Sea Horse, The - Part 1

Kept as a secret by the plains of sea
There was an island bright with tropic noon,
Where lived a priest of hallowed family
Who served a dying goddess of the moon.
There was no other left but only he
To set the honey cakes within her grot,
And see her silver smile, poor water-slaves,
The fishermen about, had long forgot
It is the moon alone that rules the waves.
For the gods warred upon each other,
Plaguing the vexed Earth until she ailed,
Wreaking odd vengeance on their servants men,
And for a while the ocean gods prevailed,
And all the servants of the moon had died,
All but the priest and his dwarf brother,
Who near her argent idol would abide
In holy thicket where the phoenix cried, —
A damasced grove that grew in an elipse
With cresent shadows in the half-eclipse,
When moon and sun met muttering with bloody lips,
Repeating an old spell that ruled the sea, —
Until moon passed sun with her tilted face, —
A spell the priest learned from her in that place,
Where musically a cavern-fountain drips
Over the moon's cold idol frozenly.
These spells had saved the priest
But not his brother,
Whom the sea gods blasted at his birth,
Working upon him in his mother
With a bad yeast of insane mirth,
So that she died and he was born, —
As though a vine-pod held a withered pea, —
With a gnome's body dwarfed and weak;
Only his head was beautiful to see.
He had two voices; one came from his head,
Clear as a bird's and smooth as honeyed-oil,
The other from his body seemed to steal
Complaining like a prisoner on the wheel,
So when he talked it seemed a ring-dove crooned,
Then, suddenly, the body-voice would squeal!
And so his brother loved and hated him.
Sometimes he spurned him from his way
Like silent, gulping toads he found,
The strange sweat of the fecund ground,
Hiding from light within the moongrot dim, —
But tossed him oaten cakes at night,
Which the poor dwarf in silence swallowed,
Moving, as the long shadows of the palm trees turned,
To cure his body in the silver light.
It was the moon he followed.
And all the while his brother loved his face,
Pale as the moon upon the sea at dawn,
Yet swore there must be no more of his race,
Fearing his body, so the time went on.

There was sly traffic up that valley of the moon,
For fisher maidens came
Whose fathers were the servants of sea gods,
Praying the Crescent goddess for a boon.
And the priest gave them fruit of the grove-pods,
That made them avid for his care.
At night he met them on the rocky stair,
Where moon-flowers blow, but close by day,
And there was much to do and naught to say.
(But spirits, the moon sent him for the night
Returned with other kindred through the day,
And these the priest was forced to place in wolves,
For in no other bodies would they stay,
Until he had an ever growing pack
That howled beyond the grove and grew more strong,
Trembling before his eyes; behind his back
Their teeth snapped like the echo of old wrong.)
More wolves, less maids ... but for one girl
Who loved the moon for better and for worse.
Yet by her came the sea gods curse.
For the dwarf loved her, too,
And knowing he must win her by his face,
He hid his body in a weed-grown pool,
And waited in the lotus buds to woo,
Until the girl fetched water from the place.
He stood so still the little grass-snake drank;
Between the lily leaves the spider skipped,
And when the moon was high she came and dipped
Her cruse into the pool until it sank
Making a gurgle cool. She saw his head
With golden-bearded chin; she shrieked and fled,
Remembering the tales of shepherd lads,
While the smooth voice came up to her from lily pads,
Pleading like something dead.
But afterwhile she came again, — she must —
For the cool words with which the dwarf besought her
Seemed but the midnight-music of the stream
Mixed with the moonlight of the flowered-water.
And the long murmur won her trust;
The hot summer was upon her and she must
Just lean to kiss his lips as in a dream —
Into the pool she slips —
Fainting with love and starlight and the night,
Ah, the smooth joy of crescent hips!
She let his small hands range,
And loved him better than the priest,
For in the love of dwarfs is something strange.
But this the wolves told to the waiting priest;
They lolled their tongues out in a scarlet glee;
And he came running to the lotus pond,
Where all the pack came after him to see.
He found them in love's mystery in the pool,
The dwarf all tangled in her shroud of hair;
And made them pupils in a horrid school.
Even the wolves must stare.
This was the last night that the dwarf lived;
His brother bore him to the seas;
The wolves ran with him, eyes like dripping lamps
Along the ridges dim; down through the valley-damps,
While quiet stars looked down between the trees.
Such was his journey to the cliff,
And much shrill pleading in the double voice
Scared the young shepherds grey,
But neither strength nor mercy gave him choice,
And he was dead upon the beach at day.
Three times his brother cast him out to sea;
Three several times the water brought him back,
Thrusting him forth as if it were defiled,
And there he lay as still as still could be.

BUT THE MOON AROSE BY DAY
AND SPOKE PALE WORDS UNTO THE SEA,
THAT FELL LIKE ASHES FROM HER THIN LIP'S GREY,
UNTIL THE SEA BEGAN TO SWOON,
LOOKING UPON THE GOLD CHEEKS OF THE MOON,
TILL WITH A WRINKLED MOUTH
SHE PUT HER WHITE TEETH FORTH
AND DRANK THE DWARF.