Poems by Christina Georgina Rossetti Part 28

"What is your grief? now tell me, sweet, That I may grieve," my sister said; And stayed a white embroidering hand And raised a golden head:

Her tresses showed a richer ma.s.s, Her eyes looked softer than my own, Her figure had a statelier height, Her voice a tenderer tone.

"Some must be second and not first; All cannot be the first of all: Is not this, too, but vanity?

I stumble like to fall.

"So yesterday I read the acts Of Hector and each clangorous king With wrathful great aeacides:-- Old Homer leaves a sting."

The comely face looked up again, The deft hand lingered on the thread "Sweet, tell me what is Homer's sting, Old Homer's sting?" she said.

"He stirs my sluggish pulse like wine, He melts me like the wind of spice, Strong as strong Ajax' red right hand, And grand like Juno's eyes.

"I cannot melt the sons of men, I cannot fire and tempest-toss:-- Besides, those days were golden days, Whilst these are days of dross."

She laughed a feminine low laugh, Yet did not stay her dexterous hand: "Now tell me of those days," she said, "When time ran golden sand."

"Then men were men of might and right, Sheer might, at least, and weighty swords; Then men in open blood and fire Bore witness to their words,--

"Crest-rearing kings with whistling spears; But if these s.h.i.+vered in the shock They wrenched up hundred-rooted trees, Or hurled the effacing rock.

"Then hand to hand, then foot to foot, Stern to the death-grip grappling then, Who ever thought of gunpowder Amongst these men of men?

"They knew whose hand struck home the death, They knew who broke but would not bend, Could venerate an equal foe And scorn a laggard friend.

"Calm in the utmost stress of doom, Devout toward adverse powers above, They hated with intenser hate And loved with fuller love.

"Then heavenly beauty could allay As heavenly beauty stirred the strife: By them a slave was wors.h.i.+pped more Than is by us a wife."

She laughed again, my sister laughed; Made answer o'er the laboured cloth: "I rather would be one of us Than wife, or slave, or both."

"Oh better then be slave or wife Than fritter now blank life away: Then night had holiness of night, And day was sacred day.

"The princess laboured at her loom, Mistress and handmaiden alike; Beneath their needles grew the field With warriors armed to strike.

"Or, look again, dim Dian's face Gleamed perfect through the attendant night: Were such not better than those holes Amid that waste of white?

"A shame it is, our aimless life; I rather from my heart would feed From silver dish in gilded stall With wheat and wine the steed--

"The faithful steed that bore my lord In safety through the hostile land, The faithful steed that arched his neck To fondle with my hand."

Her needle erred; a moment's pause, A moment's patience, all was well.

Then she: "But just suppose the horse, Suppose the rider fell?

"Then captive in an alien house, Hungering on exile's bitter bread,-- They happy, they who won the lot Of sacrifice," she said.

Speaking she faltered, while her look Showed forth her pa.s.sion like a gla.s.s: With hand suspended, kindling eye, Flushed cheek, how fair she was!

"Ah well, be those the days of dross; This, if you will, the age of gold: Yet had those days a spark of warmth, While these are somewhat cold--

"Are somewhat mean and cold and slow, Are stunted from heroic growth: We gain but little when we prove The worthlessness of both."

"But life is in our hands," she said; "In our own hands for gain or loss: Shall not the Sevenfold Sacred Fire Suffice to purge our dross?

"Too short a century of dreams, One day of work sufficient length: Why should not you, why should not I, Attain heroic strength?

"Our life is given us as a blank, Ourselves must make it blest or curst: Who dooms me I shall only be The second, not the first?

"Learn from old Homer, if you will, Such wisdom as his books have said: In one the acts of Ajax s.h.i.+ne, In one of Diomed.

"Honoured all heroes whose high deeds Through life, through death, enlarge their span Only Achilles in his rage And sloth is less than man."

"Achilles only less than man?

He less than man who, half a G.o.d, Discomfited all Greece with rest, Cowed Ilion with a nod?

"He offered vengeance, lifelong grief To one dear ghost, uncounted price: Beasts, Trojans, adverse G.o.ds, himself, Heaped up the sacrifice.

"Self-immolated to his friend, Shrined in world's wonder, Homer's page, Is this the man, the less than men Of this degenerate age?"

"Gross from his acorns, tusky boar Does memorable acts like his; So for her snared offended young Bleeds the swart lioness."

But here she paused; our eyes had met, And I was whitening with the jeer; She rose: "I went too far," she said; Spoke low: "Forgive me, dear.

"To me our days seem pleasant days, Our home a haven of pure content; Forgive me if I said too much, So much more than I meant.

"Homer, though greater than his G.o.ds, With rough-hewn virtues was sufficed And rough-hewn men: but what are such To us who learn of Christ?"

The much-moved pathos of her voice, Her almost tearful eyes, her cheek Grown pale, confessed the strength of love Which only made her speak.

For mild she was, of few soft words, Most gentle, easy to be led, Content to listen when I spoke, And reverence what I said:

I elder sister by six years; Not half so glad, or wise, or good: Her words rebuked my secret self And shamed me where I stood.

She never guessed her words reproved A silent envy nursed within, A selfish, souring discontent Pride-born, the devil's sin.

I smiled, half bitter, half in jest: "The wisest man of all the wise Left for his summary of life 'Vanity of vanities.'

"Beneath the sun there's nothing new: Men flow, men ebb, mankind flows on: If I am wearied of my life, Why, so was Solomon.

"Vanity of vanities he preached Of all he found, of all he sought: Vanity of vanities, the gist Of all the words he taught.

"This in the wisdom of the world, In Homer's page, in all, we find: As the sea is not filled, so yearns Man's universal mind.

"This Homer felt, who gave his men With glory but a transient state: His very Jove could not reverse Irrevocable fate.

"Uncertain all their lot save this-- Who wins must lose, who lives must die: All trodden out into the dark Alike, all vanity."

She scarcely answered when I paused, But rather to herself said: "One Is here," low-voiced and loving, "Yea, Greater than Solomon."

So both were silent, she and I: She laid her work aside, and went Into the garden-walks, like spring, All gracious with content: