POEMS. THE SPHINX. THE Sphinx is drowsy, She broods on the world. "Who 'll tell me my secret, The ages have kept? I awaited the seer While they slumbered and slept: "The fate of the man-child, The meaning of man; Out of sleeping a waking, "Erect as a sunbeam, In beautiful motion The thrush plies his wings; Kind leaves of his covert, Your silence he sings. "The waves, unashamed, Firmly draw, firmly drive, "Sea, earth, air, sound, silence, Plant, quadruped, bird, By one music enchanted, One deity stirred,- Night veileth the morning, "The babe by its mother The sun is its toy; Without cloud, in its eyes; And the sum of the world "But man crouches and blushes, Absconds and conceals; He creepeth and peepeth, Jealous glancing around, "Out spoke the great mother, Beholding his fear; At the sound of her accents : Cold shuddered the sphere: 'Who has drugged my boy's cup? Who has mixed my boy's bread? Who, with sadness and madness, Has turned my child's head? I heard a poet answer 66 Aloud and cheerfully, Say on, sweet Sphinx! thy dirges Are pleasant songs to me. Deep love lieth under These pictures of time; They fade in the light of Their meaning sublime. "The fiend that man harries Can't trance him again, Which his eyes seek in vain. |