{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_Orion_Book_II_Canto_II/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_Orion_Book_II_Canto_II","id":"wikisource_Orion_Book_II_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_II/Canto_II","summary":null,"tags":["Subpages"],"text":"ORION.\n\nCanto the Second.\n\nThe Sun-god's tresses o'er the whirling reins\nThat scarcely ruled the swift-ascending steeds,\nFell, like a golden, torrent, while his head,\nAnswering his goddess sister's brief request,\nSmiling he bowed,\u2014and the clouds closed behind\nHis blazing wheels. Four of those giant's sires\nWere gods, who with their earth-born sons might hold\nCommunion; wherefore Artemis, alone,\nDeemed not her power sufficed for safe revenge;\nOf which now sure, her course to earth she bent.\n\nThe night-work done, his friends Orion left\nTheir further preparations to complete,\nAnd to the caves returned, hopeful that now\nThe others would assist. There sat the three,\nListening the slow speech of Encolyon,\nWho with change-hating eyes, fixed on the earth,\nDiscoursed, and to Orion's anxious looks\nThus made reply. \"We have resolved to give\nOur utmost aid\u2014or aid that may suffice,\u2014\nIn furtherance of thy task, which many days\nRightly requires.\" \"Six days,\" Orion said,\nAnd turned to go; when Harpax interposed:\n\"Be it then six, but our conditions hear.\nTake Merope, thy prize; the rest be ours.\n\u0152nopion's kingdom we shall duly share,\nAnd make Encolyon king, as fitted best\nFor cares of state and governance of men.\"\n\"Not altogether King,\" Encolyon said\nWith meekness\u2014\"but, in sooth, I would return\nAmong mankind, and dictate to small towns.\"\n\nOrion answered, \"This were breach of faith\nIn me; the King and all his subjects, still\nMust as I found them rest, until he die;\nThen, as ye will, among ye take the crown,\nWhich, having Merope, I ne'er shall claim.\nAway now to our work.\" Autarces rose.\n\"This we accept,\" he said, \"for brief is life\nOf man\u2014and insecure. But further thought\nShould prompt us rather choose Encolyon\nAs guiding minister and staid high priest,\nWhile Akinetos rule as Chios' king.\"\n\nAt mention of the name so reverenced,\nSilently all assented. \"See, the light\nOf day spreads warmly down the valley slopes!\"\nOrion cried. Now Phoibos through the cave\nSent a broad ray! Harpax arose, and then,\u2014\nPondering on rules for safest monarchy,\u2014\nEncolyon heavily. The solar beam\nFilled the great cave with radiance equable,\nAnd not a cranny held one speck of shade.\nA moony halo round Orion came,\nAs of some pure protecting influence,\nWhile with intense light glared the walls and roof,\nThe heat increasing. The three giants stood\nWith glazing eyes, fixed. Terribly the light\nBeat on the dazzled stone, and the cave hummed\nWith reddening heat, till the red hair and beard\nOf Harpax shewed no difference from the rest,\nWhich once were iron-black. The sullen walls\nThen smouldered down to steady oven-heat,\nLike that with care attained when bread has ceased\nIts steaming, and displays an angry tan.\nThe appalled faces of the giants shewed\nFull consciousness of their immediate doom.\nAnd soon the cave a potter's furnace glowed,\nOr kiln for largest bricks, and thus remained\nThe while Orion, in his halo clasped\nBy some invisible power, beheld the clay,\nOf these his early friends, change. Life was gone!\n\nNow sank the heat\u2014the cave-walls lost their glare\u2014\nThe red lights faded, and the halo pale\nAround him, into chilly air expanded.\nThere stood the three great images, in hue\nOf chalky white and red, like those strange shapes\nIn Egypt's ancient tombs; but presently\nEach visage and each form with cracks and flaws\nWas seamed, and the lost countenance brake up,\nAs, with brief toppling, forward prone they fell,\u2014\nAnd in dismay uttering a sudden cry,\nOrion headlong from the cavern fled.\n\nFierce Harpax, and wind-steered Autarces, smitten\nFrom life thus early, may by few be wept;\nBut long laments by the chief rulers made,\nOf Chios, for the sage Encolyon,\nFar echoed, and still echo, through the world\u2014\nWhich feels, e'en now, for his great principle\nA secret reverence. \"Chainer of the wheel!\nHater of all new things!\u2014to whom the acts\nOf men seemed erring ever in each hope\nAnd effort to advance, save in a round,\nTaught by the high example of the spheres!\u2014\nOh champion grave, who with a boundary stone\nStood'st in improvement's door-way like a god,\nReady by wholesome chastisement to grant\nCrushing protection; regulator old\nOf science, scorning genius and its dreams,\nAnd all the first ideas and germs of things,\nTime and his broods of children shall prolong\nThy fame, thy maxims, and thy practise staid,\nFraught with experience turning on itself.\"\n\nO'er the far rocks, midst gorge and glen profound;\nNow from close thickets, now from grassy plains;\nThe sounds of raging contest, flight and death,\nTold where Rhexergon and Biastor wrought\nTheir well-directed work. Them, quickly joined\nTheir head in this destruction, and ere night,\nHuge forms, ferocious, mighty in the dawn,\nWhen hoar rime glistened on each hairy shape,\nNought fearing, swift, brimfull of raging life,\nLay stiffening in black pools of jellied gore.\nNor with the day ceased their tremendous task,\nBut all night long Orion led the way\nThrough moonless passes to most secret lairs,\nWhere in their deep abodes fierce monsters crouched,\u2014\nDragons, and sea-beasts, and compounded forms,\u2014\nAnd in the pitchy blackness madly huddling,\nMidst deafening yells and hisses they were slain.\n\nNext day the unabated toil displayed\nLike prowess and result; but with the eve\nFatigue o'ercame the giants, and they slept.\nDense were the rolling clouds, starless the glooms,\nBut o'er a narrow rift, once drawn apart,\nShewing a field remote of violet hue,\nThe high Moon floated, and her downward gleam\nShone on the upturned giant faces. Rigid\nEach upper feature, loose the nether jaw;\nTheir arms cast wide with open palms; their chests\nHeaving like some large engine. Near them lay\nTheir bloody clubs with dust and hair begrimed,\nTheir spears and girdles, and the long-noosed thongs.\nArtemis vanished; all again was dark.\n\nWith day's first streak Orion rose, and loudly\nTo his companions called. But still they slept.\nAgain he shouted; yet no limb they stirred,\nThough scarcely seven strides distant. He approached,\nAnd found the spot, so sweet with clover flower\nWhen they had cast them down, was now arrayed\nWith many-headed poppies, like a crowd\nOf dusky Ethiops in a magic cirque,\nWhich had sprung up beneath them in the night,\nAnd all entranced the air. Orion paced\nAround their listless bodies thoughtfully.\n\"Three giants slain outright by Phoibos' beams,\u2014\nNow hath a dead sleep fallen on my friends.\n'T was wise in Akinetos not to move.\"\nAn earthquake would not wake them. Artemis\nRejoices, and the hopes of Merope,\nTo whom the news a breathless shepherd bore,\nThrobbed fearfully suspended o'er the brink\nOf this event. Not long Orion paused:\n\"Though all may fail, the utmost shall be tried:\nSecure is he who on himself relies.\"\nThis, hastening to his work, was all he said.\n\nFour days remain. Fresh trees he felled, and wove\nMore barriers and fences; inaccessible\nTo fiercest charge of droves, and to o'erleap\nImpossible. These walls he so arranged,\nThat to a common centre each should force\nThe flight of those pursued; and from that centre\nDiverged three outlets. One, the wide expanse,\nWhich from the rocks and inland forests led;\nOne, was the clear-skied windy gap above\nA precipice; the third, a long ravine\nWhich, through steep slopes, down to the sea shore ran\nWinding, and then direct into the sea.\n\nTwo days remain. Orion, in each hand\nWaving a torch, his course at night began,\nThrough wildest haunts and lairs of savage beasts.\nWith long-drawn howl, before him trooped the wolves,\u2014\nThe panthers, terror-stricken,\u2014and the bears\nWith wonder and gruff rage; from desolate crags,\nLeering hy\u00e6nas, griffin, hippogrif,\nSkulked, or sprang madly, as the tossing brands\nFlashed through the midnight nooks and hollows cold,\nSudden as fire from flint; o'er crashing thickets,\nWith crouched head and curled fangs, dashed the wild boar,\nGnashing forth on with reckless impulses,\nWhile the clear-purposed fox crept closely down\nInto the underwood, to let the storm,\nWhate'er its cause, pass over. Through dark fens,\nMarshes, green rushy swamps, and margins reedy,\nOrion held his way,\u2014and rolling shapes\nOf serpent and of dragon moved before him\nWith high-reared crests, swan-like yet terrible,\nAnd often looking back with gem-like eyes.\nAll night Orion urged his rapid course\nIn the vexed rear of the swift-droving din,\nAnd when the dawn had peered, the monsters all\nWere hemmed in barriers. These he now o'erheaped\nWith fuel through the day, and when again\nNight darkened, and the sea a gulf-like voice\nSent forth, the barriers at all points he fired,\nMidst prayers to Heph\u00e6stos and his Ocean-sire.\n\nSoon as the flames had eaten out a gap\nIn the great barrier fronting the ravine\nThat ran down to the sea, Orion grasped\nTwo blazing boughs; one high in air he raised,\nThe other with its roaring foliage trailed\nBehind him as he sped. Onward the droves\nOf frantic creatures with one impulse rolled\nBefore this night-devouring thing of flames,\nWith multitudinous voice and downward sweep\nInto the sea, which now first knew a tide,\nAnd, ere they made one effort to regain\nThe shore, had caught them in its flowing arms,\nAnd bore them past all hope. The living mass,\nDark heaving o'er the waves resistlessly,\nAt length, in distance, seemed a circle small,\nMidst which, one creature in the centre rose,\nConspicuous in the long red quivering gleams\nThat from the dying brands streamed o'er the waves.\nIt was the oldest dragon of the fens,\nWhose forky flag-wings and horn-crested head\nO'er crags and marshes regal sway had held;\nAnd now he rose up, like an embodied curse\nFrom all the doomed, fast sinking\u2014some just sunk\u2014\nLooked land-ward o'er the sea, and flapped his vans,\nUntil Poseidon drew them swirling down.\n\nAlong the courts and lofty terraces,\nWithin \u0152nopion's palace echoing,\nThe choral voices and triumphal clang\nOf music, ordered by the royal maid,\nAdvanced to greet Orion. She with flushed neck\nAnd arms; large eyes of flashing jet and fire,\nAnd raven tresses fallen from their bands,\nThe loud procession led. But soon they met\nA phalanx armed with mandate from the king,\nAnd all the triumph ceased. \u0152nopion\nGnawed on his lip, and gathered up his robe\nIn one large knot. Forthwith the whispering guards\nHis daughter to the strongest tower convey;\nThen silently return. Orion comes:\n\"The work is done, O king! and Merope\nMy bride, I claim\u2014my second father thou!\"\nThis said, he bent his knee. With wandering eye,\u2014\nLike one who seems to seek within the air\nAn object, while his thoughts would gather time\nFor guile\u2014and with averted face, the king\nAnswered \"Thou claim'st too soon!\"\u2014and inwardly\n\u0152nopion said\u2014\"Three of his giant band\nAre dead; the others spell-bound sleep.\" The voice\nOf wronged Orion rose within the hall,\nDemanding Merope; but image-like,\nHard as if hewn out from a flinty cliff,\nAnd stately stood the king, as he replied,\n\"She waits the voice of our mute oracles.\"\n\nIn a deep forest where the night-black spires\nOf pines begin to swing, and breathe a dirge\nWhose pauses are filled up with yearning tones\nOf oaks that few external throes display\nMidst their robust unyielding boughs\u2014the winds\nAre flying now in gusts, and soon a storm\nBursts howling through them, like a Fury sent\nIn quest of one who hath outstripped his fate\nAnd been caught up to heaven. But no escape\nOr premature release his course attends\nWhose passions boil above mortality;\nNor till those mortal struggles have transpired\nCan satisfaction or repose be found.\nVainly shall he with self-deluding pride\nOf weakness, masked with power, seek solitude\nAnd high remoteness from his fellow men,\nIn all their bitter littleness and strife;\nTheir noble efforts, suffering, martyrdom.\nHe conquers not who flies, except he bear\nConquest within; nor flies he who believes\nThe object of his passion he can grasp,\nSave for design to consummate the end.\n\n\"Oh, raging forest, do I seek once more\nYour solitude for my secure abode?\"\nOrion cried, with wild arms cast abroad,\nFronting a tree whose branches lashed the air,\nWhile its leaves showered around;\u2014\"And shall I not\nIn your direct communion with the earth\nAnd heavens, find sympathy with this branched frame\nI bear, thus shaken; yet unlike your storm\nWhich may be wholesome, coming from without,\nAnd from the operative round of things,\nWhile mine is centred in myself, and rends\nBut does not remedy. Let me then shun\nThe baleful haunts of men\u2014worse than the beasts\nWhom I have exiled, and to shadows changed\u2014\nSavage as beasts with less of open force;\nAs wily, with less skill and promptitude;\nAs little reasoning, save for selfish ends;\nLess faithful, true, and honest, than the dog;\nBut hypocritical, which beasts are not,\nSave in the fables which men make for them!\nInto myself will I henceforth retire,\nAnd find the world I dreamed of when a child.\nNor this alone; but worlds of higher mould\nAnd loftier attributes shall roll before\nMy constant contemplation, in the cave\nOf Akinetos, whom at times I'll seek,\nAnd emulate his wisdom; ever right\nIn never moving, more than absolute need.\nThus shall I find my solace in disdain\nOf earth's inhabitants, whom through city and field\nI've found sheer clay, save in the visions bright,\nOf Goddess, and of Nymph,\u2014\u2014\u2014O Merope!\nAnd where art thou, while idly thus I rave?\nRuns there no hope\u2014no fever through thy veins,\nLike that which leaps and courses round my heart?\nShall I resign thee, passion-perfect maid,\nWho in mortality's most finished work\nRank'st highest\u2014and lov'st me, even as I love?\nRather possess thee with a ten-fold stress\nOf love ungovernable, being denied?\n'Gainst fraud what should I cast down in reply?\u2014\nWhat but a sword, since force must do me right,\nAnd strength was given unto me with my birth,\nIn mine own hand, and by ascendancy\nOver my giant brethren. Two remain,\nWhom prayers to dark Heph\u00e6stos and my sire\nOf ocean, shall awaken into life;\nAnd we will tear up gates, and scatter towers,\nUntil I bear off Merope. Sing on!\nSing on, great tempest! in the darkness sing!\nThy madness is a music that brings calm\nInto my central soul; and from its waves\nThat now with joy begin to heave and gush,\nThe burning image of all life's desire,\nLike an absorbing fire-breathed phantom-god,\nRises and floats!\u2014here touching on the foam,\nThere hovering over it; ascending swift\nStar-ward, then swooping down the hemisphere\nUpon the lengthening javelins of the blast!\nWhy paused I in the palace groves to dream\nOf bliss, with all its substance in my reach?\nWhy not at once, with thee enfolded, whirl\nDeep down the abyss of ecstasy, to melt\nAll brain and being where no reason is,\nOr else the source of reason? But the roaring\nOf Time's great wings which ne'er had driven me,\nBy dread events nor broken-down old age,\nBack on myself, the close experience\nOf false mankind, with whispers cold and dry\nAs snake-songs midst stone hollows, thus has taught me\u2014\nThe giant hunter, laughed at by the world,\u2014\nNot to forget the substance in the dream\nWhich breeds it. Both must merge in one.\nNow shall I overcome thee, body and soul,\nAnd like a new-made element brood o'er thee\nWith all-devouring murmurs! Come, thou storm,\nAnd clasp the rigid pine\u2014this mortal frame\nWrap with thy whirlwinds, rend and wrestle down,\nAnd let my being solve its destiny,\nDefying, seeking, thine extremest power,\nFamished and thirsty for the absorbing doom\nOf that immortal death which leads to life,\nAnd gives a glimpse of heaven's parental scheme.\"","title":"Orion/Book II/Canto II","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":2610}