Queen Sylva, and other poems

Front matter

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Contents

Proem xiii

Queeu Sylvia 1

The Exile 43

CANTO FIRST. Lovely Aurora, hail

Hail, sweet goddess of morning :

We send greeting on the gale

Whilst thou art the hill-tops adorning ;

And Night's dismal bolts,

Like winged Pegasus'i^ colts,

Instant fly from out the sky.

As thy light illumined garments sweepeth by.

And taper fingers red

Ope the gates of day

Instant to thy noiseless tread

Walking down the Milky-way.

* Pegasus: a winged steed, belonging to Apollo and the Muses; supposed to have sprung from the blood of Medusa, when she was slain.— C.

CAMPBELLS POEMS.

n.

Hail, thou queen of light,

Bedecked with amber pearls

All shining bright,

And mirrored in mists of liquid gold

Scarce visible to the mortal sight ;

Of whom Tradition's nymphs have told,

With pencil on the green.

With sea foam on the sheen,

With i-ainbow hues

That melt in mildest dews ;

And sparkling water-falls.

And ancient dryads,

Draped like dolls ;

With silvery sounding sails

That tacked and veered

To meet the changing gales,

Which somehow blow

And noiseless go

Across Life's shining sands.

To the regions and the tediums

Of the dreamless lands.

ni.

The nymphs have gathered on the lawn,

Making merry with dance and song ;

Up from slumber sweet

The smiling morn to greet.

Goes each little fairy,

Singing songs of sweetest praise.

To the Daylight's breaking rays.

IV.

The water-falls are sparkling.

qUEE^' SFLVIA.

While the lakes and dells lie darkling ; Throwing from off their silvered tides The brightest and the fau-est gems That in the land abides ; Moistening the valley hems, And lofty mountain sides ; While round about is stealing Music from the morning bells; Sweetly, softly pealing To the zephyr's swells.

Which go floating by, As we greet, with music sweet, Aurora's coming in the sky.

V.

Over the bed of ocean far

Ride sea nymphs in a car,

Who take up the strain

And waft it back to heaven again.

Startling the mermaid from her lair.

And the water spirit from his prayer ;

Robed in gauzy garments, light

As the Eden angels used to wear,

Before the Serpent's blight

Drove them wandering into night-

Away from Paradise so fair.

VI.

Hail, smiling Morn,

The sunlight is throwing

A sort of golden glowing

The hill-tops among ;

Like reaper sowing

Grain upon the ground.

Amid the sUent hush of sound :

CAMPBELL'S POEMS.

In fairest flakes it falls

Over mouutaiu-tops

Aud water-falls ;

Like those liquid drops*

Wliieli from heaven stops,

Amid the aii'S of June,

Death's terrible ravages

In the cheek of bloom.

Hail, thou Queen of IMoruing,

Earth's new day adorning,

We bid thee hail.

vn.

Aurora came floating then

Over mountain, meadow, glen,

While at her golden girdle's hem,

Hung a bugle bright

Which she upraised ■with gesture light

And blew a single note,

That made the wood nymphs fly and float

Quickly out of view ;

Like mists of morning dew,

'^^^len the god of day

Beams on his endless way

Which round and round doth run,

As when this orb of clay

Into space swung.

vin.

Starlight, queen of faii'ies. Just descending then From out the clouds,

*The Nucta, or Miraculous Drop, which falls in Egypt precisely on St. Johu's Day, in June, and is supposed to liave the effect of stopping the plague.— MoOKE.

QUEEN SYLVIA.

Sung this solo when The angel of day Dofft her celestial shrouds And hid her face away For a little minute ; As if the thrill of heaven Still was in it : Which she softly sung To the listening linnet : "A bright little fairy am I, Casting light thro' the sky ; Swift as the wind I roam, Fetterless, free as the ocean's foam, I go glinting along, Cheering the traveler's tread With the light that I shed, Over the lily bells And mossy dells, I flit away.

Singing merrily, Tra, la, la.

IX.

" In the fathomless folds of air, Out of light, out of sight, I climb a glittering stair ; When the morning light is breaking. Up and on my journey taking, Whose pathless winding Is past your finding ; For to mortal eyes My native skies Are so blinding, That you 'd never find Me in the clouds enshrined, They are so winding.

CAMPBELL'S POEMS.

Oh ! now I must haste away,

And hide my face from the smiling day,

While I sing, Tra, la, la."

Then Starlight hid her face,

Then paused and said her grace,

And flitted from the place ;

When suddenly appearing

Came fays and fairies veering,

Lightly tripping on

With laughter and with song

To hail the smiling morn.

This instant come

To gild the glorious portals

Of Sylvia's kingdom.

Within were voices singing,

And without Avere echoes ringing.

For Naiads numberless you see

All gathered were

To pay royal fealty

To their queen so fair ;

While thus in laughter's train

They poured the sweet refrain :

XI.

" Merrily sing we on the green Joyous greeting to our queen : With hearts so light and free Let joy and sorrow banished be. And every voice the strain prolong ; While angels echo back the song. Echo back the song.

From the golden door Of a deathless dawn."

qUEEN SYLVIA.

xn.

Whereat Sylvia's maid of honor, Lovely and graceful Lenaline, With a bright gilt badge upon her, Accompanied by gentle Nectarine, Her trusty attendant, Mingling their voices, sent The happy chorus round : " Hark to the musical sound The shining spheres are making, While thro' the depths of space profound

Their journey they are taking,

The morning sun to see,

As he shines on meadow and on lea ;

As sweet music afar

From a celestial car

Kings over land and sea.

With never a discord's jar

In the merry minstrelsy.

Prithee, Lord, if there be

Grace for fairies free,

O ! won't thou give it we ? "

XIII.

Cometh Leopert, King of Dryads, Listening as he wends.

Saying in softest silvery speech "This way the voice descends Upon my enraptured ears.

Like music from the spheres ; Caroled loudly, caroled lowly, As if the heavenly choristers holy Had blended all their voices in The raptures of the hymn.

Which in this sylvan glade

CAMPBELL- S POEMS.

Such tumult in my breast hath made ;

For never falls a note

From any warbling throat

That enraptures me

Like this seraphic psalmody,

Which so sweetly fell

Upon my listening ear

As I entered the dell,

Some roods from here."

XIV.

Thus answered Lenaline, In charming speech divine : "Whence cometh thou, stranger, Along this way of danger ?

And who art thou Entering the sylvan shadow now? What adventure dost thou seek, By this shaded inland creek ? Where in the peaceful eventide Fishes sport upon its silvery tide, And the tuneful bii-ds about the dell Sing their lovely carol To the shining stars And golden bars.

Interlaced in a silvery braid Beyond the green arcade, Spreading above our heads Like amber tipped curtains Round Naiad's beds."

XV.

"Hast thou not somewhere read In running brooks or clover bed Of the immortal Drvads free ?

qVEEN SYLVIA.

I 'm their king, come here to sing

Of love and joy, life's alloy,

Like a merry hearted boy :

When other kings torment

The subject 's discontent,

Till mutual hate or frowning fate

A tumult doth create,

And is broken the guarded gate."

XVI.

"But why dost wander away So far from your land At break of day.

With no page at hand ?

Over this enchanted way, This fairy ground.

Where every mound Is a Naiad's throne, Eeared to immortals alone ? "

xvn.

"Angel fair, I have heard.

Upon my word.

That jewels rare Are hid in caves Below the water's waves ; So I have come To gather some For the adorning of my kingdom."

xvra.

"Then follow me With footsteps free.

While spirits of the mighty Rhine Turn back the key,

That my kingdom's shine

May fall on the king and his company."

Whereat she strikes

A row of golden spikes,

Which like magic change

The stalactite sights ;

And in they range

'Neath grottoes green

And coral work so bright,

'Mid the shimmer and the sheen

Of effulgent light.

XIX.

Whereat the Naiads sing, " Welcome to the Dryad king, And good Lenaline, Welcome 'neath the portals shine. Hope's bright angel now Lays her turban on thy brow, Glittering o'er with gems, Plucked from golden stems, Which here and there doth grow 'Round about the hidden portals In an endless row.

XX.

"Hail, to our hall.

Where no selfish life Doth appall, doth appall, In the endless strife, Where mortals rise and fall. Hail, to the silent shade Of our greenwood colonade ! Hail, to our garden's sweetest spells ! Which bud and bloom qUEEN SYLVIA. H

Within moss grown dells.

Moss grown dells ;

Let fancy all thy soul embower

In this heaven of bloom and flower."

THE ARGUMENT.

Sylvia and attendants appear, whom the Naiads hail with songs of greeting. Leopert pledges faith and constancy to the queen. She trusts and assures him of her fidelity. Enter gypsies, with their king, Leadulous, merrily singing. Gypsy Jane sings a song, followed by Estralelda, who tells of the changeful fate of bachelor and belle, and invites mortals from the monotonous splendors of palatial halls to her beautiful greenwood retreats. — C.