{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_Orion_Book_II_Canto_I/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_Orion_Book_II_Canto_I","id":"wikisource_Orion_Book_II_Canto_I","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_II/Canto_I","summary":null,"tags":["Subpages"],"text":"BOOK II.\n\nCanto the First.\n\nBeneath a tree, whose heaped-up burthen swayed\nIn the high wind, and made a hustling sound,\nAs of a distant host that scale a hill,\nAutarces and Encolyon gravely sat.\nSometimes they spake aloud, then murmured low,\nThen paused as if perplexed,\u2014looked round and snuffed\nThe odour of wood-fires in the fresh forest air,\u2014\nAnd then again addressed them to their theme.\nOf cloudy-brained Orion they discoursed,\nLost to companionship, and led by dreams.\n\n\"Once,\" said Autarces, \"he was great on earth;\nA worker in iron, and a hunter fleet\nWho oft ran down the stag; when, by some chance,\nHe pleaseth Artemis, and in her train,\nAll his high worth resigning, and his friends,\nDwindles to suit her fancy, and becomes\nA giant of lost mind.\" Encolyon thrust\nHis heavy heel into the soil, and spake\nWith serious gesture. \"Ever Orion sought\nSome new device, some hateful onward deed\nThrough strange ways hurrying, scorning wise delay.\nA victim fell he soon to Artemis\nAnd her cold spells, for of his Ocean-sire\nOrion's soul hath many a headlong tide.\nBut most of all her gleamy illusions fell\nUpon his mind, which soon became a maze\nFor ghostly wanderings, and wild echoes heard\nThrough mists; and none could comprehend his speech.\"\n\n\"Methought the orgie had recalled his sense,\nSo fairly he bespake us to the mirth;\nSo full and giant-like was his disport\nThroughout the night,\" Autarces now rejoined.\nEncolyon raised one hand:\u2014\"That orgie's waste\nOf energies,\" he murmured, \"and the hours\nFar better given to rest, I much deplore.\nWhy joined I in the mirth?\u2014how was I lost!\nBut when a regulated mind sedate,\nIts perfect poise permits to waver aside\nOne tittle, certainly the man must fall\nSomewhat in dignity, howe'er retrieved.\nHence, when a regulated\"\u2014Here his speech\nAutarces interrupted hastily,\nSince, for his share, no self-reproach felt he.\n\"I say the orgie, and his high disport,\nShewed in Orion some return to sense:\nAnd when next morn I saw him near a brook,\nWhere I had stooped to drink\u2014by him unseen\u2014\nDown ran he like a panther close pursued,\nThen stopped and listened\u2014now looked up on high\u2014\nNow stared into the brook as he would drink,\nAnd drain its ripplings to the last white stone\u2014\nThen went away forgetful. This methought,\nE'en by its wildness and its strenuous throes,\nSavoured of hope, and of his safe return\nTo corporal sense, by shaking off these nets\nOf moon-beams from his soul; but when I rose\nAnd crossed his path, and bade him speak to me,\nAgain 'twas all of vapour and dark thoughts,\nUnlike the natural thoughts of bone and thews,\nAs we of yore were taught, and found enough\nFor all our needs, and for our songs and prayers.\nYet had he, as it seemed, some plan within,\nAnd ever tended to some central point\nIn some place\u2014nought more could I understand:\nWherefore I deem that he is surely mad.\"\n\"And so deem I,\"\u2014rejoined Encolyon:\n\"Ever advancing\u2014working a new way\u2014\nTasking his heart, forgetful of his life\nAnd present good\u2014of madness the sure sign.\"\n\nWhile thus they talked, Harpax with speed approached,\nShouting his tidings\u2014\"Merope loves Orion\u2014\nOrion hath gone mad for Merope!\"\nThe twain who had erewhile the cause discerned,\nAnd signs of reason's loss, at this fresh news,\nSo little dreamed-of from his recent mood,\nA minute looked each other in the face\nWith sheep-like gravity, then backward sank\nAgainst the tree, loud laughing. \"This were good,\"\nChecking his laughter with a straight-lined face,\nEncolyon said, \"if not too deeply burning,\nAnd that a power within himself he hold\nTo pause at will.\" But Harpax quick rejoined,\n\"I, for myself, would have this Merope,\nAnd force \u0152nopion render up his crown,\nIf ye will aid me.\" \"We will give our aid,\"\nAutarces cried\u2014\"and yet methinks this love\nAffecting doubly, as by the self-same blow,\nMight from some spells in the orgie-fumes arise?\nYe marked, wise Akinetos would not move.\"\n\"Doubtless 't was wise,\" Encolyon said, \"More care\nBefits our steps.\" They rose and strode away.\n\nThere is a voice that floats upon the breeze\nFrom a heathed mountain; voice of sad lament\nFor love left desolate ere its fruits were known,\nYet by the memory of its own truth sweetened,\nIf not consoled. To this Orion listens\nNow, while he stands within the mountain's shade.\n\n\"The scarf of gold you sent to me, was bright\nAs any streak on cloud or sea, when morn\nOr sun-set light most lovely strives to be.\nBut that delicious hour can come no more,\nWhen, on the wave-lulled shore, mutely we sat,\nAnd felt love's power, which melted in fast dews\nOur being and our fate, as doth a shower\nDeep foot-marks left upon a sandy moor.\nWe thought not of our mountains and our streams,\nOur birth-place, and the home of our life's date,\nBut only of our dreams\u2014and heaven's blest face.\nNever renew thy vision, passionate lover\u2014\nHeart-rifled maiden\u2014nor the hope pursue,\nIf once it vanish from thee; but believe\n'T is better thou shouldst rue this sweet loss ever\nThan newly grieve, or risk another chill\nOn false love's icy river, which betraying\nWith mirrors bright to see, and voids beneath,\nIts broken spell should find no faith in thee.\"\n\nThus sang a gentle Oread who had loved\nA River-god with gold-reflecting streams,\nBut found him all too cold\u2014while yet she stood\nScarce ankle-deep\u2014and droopingly retired\nTo sing of fond hopes past. Orion's hand\nA jewelled armlet held, whereon his eyes\nEarnestly rested. By a lovely boy,\nTo him 't was smiling brought while he reclined\nDesponding, o'er a rock. \"This gift, still warm,\nMy mistress sends thee, giant son of Ocean,\nOnce having seen thee in the hunting train\nOf Artemis. Her name, if thou wouldst know,\n'T is Merope, daughter of Chios' king,\nThe proud \u0152nopion, lord of an hundred ships.\"\n\nOrion to the palace of the king\nForthwith departed. Merope once seen,\nHis eyes resign their clear external power,\nAnd see through feeling, utterly possessed\nWith her rare image; and his deep desire,\nDeeper by energies so long confused,\nWhen half his earth-born nature was subdued,\nStruggled, and bounded onward to the goal.\n\nHer beauty awed the common race of men.\nHers was a shape made for a serpent dance,\nWhich charmed to stillness and to burning dreams,\nBut she herself the illusive charm o'er-ruled\nAs doth an element, merging for a time,\nNe'er lost; and none could steadily confront\nHer sphynx-like bosom, and high watchful head.\nDark were her eyes, and beautiful as Death's,\nWith a mysterious meaning, such as lurks\nIn that pale Ecstasy, the Queen of Shades.\nAll deemed her passion was a mortal flame,\nVolcanic, corporal, ending with its hour\nOf sacrifice, dissolving in fine air;\nSave one bald sage, who said that human nerves,\nAnd what they wrought, were wondrous as the mind,\nAnd in the eye of Zeus none could decide\nWhich held the higher place. For, to the nerves\nPerfect abstraction and pure bliss belonged,\nAs parent of all life, and might in death\nContinuance through some subtler medium find,\u2014\nWhence, life renewed, and heaven at length attained.\n\nNought of this sage's lore recked Merope,\nAnd, for Orion, he of thought was sick,\nSave that which round his present object played\nDelicious gambols and high phantasies.\nTogether they, the groves and templed glades\nThat, like old Twilight's vague and gleamy abode,\nHung vision-like around the palace towers,\nRoved, mute with passion's inward eloquence.\nThey loitered near the founts that sprang elate\nInto the dazzled air, or pouring rolled\nA crystal torrent into oval shapes\nOf grey-veined marble; and oft gazed within\nProfoundly tranquil and secluded pools,\nWhose lovely depths of mirrored blackness clear\u2014\nOblivion's lucid-surfaced mystery\u2014\nTheir earnest faces and enraptured eyes\nVisibly, and to each burning heart, revealed.\n\"And art thou mine to the last gushing drop\nOf these high throbbing veins?\" each visage said.\nOrion straightway to \u0152nopion sped,\nAnd his life's service to the gloomy king\nHe proffered for the hand of Merope.\n\n\u0152nopion strode about his pillared hall,\nAnd the dun chequers of its marble floor\nCounted perplexed, while pondering his reply.\nOrion's strength and giant friends he feared;\nNor to accept the alliance, nor refuse,\nSeemed wise. Thereto, Poseidon's empire rolled\nToo near, and might surround his towers with waves;\nWherefore the king a double face assumed.\n\"Orion, I consent,\" mildly he said:\n\"Thy service I accept, and to thee give,\nWhen thou shalt have performed it, Merope.\nClear me our Chios of its savage beasts,\nDragon and hippogrif, wolves, serpents dire,\nWithin six days, and Merope is thine.\"\n\nThrough the high palace gates Orion passed,\nSpeeding to seek strong aid for this hard task\nAmong his forest friends. Old memories\nSlumbrously hung above the purple line\nOf distance, to the east, while odorously\nGlistened the tear-drops of a new-fallen shower;\nAnd sun-set forced its beams through strangling boughs,\nGilding green shadows, till it blazed athwart\nThe giant-caves, and touched with watery fires\nThe heavy foot-marks which had plashed the sward\nOn vacant paths, through foliaged vistas steep,\nWhere gloom was mellowing to a grand repose.\nAt intervals, as from beneath the ground,\nFar in the depth of these primeval cells,\nLow respirations came. There, in great shade,\nThe giants sleep. Lost sons are they of Time.\n\nThere is no hour when rest is sacred held\nBy him who works and builds; and eve and night,\nAlike with day, his toil oftimes will claim.\n\"Awake companions! 't is Orion calls!\"\nAnd straight the giants rose, and came to him,\nSave Akinetos, into whose low cave\nThey with a torch now entered, there to hold\nThe conference, for he was very wise,\nAnd ne'er proposed, nor did a thing that failed.\n\nOrion's tale is told; Autarces then\nFor Merope proposed the lots to draw,\nWhereat Orion glared,\u2014but speech refrained\nWhen Harpax fiercely on Autarces turned\nWith loud reproach, since he had sworn to him\nFar different purpose; so Orion smiled,\nAnd of Rhexergon and Biastor sought\nAid in his heavy task. They promised this\u2014\nWhen each one, by an arm, Encolyon\nGrasped, and reminded of the darkness. \"Night\nIs the fit time,\" Orion cried, \"to dig\nThe pitfalls, throw up mounds with bristling stakes\nAt top, as barriers, and the nets and toils\nFix and prepare, and choose our clubs and spears.\"\nBut still Encolyon urged a day's delay,\nFor dignity of movements thus combined,\nIf not for need. To Akinetos now\nAll turned with reverence, waiting the result\nOf silent wisdom and of calm profound;\nBut from these small things he had long withdrawn\nHis godlike mind, and was again abstract.\n\nOrion took the torch, and led the way\nInto the dark damp air. Each to his post\nAssigning; one, for the chief mountain pass,\nSoon as the grey dawn touched the highest peaks;\nOne, in the plains below; two, for the woods;\nThe while Biastor and himself would range\nThe island, driving to the centre all\nThat should escape their spears. 'T was thus resolved.\nMeantime Rhexergon and Biastor joined\nOrion, who went forth to dig the pits,\nBreak down high tops of trees, and weave their boughs\nIn barrier walls, and fix sharp stakes on mounds\nAnd river banks. When they were gone, a yell,\nMocking the wild beasts doomed to be destroyed,\nHarpax sent forth. \"Mine be the task,\" he said,\n\"To ravage the King's pastures\u2014slay his bulls\u2014\nAnd into our own woods and meadows drive\nHis goats and stags.\" \"Rather collect alive,\"\nAutarces interposed, \"with strong-meshed nets,\nAll the mad beasts, and loose them suddenly\nWithin \u0152nopion's palace! That were sport\nWorthy our toil; small joy for us to aid\nOrion's freaks for love of Merope,\u2014\nWhom yet, methinks, he wisely hath preferred\nTo crystal-bosomed, wintry Artemis,\u2014\nPale huntress, exiled from our sunny woods,\nHad my will power\u2014\" \"But all her nymphs detained,\nAnd, like our vines, deep rifled through their leaves\nOf golden fruit\"\u2014Harpax rejoined: \"Or placed,\"\nEncolyon slowly muttered to himself,\n\"On pedestals, until they changed to stone,\"\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\"As votive statues to the Goddess famed\nFor cruel purity and marble heart\u2014\"\nAutarces shouted, looking up on high.\n\nAll this heard Artemis, who o'er the caves\nRolled her faint orb before the coming dawn,\nIn lonely sadness; and with an inward cry\nOf jealous anguish and of vengeful ire,\nLike an electric spark that knows not space,\nShot from her throne into the eastern heaven.","title":"Orion/Book II/Canto I","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":2093}