{"id":2974,"date":"2013-07-13T01:45:02","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=2974"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:45:02","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:45:02","slug":"37-two-poems-in-quantitative-hexameters-contd-vol-02-collected-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/02-collected-poems\/37-two-poems-in-quantitative-hexameters-contd-vol-02-collected-poems","title":{"rendered":"-37_Two Poems in Quantitative Hexameters – CONTD.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

 <\/td>\n

\n
\n\t\t\t<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nIlion<\/span><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

\nBk-VIII<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nDrawn to the anguish of men and the fierce terrestrial labour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDown he dropped with a roar of light invading the regions,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd in his fierce and burning spirit intense and uplifted<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSure of his luminous truth and careless for weakness of mortals<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFlaming oppressed the earth with his dire intolerant beauty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOver the summits descending that slept in the silence of heaven,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe through the spaces angrily drew towards the tramp and the shouting<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOver the speeding of Xanthus and over the pastures of Troya.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClang of his argent bow was the wrath restrained of the mighty,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStern was his pace like Fate’s; so he came to the warfare of mortals<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd behind Paris strong and inactive waited God’s moment<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tKnowing what should arrive, nor disturbed like men by their hopings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut in the courts of Heaven Zeus to his brother immortal<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTurned like a menaced king on his counsellor smiling augustly:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Seest thou, Poseidon, this sign that great gods revolting have left us,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFollow their hearts and strive with Ananke? Yet though they struggle,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou and I will do our will with the world, O earth-shaker.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnswered to Zeus the besieger of earth, the voice of the waters:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“This is our strength and our right, for we are the kings and the masters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tToo much pity has been and yielding of Heaven to mortals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI will go down with my chariot drawn by my thunder-maned coursers<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tInto the battle and thrust down Troy with my hand to the silence,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEven though she cling round the snowy knees of our child Aphrodite<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOr with Apollo’s sun take refuge from Night and her shadows.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI will not pity her pain, who am ruthless even as my surges.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBrother, thou knowest, O Zeus, that I am a king and a trader;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor on my paths I receive earth’s skill and her merchandise gather,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTraffic richly in pearls and bear the swift ships on my bosom.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlue are my waves and they call men’s hearts to wealth and adventure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLured by the shifting surges they launch their delight and their treasures<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTrusting the toil of years to the perilous moments of Ocean.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHuge man’s soul in its petty frame goes wrestling with Nature<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOver her vasts and his fragile ships between my horizons<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBuffeting death in his solitudes labour through swell and through storm-blast<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBound for each land with her sons and watched for by eyes in each haven.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI from Tyre up to Gades trace on my billows their trade-routes<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd on my vast and spuming Atlantic suffer their rudders.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 455<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nCarthage and Greece are my children, the marts of the world are my term-posts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWho then deserves the earth if not he who enriches and fosters?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut thou hast favoured thy sons, O Zeus; O Hera, earth’s sceptres<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStill were denied me and kept for strong Ares and brilliant Apollo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow all your will shall be done, so you give me the earth for my nations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGold shall make men like gods and bind their thoughts into oneness;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPeace I will build with gold and heaven with the pearls of my caverns.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSmiling replied to his brother’s craft the mighty Cronion:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Lord of the boundless seas, Poseidon, soul of the surges,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWell thou knowest that earth shall be seized as a booth for the trader.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRome nor Greece nor France can drive back Carthage for ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlways each birth of the silence attaining the field and the movement<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTakes from Time its reign; for it came for its throne and its godhead.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo too shall Mammon take and his sons their hour from the ages.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet is the flame and the dust last end of the silk and the iron,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd at their end the king and the prophet shall govern the nations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven as Troy, so shall Babylon flame up to heaven for the spoiler<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWailed by the merchant afar as he sees the red glow from the ocean.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUp from the seats of the Mighty the Earth-shaker rose. His raiment<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRound him purple and dominant rippled and murmured and whispered,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWhispered of argosies sunk and the pearls and the Nereids playing,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMurmured of azure solitudes, sounded of storm and the death-wail.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven as the march of his waters so was the pace of the sea-god<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFlowing on endless through Time; with the glittering symbol of empire<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCrowned were his fatal brows; in his grasp was the wrath of the trident,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTripled force, life-shattering, brutal, imperial, sombre.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tResonant, surging, vast in the pomp of his clamorous greatness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nProud and victorious he came to his home in the far-spuming waters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven as a soul from the heights of thought plunges back into living,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo he plunged like a rock through the foam; for it falls from a mountain<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOverpeering the waves in some silence of desolate waters<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLeft to the wind and the sea-gull where Ocean alone with the ages<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDreams of the calm of the skies or tosses its spray to the wind-gods,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTosses for ever its foam in the solitude huge of its longings<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFar from the homes and the noises of men. So the dark-browed Poseidon<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCame to his coral halls and the sapphire stables of Nereus<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 456<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nEver where champ their bits the harnessed steeds of the Ocean<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWatched by foam-white girls in the caverns of still Amphitrite.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere was his chariot yoked by the Tritons, drawn by his coursers<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBorn of the fleeing sea-spray and shod with the northwind who journey<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBlack like the front of the storm and clothed with their manes as with thunder.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis now rose from its depths to the upper tumults of Ocean<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBearing the awful brows and the mighty form of the sea-god<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd from the roar of the surges fast o’er the giant margin<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCame remembering the storm and the swiftness wide towards the Troad.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo among men he arrived to the clamorous labours of Ares,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tClose by the stern Diomedes stood and frowned o’er the battle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe for the Trojan slaughter chose for his mace and his sword-edge<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tIron Tydeus’ son and the adamant heart of young Pyrrhus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut in the courts divine the Father high of the immortals<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTurned in his heart to the brilliant offspring born of his musings,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShe who tranquil observes and judges her father and all things.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“What shall I say to the thought that is calm in thy breasts, O Athene?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHave I not given thee earth for thy portion, throned thee and armoured,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDarkened Cypris’ smile, dimmed Hera’s son and Latona’s?<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSwift in thy silent ambition, proud in thy radiant sternness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGirl, thou shalt rule with the Greek and the Saxon, the Frank and the Roman.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWorker and fighter and builder and thinker, light of the reason,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMen shall leave all temples to crowd in thy courts, O Athene.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGo then and do my will, prepare man’s tribes for their fullness.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut with her high clear smile on him answered the mighty Athene, 
\n\t\t\t\u2014 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nWisely and soberly, tenderly smiled she chiding her father<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven as a mother might rail at her child when he hides and dissembles:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Zeus, I see and I am not deceived by thy words in my spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWe but build forms for thy thought while thou smilest down high o’er our
\ntoiling;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven as men are we tools for thee, who are thy children and dear ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll this life is thy sport and thou workst like a boy at his engines<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMaking a toil of the game and a play of the serious labour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen to that play thou callest us wearing a sombre visage,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis consulting, that to our wills confiding, O Ruler;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nChoosing thy helpers, hastened by those whom thou lurest to oppose thee<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 457<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nGuile thou usest with gods as with mortals, scheming, deceiving,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd at the wrath and the love thou hast prompted laughest in secret.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSo we two who are sisters and enemies, lovers and rivals,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFondled and baffled in turn obey thy will and thy cunning,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI, thy girl of war, and the rosy-white Aphrodite.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAlways we served but thy pleasure since our immortal beginnings,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlways each other we helped by our play and our wrestlings and quarrels.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThis too I know that I pass preparing the paths of Apollo<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd at the end as his sister and slave and bride I must sojourn<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRapt to his courts of mystic light and unbearable brilliance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWas I not ever condemned since my birth from the toil of thy musings<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSeized like a lyre in my body to sob and to laugh out his music,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShake as a leaf in his fierceness and leap as a flame in his splendours!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo must I dwell overpowered and so must I labour subjected<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRobbed of my loneliness pure and coerced in my radiant freedom,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNow whose clearness and pride are the sovereign joy of thy creatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSuch the reward that thou keepst for my labour obedient always.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet I work and I do thy will, for ’tis mine, O my father.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nProud of her ruthless lust of thought and action and battle,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSwift-footed rose the daughter of Zeus from her sessions immortal:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBreasts of the morning unveiled in a purity awful and candid,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHead of the mighty Dawn, the goddess Pallas Athene!<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStrong and rapacious she swooped on the world as her prey and her booty<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDown from the courts of the Mighty descending, darting on Ida.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDire she descended, a god in her reason, a child in her longings,  \u2014
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tJoy and woe to the world that is given to the whims of the child-god<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGreedy for rule and play and the minds of men and their doings!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo with her aegis scattering light o’er the heads of the nations<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShining-eyed in her boyish beauty severe and attractive<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCame to the fields of the Troad, came to the fateful warfare,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVeiled, the goddess calm and pure in her luminous raiment<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tZoned with beauty and strength. Rejoicing, spurring the fighters<\/span><\/p>\n

\nClose o’er Odysseus she stood and clear-eyed governed the battle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tZeus to Hephaestus next, the Cyclopean toiler<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTurned, Hephaestus the strong-souled, priest and king and a bond-slave,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tServant of men in their homes and their workshops, servant of Nature,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe who has built these worlds and kindles the fire for a mortal.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 458<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Thou, my son, art obedient always. Wisdom is with thee,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTherefore thou know’st and obeyest. Submission is wisdom and knowledge;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe who is blind revolts and he who is limited struggles:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tStrife is not for the infinite; wisdom observes to accomplish.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTroy and her sons and her works are thy food today, O Hephaestus.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd to his father the Toiler answered, the silent Seer:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n“Yes, I obey thee, my Father, and That which than thou is more mighty;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven as thou obeyest by rule, so I by my labour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNow must I heap the furnace, now must I toil at the smithy,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI who have flamed on the altar of sacrifice helping the sages.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nI am the Cyclops, the lamester, who once was pure and a high-priest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHoly the pomp of my flames ascendant from pyre and from altar<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRobed men’s souls for their heavens and my smoke was a pillar to Nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThough I have burned in the sight of the sage and the heart of the hero,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNow is no nobler hymn for my ear than the clanging of metal,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBreath of human greed and the dolorous pant of the engines.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStill I repine not, but toil; for to toil I was yoked by my Maker.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI am your servant, O Gods, and his of whom you are servants.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut to the toiler Zeus replied, to the servant of creatures:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“What is the thought thou hast uttered betrayed by thy speech, O
\nHephaestus?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTrue is it earth shall grow as a smithy, the smoke of the furnace<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFill men’s eyes and their souls shall be stunned with the clang of the hammers;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet in the end there is rest on the peak of a labour accomplished.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNor shall the might of the thinker be quelled by that iron oppression,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNor shall the soul of the warrior despair in the darkness triumphant;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor when the night shall be deepest, dawn shall increase on the mountains<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd in the heart of the worst the best shall be born by my wisdom.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPallas thy sister shall guard man’s knowledge fighting the earth-smoke.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThou too art mighty to live through the clamour even as Apollo.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWork then, endure; expect from the Silence an end and thy wages.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo King Hephaestus arose and passed from the courts of his father;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDown upon earth he came with his lame omnipotent motion;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd with uneven steps absorbed and silent the Master<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWorked employed mid the wheels of the cars as a smith in his smithy,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut it was death and bale that he forged, not the bronze and the iron.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStark, like a fire obscured by its smoke, through the spear-casts he laboured<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 459<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nHelping Ajax’ war and the Theban and Phocian fighters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tZeus to his grandiose helper next, who proved and unmoving,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCalm in her greatness waited the mighty command of her husband:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Hera, sister and spouse, what my will is thou knowest, O consort.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOne are our blood and our hearts, nor the thought for the words of the speaker<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWaits, but each other we know and ourselves and the Vast and the heavens,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLife and all between and all beyond and the ages.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat which Space not knows nor Time, we have known, O my sister.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTherefore our souls are one soul and our minds become mirrors of oneness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGo then and do my will, O thou mighty one, burning down Troya.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSilent she rose from the seats of the Blissful, Hera majestic,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd with her flowing garment and mystical zone through the spaces<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHaloed came like the moon on an evening of luminous silence<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDown upon Ida descending, a snow-white swan on the greenness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDown upon Ida the mystic haunted by footsteps immortal<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEver since out of the Ocean it rose and lived gazing towards heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere on a peak of the mountains alone with the sea and the azure<\/span><\/p>\n

\nVoiceless and mighty she paused like a thought on the summits of being<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tClasped by all heaven; the winds at play in her gust-scattered raiment<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSported insulting her gracious strength with their turbulent sweetness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPlayed with their mother and queen; but she stood absorbed and unheeding,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMute, with her sandalled foot for a moment thrilling the grasses,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDumbly adored by a soul in the mountains, a thought in the rivers,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRoared to loud by her lions. The voice of the cataracts falling<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEntered her soul profound and it heard eternity’s rumour.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSilent its gaze immense contained the wheeling of aeons.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHuge-winged through Time flew her thought and its grandiose vast
\nrevolutions<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTurned and returned. So musing her timeless creative spirit,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMaster of Time, its instrument, grieflessly hastening forward<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tParted with greatnesses dead and summoned new strengths from their
\nstables;<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tManed they came to her call and filled with their pacings the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nCalm, with the vision satisfied, thrilled by the grandeurs within her,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDown in a billow of whiteness and gold and delicate raiment<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGliding the daughter of Heaven came to the earth that received her<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 460<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nGlad of the tread divine and bright with her more than with sunbeams.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tKing Agamemnon she found and smiling on Sparta’s levies<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMixed unseen with the far-glinting spears of haughty Mycenae.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen to the Mighty who tranquil abode and august in his regions<\/span><\/p>\n

\nZeus, while his gaze over many forms and high-seated godheads<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPassed like a swift-fleeing eagle over the peaks and the glaciers<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhen to his eyrie he flies alone through the vastness and silence:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Artemis, child of my loins and you, O legioned immortals,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll you have heard. Descend, O ye gods, to your sovereign stations,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLabour rejoicing whose task is joy and your bliss is creation;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShrink from no act that Necessity asks from your luminous natures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThee I have given no part in the years that come, O my daughter,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHuntress swift of the worlds who with purity all things pursuest.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet not less is thy portion intended than theirs who o’erpass thee:<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHelped are the souls that wait more than strengths soon fulfilled and exhausted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nArcheress, brilliance, wait thine hour from the speed of the ages.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo they departed, Artemis leading lightning-tasselled.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAncient Themis remained and awful Dis and Ananke.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThen mid these last of the gods who shall stand when all others have
\nperished,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tZeus to the Silence obscure under iron brows of that goddess, 
\n\t\t\t\u2014 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nGriefless, unveiled was her visage, dire and unmoved and eternal:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t“Thou and I, O Dis, remain and our sister Ananke.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat which the joyous hearts of our children, radiant heaven-moths<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFlitting mid flowers of sense for the honey of thought have not captured,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat which Poseidon forgets mid the pomp and the roar of his waters,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWe three keep in our hearts. By the Light that I watch for unsleeping,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBy thy tremendous consent to the silence and darkness, O Hades,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBy her delight renounced and the prayers and the worship of mortals<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMaking herself as an engine of God without bowels or vision,  \u2014
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tYet in that engine are only heart-beats, yet is her riddle<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOnly Love that is veiled and pity that suffers and slaughters,  \u2014
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tWe three are free from ourselves, O Dis, and free from each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDo then, O King of the Night, observe then with Time for thy servant<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tNot my behest, but What she and thou and I are for ever.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMute the Darkness sat like a soul unmoved through the aeons,<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n

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\nThen came a voice from the silence of Dis, from the night there came wisdom.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t"Yes, I have chosen and that which I chose I endure, O Cronion, 
\n\t\t\t\u2014 <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThough to the courts of the gods I come as a threat and a shadow,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEven though none to their counsels call me, none to their pastime,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNone companions me willingly; even thy daughter, my consort,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTrembling whom once from our sister Demeter I plucked like a blossom<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTorn from Sicilian fields, while Fate reluctant, consenting,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBowed her head, lives but by her gasps of the sun and the azure;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nStretched are her hands to the light and she seeks for the clasp of her mother.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tI, I am Night and her reign and that of which Night is a symbol.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll to me comes, even thou shalt come to me, brilliant Cronion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll here exists by me whom all walk fearing and shunning;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHe who shuns not, He am I and thou and Ananke.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAll things I take to my bosom that Life may be swift in her voyage;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFor out of death is Life and not by birth and her motions<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd behind Night is light and not in the sun and his splendours.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTroy to the Night I will gather a wreath for my shadows, O grower.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSo in his arrogance dire the vast invincible Death-god<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTriumphing passed out of heaven with Themis and silent Ananke.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tZeus alone in the spheres of his bliss, in his kingdoms of brilliance<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSat divine and alarmed; for even the gods in their heavens<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tScarce shall live who have gazed on the unveiled face of Ananke,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHeard the accents dire of the Darkness that waits for the ages.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAwful and dull grew his eyes and mighty and still grew his members.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBack from his nature he drew to the passionless peaks of the spirit,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThroned where it dwells for ever uplifted and silent and changeless<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFar beyond living and death, beyond Nature and ending of Nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tThere for a while he dwelt veiled, protected from Dis and his greatness;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen to the works of the world he returned and the joy of his musings.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLife and the blaze of the mighty soul that he was of God’s making<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDawned again in the heavenly eyes and the majestied semblance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tComforted heaven he beheld, to the green of the earth was attracted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBut through this Space unreal, but through these worlds that are shadows<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWent the awful Three. None saw them pass, none felt them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tOnly in the heavens was a tread as of death, in the air was a winter,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEarth oppressed moaned long like a woman striving with anguish.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n
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\n

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\nIda saw them not, but her grim lions cowered in their caverns,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tCeased for a while on her slopes the eternal laughter of fountains.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOver the ancient ramparts of Dardanus’ high-roofed city<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDarkening her victor domes and her gardens of life and its sweetness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSilent they came. Unseen and unheard was the dreadful arrival.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tTroy and her gods dreamed secure in the moment flattered by sunlight.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDim to the citadel high they arrived and their silence invaded<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPallas’ marble shrine where stern and white in her beauty,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nArmed on her pedestal, trampling the prostrate image of darkness<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMighty Athene’s statue guarded imperial Troya.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDim and vast they entered in. Then through all the great city<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tHuge a rushing sound was heard from her gardens and places<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd in their musings her seers as they strove with night and with error<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd in the fane of Apollo Laocoon torn by his visions<\/span><\/p>\n

\nHeard aghast the voice of Troy’s deities fleeing from Troya,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tSaw the flaming lords of her households drive in a death-rout<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForth from her ancient halls and their noble familiar sessions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGhosts of her splendid centuries wailed on the wings of the doom-blast.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMoaning the Dryads fled and her Naiads passed from Scamander<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tLeaving the world to deities dumb of the clod and the earth-smoke,<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd from their tombs and their shrines the shadowy Ancestors faded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tFilled was the air with their troops and the sound of a vast lamentation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWailing they went, lamenting mortality’s ages of greatness,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRuthless Ananke’s deeds and the mortal conquests of Hades.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThen in the fane Palladian the shuddering priests of Athene<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tEntered the darkened shrine and saw on the suffering marble<\/span><\/p>\n

\nShattered Athene’s mighty statue prostrate as conquered,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tBut on its pedestal rose o’er the unhurt image of darkness<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAwful shapes, a Trinity dim and dire unto mortals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tDumb they fell down on the earth and the life-breath was slain in their
\nbosoms.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tAnd in the noon there was night. And Apollo passed out of Troya.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\n
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\t\t\t<\/font><\/td>\n

<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Ilion Bk-VIII   Drawn to the anguish of men and the fierce terrestrial labour. Down he dropped with a roar of light invading the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-02-collected-poems","wpcat-57-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}