Poetry.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 601, 7 August 1858, Page 3

Poetry.

KINGfSLEY'S ANDROMEDA. ,

' (Extract.) r The QueetCs ,Grief\,aM,resportse of the'Priests.^ « Awful and fair she arose/: i ;..■;■!.■•■; Most likd in her coming to Hebe,, Queen before whom the Immortals. • Arise, ai§ she comeson Qlympus,, J; . Out of the .chamber of gold, • •,';.;; ;., Whicli lier spri'Hephsestps,has wrought her. Such in her stature arid eyes. •'; ■ , . " And the broad white light of her forehead. Stately she cathe from her place, ;, -. And she spoke in the midst of her people, r 'Pure are iriy hands-from blood; : ' Most pure this heart in my bosom. j Yet one fault I remember this day; One word have I:spoken; j Rashly I spoke on the shore,, ■ . . And I dread lest the sea should have heard it. Watching my child at her bath/ As she plunged in the joy of her girlhood, Fairer I called her in pride, Tharii Atergati, queen 6f the ocean. Judge ye if this be my sin, For I know none other.' She ended; Wrapping her head in her mantle, She stood, and the people were silent. Answered the dark-brown priests, ♦ No word, once spoken, returneth, Even if uttered unwitting. Shall gods excuse our rashness? That wHichis done, that abides; And: the wrath of the sea is against us; Hers, arid the wrath of her brother, The Sun-god, lord of the sheepfolds. Fairer than her hast thou boasted, Thy daughter? Ah folly] for hateful, Hateful are they to the gods, Whoso, impious, liken a mortal, Fair, though he be, to their glory; And hateful is that which is likened, Grieving the eyes sf their pride, And abominate, doomed to their anger. What shall be likened to gods? \ The unknown, who deep in the darkness Ever abide,' twyformed. Many-handed, terrible, shapeless. Wo to the queen; for the land Is defiled, and the people accursed. . . Take thou her therefore by night, Though ill-starred Cassiopoeia, Take her with us in the night, When the moon sinks low to the westward; Bind her aloft for > victim, A prey: for the gorge' of the monster, Faron the sea-girt rock, Which is washed by the surges for ever. So may the goddess accept her, ; And so may the land make atonement, ■■•... Purged by her blood from its sin:, So obey thou the doom of the rulers.'"

[Procession of Sea Deities passing the Victim.'] "Onward they came in their joy, More white than the foam which they scattered, ;: ■ '■' ' m Laughingland singing, and tossing And-twining,I'while eager, the-Tritons Blinded with kisses their eyes, Unreproved, and above them in worship Hovered the terns, and the seagulls Swept past them'on silvery pinions, Echoing softly their laughter; Around them the wantoning dolphins Sighed as they plunged, full of love; And the great sea-horses which bore them Curved up their crests in their pride To the delicate arms of the maidens, Pawing the spray into gems, Till a fiery rainfall,' unharining, Sparkled and gleamed on the limbs Of the nymphs, and the coils of the mermen. Onward they went in their joy, .' s Bathed round 'with'the fiery .coolness,' Needing nor sun nor moon, Self-lighted, immortal: but others, Pitiful, floated in silence Apart; in'their bosoms the sea-boys, Slain by the wrath of the seas. Swept down by the anger of 'Nere'us; . Hapless, whom never again, "On strand or on quay shall their mothers Welcome with garlands and vows ; To the temple; but wearily pining Gave over island and bay, For'the sails of the sunken;! they heedless Sleep in' soft bosoms for ever, Arid dream of the surge and the sea-maids. Onward they passed in their joy'; ; On theirbrows 'neither nor anger; Self-sufficing, as gods^ ''■-. } Never heeding the wo of the maiden. She would have; shrieked for their mercy; But shame made her dumb; and their eye- ' ■■ . baUs ; - , : ,-.. :■:•■■■.. Stared on her careless and stilly . Like the eyes in the house of the idols. Seeing they saw not,; and.passed, Like a dream, on the murmuring ripple. Stunned.by the wonder; she gazed, Wide-eyed, as the glory departed."