Heave shall break my proud back never, Strain shall never burst my heart: Steely fingers hook in the crack, Up the rock shall start. Now from the deep and frightful pit Shoots forth the spiring phœnix-tree Long despaired in this bleak land, Holds the air with boughs, with bland Fragrance welcome to the bee, With fruits of immortality. AN IDYLL OF OLD AGE Two gods once visited a hermit couple, Philemon and his Baucis, old books tell; They sampled elder-wine and called it nectar, Though nectar is the tastier drink by far. They made ambrosia of pot-herb and lentil, They ate pease-porridge even, with a will. Why, and so forth.... But that night in the spare bedroom Where they lay shivering in the musty gloom, Hermes and Zeus overheard conversation, Behind the intervening wall, drag on In thoughtful snatches through the night. They idly Listened, and first they heard Philemon sigh:-- _Phi._ “Since two souls meet and merge at time of marriage, Conforming to one stature and one age, An honest token each with each exchanging Of Only Love unbroken as a ring-- What signified my boyhood’s ideal friendship That stared its ecstasy at eye and lip, But dared not touch because love seemed too holy For flesh with flesh in real embrace to lie?” _Bau._ Then Baucis sighed in answer to Philemon, “Many’s the young man that my eye rests on (Our younger guest to-night provides the instance) Whose body brings my heart hotter romance Than your dear face could ever spark within me; Often I wish my heart from yours set free.” _Phi._ “In this wild medley round us of Bought Love, Free Love and Forced Love and pretentious No-Love, Let us walk upright, yet with care consider Whether, in living thus, we do not err. Why might we not approve adulterous licence Increasing pleasurable experience? What could the soul lose through the body’s rapture With a body not its mate, where thought is pure?” _Bau._ “Are children bonds of love? But even children Grow up too soon as women and as men, And in the growing find their own love private, Meet parent-love with new suspicious hate. Our favourites run the surest to the Devil In spite of early cares and all good will.” _Phi._ “Sweetheart, you know that you have my permission To go your own way and to take love on Wherever love may signal.” She replying _Bau._ Said, “I allow you, dearest, the same thing.”