Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The New Helen (Author: Oscar Wilde)
- 1] Where hast thou been since round the walls of Troy
2] The sons of God fought in that great emprise?
3] Why dost thou walk our common earth again?
4] Hast thou forgotten that impassioned boy,
5] His purple galley, and his Tyrian men,
6] And treacherous Aphrodite's mocking eyes?
7] For surely it was thou, who, like a star
8] Hung in the silver silence of the night,
9] Didst lure the Old World's chivalry and might
10] Into the clamorous crimson waves of war!
- 11] Or didst thou rule the fire-laden moon?
12] In amorous Sidon was thy temple built
13] Over the light and laughter of the sea?
14] Where, behind lattice scarlet-wrought and gilt,
15] Some brown-limbed girl did weave thee tapestry
16] All through the waste and wearied hours of noon;
17] Till her wan cheek with flame of passion burned,
18] And she rose up the sea-washed lips to kiss
19] Of some glad Cyprian sailor, safe returned
20] From Calpé and the cliffs of Herakles!
- 21] No! thou art Helen, and none other one!
22] It was for thee that young Sarpedôn died,
23] And Memnôn's manhood was untimely spent;
24] It was for thee gold-crested Hector tried
25] With Thetis' child that evil race to run,
26] In the last year of thy beleaguerment;
27] Ay! even now the glory of thy fame
28] Burns in those fields of trampled asphodel,
29] Where the high lords whom Ilion knew so well
30] Clash ghostly shields, and call upon thy name.
- 31] Where hast thou been? in that enchanted land
32] Whose slumbering vales forlorn Calypso knew,
33] Where never mower rose to greet the day
34] But all unswathed the trammelling grasses grew,
35] And the sad shepherd saw the tall corn stand
36] Till summer's red had changed to withered grey?
37] Didst thou lie there by some Lethæan stream
38] Deep brooding on thine ancient memory,
39] The crash of broken spears, the fiery gleam
40] From shivered helm, the Grecian battle-cry?
- 41] Nay, thou wert hidden in that hollow hill
42] With one who is forgotten utterly,
43] That discrowned Queen men call the Erycine;
44] Hidden away that never mightst thou see
45] The face of Her, before whose mouldering shrine
46] To-day at Rome the silent nations kneel;
47] Who gat from Love no joyous gladdening,
48] But only Love's intolerable pain,
49] Only a sword to pierce her heart in twain,
50] Only the bitterness of child-bearing.
- 51] The lotus-leaves which heal the wounds of Death
52] Lie in thy hand; O, be thou kind to me,
53] While yet I know the summer of my days;
54] For hardly can my tremulous lips draw breath
55] To fill the silver trumpet with thy praise,
56] So bowed am I before thy mystery;
57] So bowed and broken on Love's terrible wheel,
58] That I have lost all hope and heart to sing,
59] Yet care I not what ruin time may bring
60] If in thy temple thou wilt let me kneel.
- 61] Alas, alas, thou wilt not tarry here,
62] But, like that bird, the servant of the sun,
63] Who flies before the northwind and the night,
64] So wilt thou fly our evil land and drear,
65] Back to the tower of thine old delight,
66] And the red lips of young Euphorion;
67] Nor shall I ever see thy face again,
68] But in this poisonous garden must I stay,
69] Crowning my brows with the thorn-crown of pain,
70] Till all my loveless life shall pass away.
- 71] O Helen! Helen! Helen! yet a while,
72] Yet for a little while, O, tarry here,
73] Till the dawn cometh and the shadows flee!
74] For in the gladsome sunlight of thy smile
75] Of heaven or hell I have no thought or fear,
76] Seeing I know no other god but thee:
77] No other god save him, before whose feet
78] In nets of gold the tired planets move,
79] The incarnate spirit of spiritual love
80] Who in thy body holds his joyous seat.
- 81] Thou wert not born as common women are!
82] But, girt with silver splendour of the foam,
83] Didst from the depths of sapphire seas arise!
84] And at thy coming some immortal star,
85] Bearded with flame, blazed in the Eastern skies,
86] And waked the shepherds on thine island-home.
87] Thou shalt not die: no asps of Egypt creep
88] Close at thy heels to taint the delicate air;
89] No sullen-blooming poppies stain thy hair,
90] Those scarlet heralds of eternal sleep.
- 91] Lily of love, pure and inviolate!
92] Tower of ivory! red rose of fire!
93] Thou hast come down our darkness to illume:
94] For we, close-caught in the wide nets of Fate,
95] Wearied with waiting for the World's Desire,
96] Aimlessly wandered in the house of gloom,
97] Aimlessly sought some slumberous anodyne
98] For wasted lives, for lingering wretchedness,
99] Till we beheld thy re-arisen shrine,
100] And the white glory of thy loveliness.