FOR

'THE WINE OF CIRCE'

BY EDWARD BURNE JONES.

DUSK-HAIRED and gold-robed o'er the golden wine

She stoops, wherein, distilled of death and shame, Sink the black drops; while, lit with fragrant flame, Round her spread board the golden sunflowers shine. Doth Helios here with Hecatè combine

(O Circe, thou their votaress ?) to proclaim.

For these thy guests all rapture in Love's name, Till pitiless Night give Day the countersign?

Lords of their hour, they come. And by her knee Those cowering beasts, their equals heretofore, Wait; who with them in new equality

To-night shall echo back the sea's dull roar

With a vain wail from passion's tide-strown shore

Where the dishevelled seaweed hates the sea.

MARY'S GIRLHOOD.

(For a Picture.)

THIS is that blessed Mary, pre-elect

God's Virgin.

Gone is a great while, and she

Dwelt young in Nazareth of Galilee.

Unto God's will she brought devout respect,

Profound simplicity of intellect,

And supreme patience. From her mother's knee Faithful and hopeful; wise in charity;

Strong in grave peace; in pity circumspect.

So held she through her girlhood; as it were
An angel-watered lily, that near God

Grows and is quiet. Till, one dawn at home,

She woke in her white bed, and had no fear
At all, yet wept till sunshine, and felt awed:
Because the fulness of the time was come.

THE PASSOVER IN THE HOLY FAMILY,

(For a Drawing.")

HERE meet together the prefiguring day

And day prefigured. Eating, thou shalt stand,

Feet shod, loins girt, thy road-staff in thine hand, With blood-stained door and lintel,'-did God say By Moses' mouth in ages passed away.

And now, where this poor household doth comprise
At Paschal-Feast two kindred families,—

Lo! the slain lamb confronts the Lamb to slay.

The pyre is piled. What agony's crown attained,

What shadow of Death the Boy's fair brow subdues Who holds that blood wherewith the porch is stained By Zachary the priest? John binds the shoes

He deemed himself not worthy to unloose;

And Mary culls the bitter herbs ordained.

* The scene is in the house-porch, where Christ holds a bowl of blood from which Zacharias is sprinkling the posts and lintel. Joseph has brought the lamb and Elizabeth lights the pyre. The shoes which John fastens and the bitter herbs which Mary is gathering form part of the ritual.

MARY MAGDALENE

AT THE DOOR OF SIMON THE PHARISEE.

(For a Drawing.")

'WHY wilt thou cast the roses from thine hair?
Nay, be thou all a rose,-wreath, lips, and cheek.
Nay, not this house,-that banquet-house we seek ;
See how they kiss and enter; come thou there.
This delicate day of love we two will share

Till at our ear love's whispering night shall speak. What, sweet one,-hold'st thou still the foolish freak? Nay, when I kiss thy feet they'll leave the stair.'

Oh loose me! See'st thou not my Bridegroom's face
That draws me to Him? For His feet my kiss,
My hair, my tears He craves to-day :-and oh!

What words can tell what other day and place
Shall see me clasp those blood-stained feet of His ?
He needs me, calls me, loves me : let me go!'

* In the drawing Mary has left a procession of revellers, and is ascending by a sudden impulse the steps of the house where she sees Christ. Her lover has followed her and is trying to turn her back.

CASSANDRA.

(For a Drawing.*)

I.

REND, rend thine hair, Cassandra: he will go.

Yea, rend thy garments, wring thine hands, and cry From Troy still towered to the unreddened sky. See, all but she that bore thee mock thy woe :—— He most whom that fair woman arms, with show Of wrath on her bent brows; for in this place This hour thou bad'st all men in Helen's face The ravished ravishing prize of Death to know.

What eyes, what ears hath sweet Andromache,
Save for her Hector's form and step; as tear
On tear make salt the warm last kiss he gave?
Cassandra's words beat heavily

He goes.

Like crows above his crest, and at his ear

Ring hollow in the shield that shall not save.

* The subject shows Cassandra prophesying among her kindred, as Hector leaves them for his last battle. They are on the platform of a fortress, from which the Trojan troops are marching out. Helen is arming Paris; Priam soothes Hecuba; and Andromache holds the child to her bosom.