So he prayed to the Gods, and they stooped to his prayer, And they spoke to the Sun on his way through the air, And he married the Echo one fortunate morn, And Woman, their beautiful daughter, was born! The daughter of Sunshine and Echo she came With a voice like a song, with a face like a flame; With a face like a flame, and a voice like a song, And happy was Man, but it was not for long! For weather’s a painfully changeable thing, Not always the child of the Echo would sing; And the face of the Sun may be hidden with mist, And his child can be terribly cross if she list. And unfortunate Man had to learn with surprise That a frown’s not peculiar to masculine eyes; That the sweetest of voices can scold and can sneer, And cannot be answered—like men—with a spear. So Man went and called to the Gods in his woe, And they answered him—“Sir, you would needs have it so: And the thing must go on as the thing has begun, She’s immortal—your child of the Echo and Sun. But we’ll send you another, and fairer is she, This maiden with locks that are flowing and free. This maiden so gentle, so kind, and so fair, With a flower like a star in the night of her hair. With her eyes like the smoke that is misty and blue, With her heart that is heavenly, and tender, and true. She will die in the night, but no need you should mourn, You shall bury her body and thence shall be born A weed that is green, that is fragrant and fair, With a flower like the star in the night of her hair. And the leaves must ye burn till they offer to you Soft smoke, like her eyes that are misty and blue. “And the smoke shall ye breathe and no more shall ye fret, But the child of the Echo and Sun shall forget: Shall forget all the trouble and torment she brings, Shall bethink ye of none but delectable things; And the sound of the wars with your brethren shall cease, While ye smoke by the camp-fire the great pipe of peace.” So the last state of Man was by no means the worst, The second gift softened the sting of the first. Nor the child of the Echo and Sun doth he heed When he dreams with the Maid that was changed to the weed; Though the Echo be silent, the Sun in a mist, The Maid is the fairest that ever was kissed. And when tempests are over and ended the rain, And the child of the Sunshine is sunny again, He comes back, glad at heart, and again is at one With the changeable child of the Echo and Sun. RHYMES À LA MODE BALLADE DEDICATORY, TO _MRS. ELTON_ _OF WHITE STAUNTON_. _THE painted Briton built his mound_, _And left his celts and clay_, _On yon fair slope of sunlit ground_ _That fronts your garden gay_; _The Roman came_, _he bore the sway_, _He bullied_, _bought_, _and sold_, _Your fountain sweeps his works away_ _Beside your manor old_!