Project Gutenberg's Artemis to Actaeon and Other Worlds, by Edith Wharton

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Artemis to Actaeon and Other Worlds

Author: Edith Wharton

Posting Date: August 8, 2009 [EBook #4549]
Release Date: October, 2003
First Posted: February 7, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARTEMIS TO ACTAEON ***

Produced by Charles Aldarondo.

ARTEMIS TO ACTAEON

AND OTHER VERSE

BY EDITH WHARTON

NEW YORK

1909

CONTENTS

Part I--

ARTEMIS TO ACTAEON
LIFE
VESALIUS IN ZANTE
MARGARET OF CORTONA
A TORCHBEARER

Part II--

THE MORTAL LEASE
EXPERIENCE
GRIEF
CHARTRES
TWO BACKGROUNDS
THE TOMB OF ILARIA GIUNIGI
THE ONE GRIEF
THE EUMENIDES

Part III--

ORPHEUS
AN AUTUMN SUNSET
MOONRISE OVER TYRINGHAM
ALL SOULS
ALL SAINTS
THE OLD POLE STAR
A GRAVE
NON DOLET!
A HUNTING-SONG
SURVIVAL
USES
A MEETING

I

ARTEMIS TO ACTAEON

THOU couldst not look on me and live: so runs
The mortal legend--thou that couldst not live
Nor look on me (so the divine decree)!
That saw'st me in the cloud, the wave, the bough,
The clod commoved with April, and the shapes
Lurking 'twixt lid and eye-ball in the dark.
Mocked I thee not in every guise of life,
Hid in girls' eyes, a naiad in her well,
Wooed through their laughter, and like echo fled,
Luring thee down the primal silences
Where the heart hushes and the flesh is dumb?
Nay, was not I the tide that drew thee out
Relentlessly from the detaining shore,
Forth from the home-lights and the hailing voices,
Forth from the last faint headland's failing line,
Till I enveloped thee from verge to verge
And hid thee in the hollow of my being?
And still, because between us hung the veil,
The myriad-tinted veil of sense, thy feet
Refused their rest, thy hands the gifts of life,
Thy heart its losses, lest some lesser face
Should blur mine image in thine upturned soul
Ere death had stamped it there. This was thy thought.
And mine?

The gods, they say, have all: not so!
This have they--flocks on every hill, the