Robert Browning - Delphi Poets Series

by Robert Browning

  For why? My father left me them before.

  Well then, where wrong I thee? — of what defraud?

  Neither do thou die for this man, myself,

  Nor let him die for thee! — is all I beg. 1490

  Thou joyest seeing daylight: dost suppose

  Thy father joys not too? Undoubtedly,

  Long I account the time to pass below,

  And brief my span of days; yet sweet the same:

  Is it otherwise to thee who, impudent,

  Didst fight off this same death, and livest now

  Through having sneaked past fate apportioned thee,

  And slain thy wife so? Cryest cowardice

  On me, I wonder, thou — the poor poltroon

  A very woman worsted, daring death 1500

  Just for the sake of thee, her handsome spark?

  Shrewdly hast thou contrived how not to die

  For evermore now: ‘t is but still persuade

  The wife, for the time being, to take thy place!

  What, and thy friends who would not do the like

  These dost thou carp at, craven thus thyself?

  Crouch and be silent, craven! Comprehend

  That, if thou lovest so that life of thine,

  Why, everybody loves his own life too:

  So, good words, henceforth! If thou speak us ill, 1510

  Many and true an ill thing shalt thou hear!”

  There you saw leap the hydra at full length!

  Only, the old kept glorying the more,

  The more the portent thus uncoiled itself,

  Whereas the young man shuddered head to foot,

  And shrank from kinship with the creature. Why

  Such horror, unless what he hated most,

  Vaunting itself outside, might fairly claim

  Acquaintance with the counterpart at home?

  I would the Chorus here had plucked up heart, 1520

  Spoken out boldly and explained the man,

  If not to men, to Gods. That way, I think,

  Sophokles would have led their dance and song.

  Here, they said simply “Too much evil spoke

  On both sides!” As the young before, so now

  They bade the old man leave abusing thus.

  “Let him speak, — I have spoken!” said the youth:

  And so died out the wrangle by degrees,

  In wretched bickering. “If thou wince at fact,

  Behoved thee not prove faulty to myself!” 1530

  “Had I died for thee I had faulted more!”

  “All’s one, then, for youth’s bloom and age to die?”

  “Our duty is to live one life, not two!”

  “Go then, and outlive Zeus, for aught I care!”

  “What, curse thy parents with no sort of cause?”

  “Curse, truly! All thou lovest is long life!”

  “And dost not thou, too, all for love of life,

  Carry out now, in place of thine, this corpse?”

  “Monument, rather, of thy cowardice.

  Thou worst one!”

  ”Not for me she died, I hope! 1540

  That, thou wilt hardly say!”

  ”No; simply this:

  Would, some day, thou may’st come to need myself!”

  “Meanwhile, woo many wives — the more will die!”

  “And so shame thee who never dared the like!”

  “Dear is this light o’ the sun-god — dear, I say!”

  “Proper conclusion for a beast to draw!”

  “One thing is certain: there’s no laughing now,

  As out thou bearest the poor dead old man!”

  “Die when thou wilt, thou wilt die infamous!”

  “And once dead, whether famed or infamous, 1550

  I shall not care!”

  ”Alas and yet again!

  How full is age of impudency!”

  ”True!

  Thou could’st not call thy young wife impudent:

  She was found foolish merely.”

  ”Get thee gone!

  And let me bury this my dead!”

  ”I go.

  Thou buriest her whom thou didst murder first;

  Whereof there’s some account to render yet

  Those kinsfolk by the marriage-side! I think,

  Brother Akastos may be classed with me,

  Among the beasts, not men, if he omit 1560

  Avenging upon thee his sister’s blood!”

  “Go to perdition, with thy housemate too!

  Grow old all childlessly, with child alive,

  Just as ye merit! for to me at least,

  Beneath the same roof ne’er do ye return.

  And did I need by heralds’ help renounce

  The ancestral hearth, I had renounced the same!

  But we — since this woe, lying at our feet

  I’ the path, is to be borne — let us proceed

  And lay the body on the pyre.”

  I think, 1570

  What, thro’ this wretched wrangle, kept the man

  From seeing clear — beside the cause I gave —

  Was, that the woe, himself described as full

  I’ the path before him, there did really lie —

  Not roll into the abyss of dead and gone.

  How, with Alkestis present, calmly crowned,

  Was she so irrecoverable yet —

  The bird, escaped, that’s just on bough above.

  The flower, let flutter half-way down the brink?

  Not so detached seemed lifelessness from life 1580

  But — one dear stretch beyond all straining yet —

  And he might have her at his heart once more,

  When, in the critical minute, up there comes

  The father and the fact, to trifle time!

  “To the pyre!” an instinct prompted: pallid face,

  And passive arm and pointed foot, O friends, —

  When these no longer shall absorb the sight,

  Admetos will begin to see indeed

  Who the true foe was, where the blows should fall!

  So, the old selfish Pheres went his way, 1590

  Case-hardened as he came; and left the youth,

  (Only half selfish now, since sensitive)

  To go on learning by a light the more,

  As friends moved off, renewing dirge the while:

  “Unhappy in thy daring! Noble dame,

  Best of the good, farewell! With favouring face

  May Hermes the infernal, Hades too,

  Receive thee! And if there, — ay, there, — some touch

  Of further dignity await the good,

  Sharing with them, may’st thou sit throned by her 1600

  The Bride of Hades, in companionship!”

  Wherewith, the sad procession wound away,

  Made slowly for the suburb sepulchre.

  And lo, — while still one’s heart, in time and tune,

  Paced after that symmetric step of Death

  Mute-marching, to the mind’s eye, at the head

  O’ the mourners — one hand pointing out their path

  With the long pale terrific sword we saw,

  The other leading, with grim tender grace,

  Alkestis quieted and consecrate, — 1610

  Lo, life again knocked laughing at the door!

  The world goes on, goes ever, in and through,

  And out again o’ the cloud. We faced about,

  Fronted the palace where the mid-hall-door

  Opened — not half, nor half of half, perhaps —

  Yet wide enough to let out light and life,

  And warmth, and bounty, and hope, and joy, at once.

  Festivity burst wide, fruit rare and ripe

  Crushed in the mouth of Bacchos, pulpy-prime,

  All juice and flavour, save one single seed 1620

  Duly ejected from the God’s nice lip,

  Which lay o’ the red edge, blackly visible —

  To wit,
a certain ancient servitor:

  On whom the festal jaws o’ the palace shut,

  So, there he stood, a much-bewildered man.

  Stupid? Nay, but sagacious in a sort:

  Learned, life-long, i’ the first outside of things,

  Though bat for blindness to what lies beneath

  And needs a nail-scratch ere ‘t is laid you bare.

  This functionary was the trusted one 1630

  We saw deputed by Admetos late

  To lead in Herakles and help him, soul

  And body, to such snatched repose, snapped-up

  Sustainment, as might do away the dust

  O’ the last encounter, knit each nerve anew

  For that next onset sure to come at cry

  O’ the creature next assailed, — nay, should it prove

  Only the creature that came forward now

  To play the critic upon Herakles!

  “Many the guests” — so he soliloquized 1640

  In musings burdensome to breast before,

  When it seemed not too prudent, tongue should wag —

  “Many, and from all quarters of this world,

  The guests I now have known frequent our house,

  For whom I spread the banquet; but than this,

  Never a worse one did I yet receive

  At the hearth here! One who seeing, first of all,

  The master’s sorrow, entered gate the same,

  And had the hardihood to house himself.

  Did things stop there! But, modest by no means, 1650

  He took what entertainment lay to hand,

  Knowing of our misfortune, — did we fail

  In aught of the fit service, urged us serve

  Just as a guest expects! And in his hands

  Taking the ivied goblet, drinks and drinks

  The unmixed product of black mother-earth,

  Until the blaze o’ the wine went round about

  And warmed him: then he crowns with myrtle sprigs

  His head, and howls discordance — two-fold lay

  Was thereupon for us to listen to — 1660

  This fellow singing, namely, nor restrained

  A jot by sympathy with sorrows here —

  While we o’ the household mourned our mistress — mourned,

  That is to say, in silence — never showed

  The eyes, which we kept wetting, to the guest —

  For there Admetos was imperative.

  And so, here am I helping make at home

  A guest, some fellow ripe for wickedness,

  Robber or pirate, while she goes her way

  Out of our house: and neither was it mine 1670

  To follow in procession, nor stretch forth

  Hand, wave my lady dear a last farewell,

  Lamenting who to me and all of us

  Domestics was a mother: myriad harms

  She used to ward away from every one,

  And mollify her husband’s ireful mood.

  I ask then, do I justly hate or no

  This guest, this interloper on our grief?”

  “Hate him and justly!” Here’s the proper judge

  Of what is due to the house from Herakles! 1680

  This man of much experience saw the first

  O’ the feeble duckings-down at destiny,

  When King Admetos went his rounds, poor soul,

  A-begging somebody to be so brave

  As die for one afraid to die himself —

  “Thou, friend? Thou, love? Father or mother, then!

  None of you? What, Alkestis must Death catch?

  O best of wives, one woman in the world!

  But nowise droop: our prayers may still assist:

  Let us try sacrifice; if those avail 1690

  Nothing and Gods avert their countenance,

  Why, deep and durable the grief will be!”

  AVhereat the house, this worthy at its head,

  Re-echoed “deep and durable our grief!”

  This sage, who justly hated Herakles,

  Did he suggest once “Rather I than she!”

  Admonish the Turannos — “Be a man!

  Bear thine own burden, never think to thrust

  Thy fate upon another, and thy wife!

  It were a dubious gain could death be doomed 1700

  That other, yet no passionatest plea

  Of thine, to die instead, have force with fate;

  Seeing thou lov’st Alkestis: what were life

  Unlighted by the loved one? But to live —

  Not merely live unsolaced by some thought,

  Some word so poor — yet solace all the same —

  As ‘Thou i’ the sepulchre, Alkestis, say!

  Would I, or would not I, to save thy life,

  Die, and die on, and die for ever more?’

  No! but to read red-written up and down 1710

  The world ‘This is the sunshine, this the shade,

  This is some pleasure of earth, sky or sea,

  Due to that other, dead that thou may’st live!’

  Such were a covetable gain to thee?

  Go die, fool, and be happy while ‘t is time!”

  One word of counsel in this kind, methinks,

  Had fallen to better purpose than Ai, ai,

  Pheu, pheu, e, papai, and a pother of praise

  O’ the best, best, best one! Nothing was to hate

  In king Admetos, Pheres, and the rest 1720

  O’ the household down to his heroic self!

  This was the one thing hateful: Herakles

  Had flung into the presence, frank and free,

  Out from the labour into the repose,

  Ere out again and over head and ears

  I’ the heart of labour, all for love of men:

  Making the most o’ the minute, that the soul

  And body, strained to height a minute since,

  Might lie relaxed in joy, this breathing-space,

  For man’s sake more than ever; till the bow, 1730

  Restrung o’ the sudden, at first cry for help,

  Should send some unimaginable shaft

  True to the aim and shatteringly through

  The plate-mail of a monster, save man so.

  He slew the pest o’ the marish yesterday:

  To-morrow he would bit the flame-breathed stud

  That fed on man’s-flesh: and this day between —

  Because he held it natural to die,

  And fruitless to lament a thing past cure,

  So, took his fill of food, wine, song and flowers, 1740

  Till the new labour claimed him soon enough, —

  “Hate him and justly!”

  True, Charopé mine!

  The man surmised not Herakles lay hid

  I’ the guest; or knowing it, was ignorant

  That still his lady lived — for Herakles;

  Or else judged lightness needs must indicate

  This or the other caitiff quality:

  And therefore — had been right if not so wrong!

  For who expects the sort of him will scratch

  A nail’s depth, scrape the surface just to see 1750

  What peradventure underlies the same? So, he stood petting up his puny hate,

  Parent-wise, proud of the ill-favoured babe.

  Not long! A great hand, careful lest it crush,

  Startled him on the shoulder: up he stared,

  And over him, who stood but Herakles?

  There smiled the mighty presence, all one smile

  And no touch more of the world-weary God,

  Through the brief respite! Just a garland’s grace

  About the brow, a song to satisfy 1760

  Head, heart and breast, and trumpet-lips at once,

  A solemn draught of true religious wine.

  And, — how should I know? — half a mountain goat

  Torn up and swallowed down, — the feast was fierce

  But brief: all cares and pains t
ook wing and flew,

  Leaving the hero ready to begin

  And help mankind, whatever woe came next.

  Even though what came next should be nought more

  Than the mean querulous mouth o’ the man, remarked

  Pursing its grievance up till patience failed 1770

  And the sage needs must rush out, as we saw,

  To sulk outside and pet his hate in peace.

  By no means would the Helper have it so:

  He who was just about to handle brutes

  In Thrace, and bit the jaws which breathed the flame, —

  Well, if a good laugh and a jovial word

  Could bridle age which blew bad humours forth,

  That were a kind of help, too!

  ”Thou, there!” hailed

  This grand benevolence the ungracious one —

  “Why look’st so solemn and so — thought-absorbed? 1780

  To guests, a servant should not sour-faced be,

  But do the honours with a mind urbane.

  While thou, contrariwise, beholding here

  Arrive thy master’s comrade, hast for him

  A churlish visage, all one beetle-brow —

  Having regard to grief that’s out-of-door!

  Come hither, and so get to grow more wise!

  Things mortal — know’st the nature that they have?

  No, I imagine! whence could knowledge spring?

  Give ear to me, then! For all flesh to die, 1790

  Is Nature’s due; nor is there any one

  Of mortals with assurance he shall last

  The coming morrow: for, what’s born of chance

  Invisibly proceeds the way it will,

  Not to be learned, no fortune-teller’s prize.

  This, therefore, having heard and known through me,

  Gladden thyself! Drink! Count the day-by-day

  Existence thine, and all the other — chance!

  Ay, and pay homage also to, by far

  The sweetest of divinities for man, 1800

  Kupris! Benignant Goddess will she prove!

  But as for aught else, leave and let things be!

  And trust my counsel, if I seem to speak

  To purpose — as I do, apparently.

  Wilt not thou, then, — discarding overmuch

  Moumfulness, do away with this shut door,

  Come drink along with me, be-garlanded

  This fashion? Do so, and, — I well know what, —

  From this stern mood, this shrunk-up state of mind,

  The pit-pat fall o’ the flaggon-juice down throat, 1810

  Soon will dislodge thee from bad harbourage!

  Men being mortal should think mortal-like:

  Since to your solemn, brow-contracting sort.

  All of them, — so I lay down law at least, —

  Life is not truly life but misery.”

  Whereto the man with softened surliness:

  “We know as much: but deal with matters, now.