sea. Thus from the earth upraised,\nAnd over its tumultuous breast sustained\nIn peace and tranquil glory\u2014oh blest state!\u2014\nClear-browed Orion, full of thankfulness,\nAnd pure devotion to the Goddess, dwelt\nWithin the glowing Palace of the Morn.\n\nBut these serene airs did not therefore bring\nA death-sleep o'er the waves of memory,\nWhere all its clouds and colours, specks of sails,\nIts car-borne Gods, shipwrecks and drowning men,\nPassed full in view; yet with a mellowing sense\nIdeal, and from pain sublimed. Thus came\nMirrors of nature to him, and full oft\nDownward on Chios turned his happy eyes,\nWith grateful thoughts that o'er life's sorrows wove\nThe present texture of a sweet content,\nPassing all wisdom, or its rarest flower.\nHe saw the woods, and blessed them for the sake\nOf Artemis; the city, and rich gloom\nThat o'er the cedar forest ever hung,\nHe also blessed for Merope; the isle,\nAnd all that dwelt there, he with smiles beheld,\u2014\nNor, it may be, without prophetic thrill\nWhen on Mount Epos turned his parting glance.\nThere, in an after age, close at its foot,\nIn the stone level was a basin broad\nScooped out, and central on a low shaft sat\nA sage with silver hair, and taught his school,\nWhere the boy Homer on the stony rim\nSat with the rest around. Bright were his eyes.\n\nWith re-awakened love, and sight enlarged\nFor all things beautiful, and nobly true\nTo the great elements that rule the world,\nOrion's mind, left to itself, reviewed\nPast knowledge, and of wisdom saw the fruit\nFar nearer than before, the path less rough,\nThe true possession not austere and cold,\nBut natural in its strength and balance just\nOf body and of soul; each to respect,\nAnd to the other minister, and both\nTheir one harmonious being to employ\nFor general happiness, and for their own.\nSuch was the lore which now his thoughts attained,\nAnd he to Eos ventured to display,\nBeseeching her response? She only gazed\nWith an approving smile upon the earth,\nThat rolled beneath, and rendered back the gleam\nWith tender radiance over many a field.\n\nThe story of his life Orion told\u2014\nHis youth\u2014his labours\u2014lastly of his loves;\nNor what for Artemis his opening soul\nHad felt\u2014what deep desire for Merope\u2014\nSought to conceal. How much his intellect,\nAnd entire nature, owed to the pale Queen\nOf night's illumined vault, with grateful sighs\nOf reverential memory he declared;\nTo Eos turning with a pleading look,\nLest she might not approve. She took his hand,\nAnd placed it on her side beneath her heart,\nWhich beat a sphery music audibly.\nHe, listening, still enraptured, countless echoes,\nRang sweetly faint from distant groves beneath\nUpon the earth. Within his hurrying heart\nThe trembling echoes now Orion felt,\nAnd silent stood as one who apprehends\nSome new and blissful hope that round him soars,\nWhich still eludes his vision and his mind.\n\nNot in like doubt was Artemis, whose car\u2014\nBlank as it passed away before the morn,\nHerself invisible\u2014collapsed and yearned\nBeneath the Goddess' spurning foot. At once\nThe lasting love of Eos she foresaw,\nWhen at the tale of other loves he told\nSincerely, fully, with kind memories rife,\nOrion's hand she pressed. His earnest eyes\nAll filled with new-horn light, she also read,\nAs in a mirror where the future 's writ\u2014\nAnd, reading, closed her own as she retired.\n\nMeantime Rhexergon through the Chian streets\nTriumphant, with Biastor and a host\nOf rebel chieftains and their armed bands,\nAnd drunken slaves and robbers, drove the king\nFrom his lost throne. Beyond the suburb fields\n\u0152nopion fled, and secret refuge found\nAmong the tombs beneath a chain of hills,\nWhere dense cold gloom his robe and crown became,\nWhile over-head along the hill-sides ran\nThe sunny vines. Tumult now choaked the city\nWith adverse crowds, and deafened it with cries\nOf slayers, and of those who fled or fell.\nThe giants led the slaughter, oft commencing\nPillage, then turning yet again to slay,\nHaving no plan. They paused but to blaspheme\nThe Gods, like giants doomed to die. Rich spoil\nWas found, seized, left\u2014and trampled into mire\nBy feet that onward sprang for other spoil,\nOr to tear down, wrench, overthrow, destroy;\nTill thus Rhexergon rendered up his life.\n\nAll the chief rulers, priests, and sages old,\nAnd heroes most renowned, Rhexergon vowed\nWithin the temple of Zeus to congregate;\nWall up each means of egress, and from a gap\nMade in the roof, pour down a rocky hail\nFrom broken fanes, cliff, quarry and sea-beach,\nUpon their heads; nor cease the rattling shower\nUntil the temple was filled up with stones.\nTo make the gap, he with his club advanced,\nWhere central, 'neath the roof, a pillar rose,\nWhich was its main support. Blow upon blow\nHe smote; the base gave way; the pillar fell;\nAnd with it fell the roof, and buried him.\n\nWith equal skill Biastor wrought his fate.\nOn a long terrace, which precipitously\nLooked down on suburb gardens deep below,\nNear to the edge upon a pediment stood\nA great gilt statue to Encolyon,\nBy the high rulers reverently set up;\nAnd this inscription bearing on its base;\u2014\n\"To the Wheel-chainer! Reiner-in of steeds!\nAugust preserver of revered decay;\nVotive\u2014erected by a people's love.\"\n\nBiastor, covered with a brazen shield,\nWhirling his sword, and seeing not his way,\nA panic-stricken crowd before him drove\nOn tow'rds the parapet. Thence to escape,\nSome desperately rush back\u2014are cloven down\u2014\nThe rest throng round the statue. It was carved\nOf wood, and at its flat square base the sun\nHad often turned a scornful glance, and made\nDry flaws, wherein had crept and nestled, rot.\nThey cling around its knees!\u2014the giant Force\nComes like a mighty wind;\u2014and, as a mast\nIn shipwreck, black with rigging flanking loose,\nAnd black with wild-haired creatures clinging round,\nWith crash and horrid slant its blasted tree\nSurrenders sidelong,\u2014so the statue fell.\nWith it the crowd were carried; after it\nBiastor, knowing not the depths beyond,\nOr his strong impulse having no power to check,\nFollowed head foremost. Down the hollow banks\nHe, floundering o'er the statue's 'tangled coil,\nInto an orchard 'midst the vale below,\nDeep in the mould lay prone; and over him\nThe fallen statue lay athwart. 'T was thus,\nThe Builder absent, and at that time blind,\nForce, and the Breaker-down their course fulfilled.\n\n\"What have I done on earth?\" Orion said,\nWhile pensive on the platform of the morn\nHe stood. \"My youth's companions are destroyed,\nAnd Akinetos evermore seems right,\nPredicting failure to our human acts:\nOr good, or ill, alike untoward prove.\nI have not well directed mine own strength,\nNor theirs.\" As thus he mused, a skylark sang\nWithin the gleaming Palace, and a voice\nFollowed melodious as it spake these words.\n\n\"Well hast thou striven, and due reward shall find;\nFor though reward held dalliance with thy hopes\nOf former days, and for thyself thou wrought'st,\nThe suffering and the lesson have sufficed\nTo fit thee for more noble aims. Sigh not\nThat those companions of thine unformed youth,\nTheir rude career have closed: evil was all\nThey could have done without thee. Thou hast won\nThe love of Eos; doubt not of her truth,\nAnd to thyself be constant, as to her.\"\n\nHe turned, and at his side the Goddess smiled,\nWith tenderness of grace, such as the soul\nCan through the heart convey, where both accord\nOne object to exalt. Orion knelt,\nAnd looked up in her face, then rose and clasped\nHer yielding loveliness. As they retired,\nAn eye glanced fire-like through the clear blue air,\nAnd saw the embrace!\u2014and marked the glowing beams\nOn Eos' bosom, rosy yet all gold,\nLike ripened peaches in the morning light.\nThat eye grew deadly\u2014flashed\u2014and it was gone,\nAs onward in its course the Palace moved.\n'Twas Artemis!\u2014beware her fatal dart.\n\nO'er meadows green or solitary lawn,\nWhen birds appear earth's sole inhabitants,\nThe long clear shadows of the morning differ\nFrom those of eve, which are more soft and vague,\nSuggestive of past days and mellowed grief.\nThe lights of morning, even as her shades,\nAre architectural, and pre-eminent\nIn quiet freshness, midst the pause that holds\nPrelusive energies. All life awakes.\nMorn comes at first with white uncertain light;\nThen takes a faint red, like an opening bud\nSeen through grey mist: the mist clears off; the sky\nUnfolds; grows ruddy; takes a crimson flush;\nPuts forth bright sprigs of gold,\u2014which soon expanding\nIn saffron, thence pure golden shines the morn;\nUplifts its clear bright fabric of white clouds,\nAll tinted, like a shell of polished pearl,\nWith varied glancings, violet gleam and blush;\nEmbraces Nature; and then passes on,\nLeaving the Sun to perfect his great work.\n\nSo came thy love upon Orion's heart,\nOh life-awakening Queen of early light,\nAnd the devotion he, at first, had deemed\nAll spiritual, now warmed, filled, attained\nEntire vitality, and that highest state\nWhich every noblest faculty employs\nWith self-enjoyment and beneficence.\n\nTrue happiness no idle course endures,\nBut by activity renews its strength,\nWhich else would fail, and happiness revolve\nWithin itself, still dwindling to the point\nWhere pain first stings. Far otherwise it fared\nWith thee, Orion. Watchful tow'rds the world\nHis eye oft turned. The pure realm where he dwelt\nAbsorbed not all his sympathies in itself,\nWhich yet sprang forth, and sighed o'er ills below;\nLike one uplifted in abstraction's mood,\nWho sits alone, and gazes in the fire,\nWatching red ruins as they fall and change\nTo glorious fabrics,\u2014which forthwith dissolve,\nOr by some hideous conflict sink to nought,\nWhile from a black mass issues tawny smoke,\nFollowed by a trumpet flame. War, and the waste,\nSo far as individual life and purpose feels,\nOf human labour,\u2014both its hand and heart\u2014\nCame crowding on his mind. Nor less his eye\nEarth's loveliness perceived; nor less his thoughts\nOf Eos, who in all his fresh designs,\nFeelings, and wishes, shared, and urged him on\nWith constant impulse, hidden in sweet smiles,\nAnd perfect love that thinks not of itself;\u2014\nConscious, contented, sphered beyond fresh hopes.\nEarth was their child; and constant morn their home.\n\nThree things Orion contemplated oft:\nThe first, his gratitude to Artemis\nInspired; its general service and import\nTo human happiness, a duty made.\nHer temple in Delos darkened to the east\nWith towering trees, amidst whose hollowed roots\nDwelt poisonous Harpies. These to dislodge, destroy,\nAnd hew the trees down, that the morning light,\nFollowed by radiant warmth, might penetrate .\nIts depths, even to the temple's central shrine,\nHe purposed. Thus would Eos give her love\nTo Artemis, and all be reconciled.\n\nHis second purpose this: beneath the earth,\nSo might the Father of the Gods give aid,\nTo build a dungeon for the God of War,\nWherein, confined in a tumultuous sleep,\nThe visions of his madness should present\nThe roar of battles and its sanguine joys,\nIts devastations, glories, and vain graves.\nHere might he gloat on death, while: o'er his head\nThe sea-wide corn fields, smiled in golden waves.\n\nThe last, would need Poseidon's trident hand,\nWhich, fervent prayers and filial offerings\nWould fail not to obtain; whereby a blow,\u2014\nSuch as had lifted out of the frothed sea\nDelos,\u2014Kalliste, with its fathomless bay,\u2014\nMountains, and coral rocks,\u2014repeated oft,\nMight many mountains cause at once to rise,\nHigher and higher, till their summits kissed\nThe clouds. Then Eos, casting forth her robe\nFrom peak to peak, and her immortal breath\nCombining and sustaining that bright floor,\nA web of perfect skill, and guileless art,\nUnlike the dark artificers below,\u2014\nLarge space for mortals of the earth would thus\nBe lifted to the platform of the morn.\nThere, by the Goddess beckoned, and beholding\nHer face, divine in youth, the lengthened toil\nOf the ascent, were but a test of worth,\nAnd hollow sounds of roaring from the sea\nBeneath, cause none, who should ascend, to fall.\n\nTo Delos now Orion made descent\nWith Eos, hand in hand, when lofty Night\nAdvanced her shadowy shoulder on the sky.\nGood speed made he with his well-practised hand;\nThe Harpies slew; the eastward trees hewed down;\nAnd laid the temple open to the morn,\nWith all her genial beams. Then Eos first\nFelt doubt; and trembled as she saw the fane\nGleam with her presence, glancing like the light\nWithin an angry eye-ball. A keen breeze\nNow whistled all around, and as it rose\nThe high green corn, like rapids tow'rds a fall,\nFlowed, wave on wave, before the strenuous wind.\nShe gazed with a cold cheek, till underneath\nThe sea, she heard the coming Sun rejoice;\nAnd felt the isle for blest events prepare.\nYet was she silent. The untended Sun,\nWhile Eos lingered midst the southern groves,\nMade Delos vocal to its lowest roots.\nYet stood she with Orion in the shade,\nWho noting not her tender, anxious face,\nIn generous feelings happy, took his rest.\n\nMidst songs and garlands and uplifted joy,\nDay's bright dream sped. Night came; but not the Moon.\nNight passed. Two spectral armies in the air\nAppeared, and with mute fury fought; then died\nIn mist. A cloud of pale and livid blue,\nLit from behind, hangs low amid the west!\n\nWhat scarce-apparent ray! what wavering light\nDown glances, arching through the silent vault!\nAgain it flies!\u2014and yet again the ray!\nThe omen and the deed unite\u2014in death!\nInto the grove, and to the self-same spot\nThe darts flew! They thy naked breast have reached,\nO, Giant! child-like in thy truthfulness,\nYet full of noblest gifts, and hard-earned skill;\nCut off when love was perfect, and in the midst\nOf all thy fresh designs for human weal,\nTo make the morning feel itself in vain,\nAnd men turn pale who never shed a tear!\nThy task is finished\u2014thou canst work no more\u2014\nThy Maker takes thee, for he loved thee well.\n\nHaggard and chill as a lost ghost, the Morn,\nWith hair unbraided and unsandalled feet,\u2014\nHer colourless robe like a poor wandering smoke,\u2014\nMoved feebly up the heavens, and in her arms\nA shadowy burden heavily bore; soon fading\nIn a dark rain, through which the sun arose\nScarce visible, and in his orb confused.","title":"Orion/Book III/Canto II","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":2879}