hymn to Artemis

hymn to Artemis

"O silver Artemis, upon thy wheeled chariot

unbroken flows that pacing stream beneath,

as if in memory of the sunken Sun

Whither dost thou travel, beyond those blue Halcyon drapes?

Doth the immemorable course now return?

past a halted spell: faltered, diminished

till then dreamily it did scattered

break. O thou silver flow

the sterner afternoon life nonetheless

spill't forth

voluptuous in river's misty garb

cloacking then stone-cold ruins, face lichen-bloom'd

and nameless cities erroded by Spring's solitude,

o'er too many remoter mountain realms

forgotten alongside some uninhabited village huts,

standing tall and mute

and in that blue blue sky-clad Westerly field

that ancient pasture dream of the vetch-chewing kine,

thoughts of milk golden but ponderous,

and tongues clicked in velvety delight

till the silver uprising, with the stolen arms---

thou steal'st from shadowed pits and moss-clad ruins,

from hills and bush, to thwart Day's progress

their Sunset o'er the land: through bow and arrow

driving its ghostly air into light's vapoury breath*

and away let go.

Changeless spectre, Grecian wonder

reborn dreamer and conscience of pain---

prolific Thief yourself---wert Thou not sister to Hermes?

thrice-great:

the rusting agent of each heaven's yoke

thy unwaning spirit's dominion,

that fatal strain of twilight's pull

it stirred the Cyclopean ward from his woollen fold

to find the Thefts 'gainst evening's far horizon

that lone ship, its stolen prize now adrift

left him blind with fury and mad self-pity,

thus turned him to roam and haunt

this cradled island, his begetter earth

once vast beneath his sky-clad naivity

now he wanders as a hunter for an unknown prey

through obscure passageways across the land

daily renewed by pangs of guilt and pleasure

now in bush and now in shadowed pits,

amidst moss-clad cities, ruins long-fallen and mute

For what secret path to underworld Pluto,

what subterrene refuge and byways sought him?

and had much prowled for, thirsting

what understanding water, alone in these cloudy regions?

unsure of feet,

for that soundless austerity---seeking downwards

that deep, reciprocal gaze of Erinyes,

who was said to dwell with dark and piercing justice

from within that vast pneumonic mountain

and working of its abyssal valves

the virgin breath of underground perfume: winds of anticipation

penetrating as a judge terminal and succor-wise,

even bringing it outwards 'gainst his lonesome form

lifting him up,

till he is small beneath the vast shadow of sky

that knowledge---

the last slaking of those old coal-red godhoods,

now dimmed in humbler embers

and girding of those Lethean eyes of river

about in a modest cup,

offered against both heart's depths and erstwhile presence

having overlooked himself, more than once:

Woe! He who is but an impatient ruin of chariot

lies here in silly fortunes,

with those o'erfaring spokes undone,

with his broken Wheels suspended in midair

chasing after shadow of forgotten Suns,

with his mighty head bobbing along,

eyes downcast,searching for a well

and perchance by knowledge of black-winged Eurus

o'erturned for pity in heaven

whilst the silver stream continually goes on."

*alternative:

driv'st Thou all the ghostly airs,

and letting light yield to land's vaporous breath.