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Title: Charmides and Other Poems


Author: Oscar Wilde



Release Date: September 19, 2014 [eBook #1031]
[This file was first posted on 17 July 1997]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8


***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARMIDES AND OTHER POEMS***


Transcribed from 1913 Methuen and Co. edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf. org





CHARMIDES
AND OTHER POEMS


BY
OSCAR WILDE

* * * * *

METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W. C.
LONDON

* * * * *

_This volume was first published in 1913_

* * * * *

_Wilde's Poems_, _a selection of which is given in this volume_, _were
first published in volume form in_ 1881, _and were reprinted four times
before the end of_ 1882. _A new Edition with additional poems_,
_including Ravenna_, _The Sphinx_, _and The Ballad of Reading Goal_, _was
first published_ (_limited issues on hand-made paper and Japanese
vellum_) _by Methuen & Co. in March_ 1908.
_A further Edition_ (_making
the seventh_) _with some omissions from the issue of_ 1908, _but
including two new poems_, _was published in September_, 1909. _Eighth
Edition_, _November_ 1909. _Ninth Edition_, _December_ 1909. _Tenth
Edition_, _December_ 1910. _Eleventh Edition_, _December_, 1911.
_Twelfth Edition_, _May_, 1913.

_A further selection of the poems_, _including The Ballad of Reading
Gaol_, _is published uniform with this volume_.




CONTENTS

PAGE
CHARMIDES 9
REQUIESCAT 67
SAN MINIATO 69
ROME UNVISITED 71
HUMANITAD 77
LOUIS NAPOLEON 114
ENDYMION 116
LE JARDIN 119
LA MER 120
LE PANNEAU 121
LES BALLONS 124
CANZONET 126
LE JARDIN DES TUILERIES 129
PAN: DOUBLE VILLANELLE 131
IN THE FOREST 135
SYMPHONY IN YELLOW 136
SONNETS
HELAS! 139
TO MILTON 140
ON THE MASSACRE OF THE CHRISTIANS IN BULGARIA 141
HOLY WEEK AT GENOA 142
URBS SACRA AETERNA 143
E TENEBRIS 144
AT VERONA 145
ON THE SALE BY AUCTION OF KEATS' LOVE LETTERS 146
THE NEW REMORSE 147




CHARMIDES


I.

HE was a Grecian lad, who coming home
With pulpy figs and wine from Sicily
Stood at his galley's prow, and let the foam
Blow through his crisp brown curls unconsciously,
And holding wave and wind in boy's despite
Peered from his dripping seat across the wet and stormy night.

Till with the dawn he saw a burnished spear
Like a thin thread of gold against the sky,
And hoisted sail, and strained the creaking gear,
And bade the pilot head her lustily
Against the nor'west gale, and all day long
Held on his way, and marked the rowers' time with measured song.

And when the faint Corinthian hills were red
Dropped anchor in a little sandy bay,
And with fresh boughs of olive crowned his head,
And brushed from cheek and throat the hoary spray,
And washed his limbs with oil, and from the hold
Brought out his linen tunic and his sandals brazen-soled,

And a rich robe stained with the fishers' juice
Which of some swarthy trader he had bought
Upon the sunny quay at Syracuse,
And was with Tyrian broideries inwrought,
And by the questioning merchants made his way
Up through the soft and silver woods, and when the labouring day

Had spun its tangled web of crimson cloud,
Clomb the high hill, and with swift silent feet
Crept to the fane unnoticed by the crowd
Of busy priests, and from some dark retreat
Watched the young swains his frolic playmates bring
The firstling of their little flock, and the shy shepherd fling

The crackling salt upon the flame, or hang
His studded crook against the temple wall
To Her who keeps away the ravenous fang
Of the base wolf from homestead and from stall;
And then the clear-voiced maidens 'gan to sing,
And to the altar each man brought some goodly offering,

A beechen cup brimming with milky foam,
A fair cloth wrought with cunning imagery
Of hounds in chase, a waxen honey-comb
Dripping with oozy gold which scarce the bee
Had ceased from building, a black skin of oil
Meet for the wrestlers, a great boar the fierce and white-tusked spoil

Stolen from Artemis that jealous maid
To please Athena, and the dappled hide
Of a tall stag who in some mountain glade
Had met the shaft; and then the herald cried,
And from the pillared precinct one by one
Went the glad Greeks well pleased that they their simple vows had
done.

And the old priest put out the waning fires
Save that one lamp whose restless ruby glowed
For ever in the cell, and the shrill lyres
Came fainter on the wind, as down the road
In joyous dance these country folk did pass,
And with stout hands the warder closed the gates of polished brass.

Long time he lay and hardly dared to breathe,
And heard the cadenced drip of spilt-out wine,
And the rose-petals falling from the wreath
As the night breezes wandered through the shrine,
And seemed to be in some entranced swoon
Till through the open roof above the full and brimming moon

Flooded with sheeny waves the marble floor,
When from his nook up leapt the venturous lad,
And flinging wide the cedar-carven door
Beheld an awful image saffron-clad
And armed for battle! the gaunt Griffin glared
From the huge helm, and the long lance of wreck and ruin flared

Like a red rod of flame, stony and steeled
The Gorgon's head its leaden eyeballs rolled,
And writhed its snaky horrors through the shield,
And gaped aghast with bloodless lips and cold
In passion impotent, while with blind gaze
The blinking owl between the feet hooted in shrill amaze.

The lonely fisher as he trimmed his lamp
Far out at sea off Sunium, or cast
The net for tunnies, heard a brazen tramp
Of horses smite the waves, and a wild blast
Divide the folded curtains of the night,
And knelt upon the little poop, and prayed in holy fright.