Oreithyia

Oreithyia, by the North Wind carried     To stormy Thrace from Athens where you tarried     Down by Ilissus all a blowy day     Among the asphodels, how rapt away     Thither, and in what frozen bed wert married?     "I was a King's tall daughter still unwed,     Slim and desirable my locks to shed     Free from the fillet. He my maiden belt     Undid with busy fingers hid but felt,     And made me wife upon no marriage bed.     "As idly there I lay alone he came     And blew upon my side, and beat a flame     Into my cheeks, and kindled both my eyes.     I suffered him who took no bodily guise:     The light clouds know whether I was to blame.     "Into my mouth he blew an amorous breath;     I panted, but lay still, as quiet as death.     The whispering planes and sighing grasses know     Whether it was the wind that loved me so:     I know not--only this, 'O love,' he saith,     "'O long beset with love, and overloved,     O easy saint, untempted and unproved,     O walking stilly virgin ways in hiding,     Come out, thou art too choice for such abiding!     She never valued ease who never roved.     "'Thou mayst not see thy lover, but he now     Is here, and claimeth thy low moonlit brow,     Thy wonderful eyes, and lips that part and pout,     And polished throat that like a flower shoots out     From thy dark vesture folded and crossed low.'     "With that he had his way and went his way;     For Gods have mastery, and a maiden's nay     Grows faint ere it is whispered all. I sped     Homeward with startled face and tiptoe tread,     And up the stair, and in my chamber lay.     "Crouching I lay and quaked, and heard the wind     Wail round the house like a mad thing confined,     And had no rest; turn wheresoe'er I would     This urgent lover stormed my solitude     And beat against the haven of my mind.     "And over all a clamour and dis-ease     Filled earth and air, and shuddered in my knees     So that I could not stand, but by the wall     Leaned pitifully breathing. Still his call     Volleyed against the house and tore the trees.     "Then out my turret-window as I might     I leaned my body to the blind wet night;     That eager lover leapt me, circled round,     Wreathed, folded, held me prisoner, wrapt and bound     In manacles of terror and delight.     "That night he sealed me to him, and I went     Thenceforth his leman, submiss and content;     So from the hall and feast, whenas I heard     His clear voice call, I flitted like a bird     That beats the brake, and garnered what he lent.     "I was no maid that was no wife; my days     Went by in dreams whose lights are golden haze     And skies are crimson. Laughing not, nor crying,     I strayed all witless with my loose hair flying,     Bearing that load that women think their praise.     "And felt my breasts grow heavy with that food     That women laugh to feel and think it good;     But I went shamefast, hanging down my head,     With girdle all too strait to serve my stead,     And bore an unguessed burden in my blood.     "There was a winter night he came again     And shook the window, till cried out my pain     Unto him, saying, 'Lord, I dare not live!     Lord, I must die of that which thou didst give!     Pity me, Lord!' and fell. The winter rain     "Beat at the casement, burst it, and the wind     Filled all the room, and swept me white and blind     Into the night. I heard the sound of seas     Beleaguer earth, I heard the roaring trees     Singing together. We left them far behind.     "And so he bore me into stormy Thrace,     Me and my load, and kissed back to my face     The sweet new blood of youth, and to my limbs     The wine of life; and there I bore him twins,     Zethes and Calas, in a rock-bound place."     Oreithyia, by the North Wind carried     To stormy Thrace, think you of how you tarried     And let him woo and wed? "Ah, no, for now     He's kissed all Athens from my open brow.     I am the Wind's wife, wooed and won and married."     1897.