Gold Egg.--a Dream-Fantasy
HOW A STUDENT IN SEARCH OF THE BEAUTIFUL FELL ASLEEP OVER HERR PROFESSOR DOCTOR VISCHER’S “ WISSENSCHAFT DES SCHONEN,” AND WHAT CAME THEREOF.
1.
I SWAM with undulation soft,
Adrift on Vischer’s ocean,
And, from my cockboat up aloft,
Sent down my mental plummet oft,
In hope to reach a notion.
Adrift on Vischer’s ocean,
And, from my cockboat up aloft,
Sent down my mental plummet oft,
In hope to reach a notion.
2.
But from the metaphysic sea
No bottom was forthcoming,
And all the while (so drowsily!)
In one eternal note of B
My German stove kept humming.
No bottom was forthcoming,
And all the while (so drowsily!)
In one eternal note of B
My German stove kept humming.
3.
What ’s Beauty ? mused I. Is it told
By synthesis ? analysis ?
Have you not made us lead of gold ?
To feed your crucible, not sold
Our temple’s sacred chalices ?
By synthesis ? analysis ?
Have you not made us lead of gold ?
To feed your crucible, not sold
Our temple’s sacred chalices ?
4.
Then o’er my senses came a change :
My book seemed all traditions,
Old legends of profoundest range,
Diablerie, and stories strange
Of goblins, elves, magicians.
My book seemed all traditions,
Old legends of profoundest range,
Diablerie, and stories strange
Of goblins, elves, magicians.
5.
Truth was, my outward eyes were closed,
Although I did not know it ;
Deep into Dreamland I had dozed,
And found me suddenly transposed
From proser into poet.
Although I did not know it ;
Deep into Dreamland I had dozed,
And found me suddenly transposed
From proser into poet.
6.
So what I read took flesh and blood
And turned to living creatures ;
The words were but the dingy bud
That bloomed, like Adam from the mud,
To human forms and features.
And turned to living creatures ;
The words were but the dingy bud
That bloomed, like Adam from the mud,
To human forms and features.
7.
I saw how Zeus was lodged once more
By Baucis and Philemon;
The text said, “ Not alone of yore,
But every day at every door
Knocks still the masking Demon.”
By Baucis and Philemon;
The text said, “ Not alone of yore,
But every day at every door
Knocks still the masking Demon.”
8.
DAIMON’t was printed in the book;
And as I read it slowly,
The letters moved and changed and took
Jove’s stature, the Olympian look
Of painless melancholy.
And as I read it slowly,
The letters moved and changed and took
Jove’s stature, the Olympian look
Of painless melancholy.
9.
He paused upon the threshold worn: —
“ With coin I cannot pay you ;
Yet would I fain make some return, —
You will not the gift’s cheapness spurn,—
Accept this fowl, I pray you.
“ With coin I cannot pay you ;
Yet would I fain make some return, —
You will not the gift’s cheapness spurn,—
Accept this fowl, I pray you.
10.
“ Plain feathers wears my Hemera,
And has from ages olden;
She makes her nest in common hay;
And yet, of all the birds that lay,
Her eggs alone are golden.”
And has from ages olden;
She makes her nest in common hay;
And yet, of all the birds that lay,
Her eggs alone are golden.”
11.
He turned and could no more be seen.
Old Baucis stared a moment,
Then tossed poor partlet on the green,
And with a tone half jest, half spleen,
Thus made her housewife’s comment : —
Old Baucis stared a moment,
Then tossed poor partlet on the green,
And with a tone half jest, half spleen,
Thus made her housewife’s comment : —
12.
“The stranger had a queerish face,
His smile was most unpleasant;
And though he meant it for a grace,
Yet this old hen of barnyard race
Was but a stingy present.
His smile was most unpleasant;
And though he meant it for a grace,
Yet this old hen of barnyard race
Was but a stingy present.
13.
“ She ’s quite too old for laying eggs, —
Nay, even to make a soup of;
It only needs to see her legs,—
You might as well boil down the pegs
I made the brood-hen’s coop of!
Nay, even to make a soup of;
It only needs to see her legs,—
You might as well boil down the pegs
I made the brood-hen’s coop of!
14.
“ More than three hundred such do I
Raise every year, her sisters ;
Go, in the woods your fortune try,
All day for one poor earth-worm pry,
And scratch your toes to blisters ! ”
Raise every year, her sisters ;
Go, in the woods your fortune try,
All day for one poor earth-worm pry,
And scratch your toes to blisters ! ”
15.
Philemon found the rede was good ;
And turning on the poor hen,
He clapped his hands, he stamped, hallooed,
Hunting the exile toward the wood,
To house with snipe and moor-hen.
And turning on the poor hen,
He clapped his hands, he stamped, hallooed,
Hunting the exile toward the wood,
To house with snipe and moor-hen.
16.
A poet saw and cried, — “ Hold ! hold !
What are you doing, madman ?
Spurn you more wealth than can be told,
The fowl that lays the eggs of gold,
Because she ’s plainly clad, man ? ”
What are you doing, madman ?
Spurn you more wealth than can be told,
The fowl that lays the eggs of gold,
Because she ’s plainly clad, man ? ”
17.
To him Philemon, — “I ’ll not balk
Thy will with any shackle ;
Wilt add a burden to thy walk ?
Then take her without further talk ;
You ’re both but fit to cackle ! ”
Thy will with any shackle ;
Wilt add a burden to thy walk ?
Then take her without further talk ;
You ’re both but fit to cackle ! ”
18.
But scarce the poet touched the bird,
It rose to stature regal;
And when her cloud-wide wings she stirred,
A whisper as of doom was heard,—
’T was Jove’s bolt-bearing eagle.
It rose to stature regal;
And when her cloud-wide wings she stirred,
A whisper as of doom was heard,—
’T was Jove’s bolt-bearing eagle.
19.
As when from far-off cloudbergs springs
A crag, and, hurtling under,
From cliff to cliff the rumor flings,
So she from flight-foreboding wings
Shook out a murmurous thunder.
A crag, and, hurtling under,
From cliff to cliff the rumor flings,
So she from flight-foreboding wings
Shook out a murmurous thunder.
20.
She gripped the poet to her breast,
And ever upward soaring,
Earth seemed a new-moon in the West,
And then one light among the rest
Where squadrons lie at mooring.
And ever upward soaring,
Earth seemed a new-moon in the West,
And then one light among the rest
Where squadrons lie at mooring.
21.
How know I to what o’er-world seat
The eagle bent her courses ?
The waves that seem its base to beat,
The gales that round it weave and fleet,
Are life’s creative forces.
The eagle bent her courses ?
The waves that seem its base to beat,
The gales that round it weave and fleet,
Are life’s creative forces.
22.
Here was the bird’s primeval nest,
High on a promontory
Star-pharosed, where she takes her rest,
And broods new aeons ’neath her breast,
The future’s unfledged glory.
High on a promontory
Star-pharosed, where she takes her rest,
And broods new aeons ’neath her breast,
The future’s unfledged glory.
23.
I knew not how, but I was there,
All feeling, hearing, seeing;
It was not wind that stirred my hair,
But living breath, the essence rare
Of unembodied being.
All feeling, hearing, seeing;
It was not wind that stirred my hair,
But living breath, the essence rare
Of unembodied being.
24.
And in the nest an egg of gold
Lay wrapt in its own lustre,
Gazing whereon, what depths untold
Within, what wonders manifold
Seemed silently to muster !
Lay wrapt in its own lustre,
Gazing whereon, what depths untold
Within, what wonders manifold
Seemed silently to muster !
25.
Do visions of such inward grace
Still haunt our life benighted ?
It glowed as when St. Peter’s face,
Illumed, forgets its stony race,
And seems to throb self-lighted.
Still haunt our life benighted ?
It glowed as when St. Peter’s face,
Illumed, forgets its stony race,
And seems to throb self-lighted.
26.
One saw therein the life of man, —
Or so the poet found it;
The yolk and white, conceive who can,
Were the glad earth, that, floating, span
In the soft heaven around it.
Or so the poet found it;
The yolk and white, conceive who can,
Were the glad earth, that, floating, span
In the soft heaven around it.
27.
I knew this as one knows in dream,
Where no effects to causes
Are chained as in our work-day scheme,
And then was wakened by a scream
Sent up by frightened Baucis.
Where no effects to causes
Are chained as in our work-day scheme,
And then was wakened by a scream
Sent up by frightened Baucis.
28.
“Bless Zeus!” she cried, “I ’m safe below !”
First pale, then red as coral;
And I, still drowsy, pondered slow,
And seemed to find, but hardly know,
Something like this for moral.
First pale, then red as coral;
And I, still drowsy, pondered slow,
And seemed to find, but hardly know,
Something like this for moral.
29.
Each day the world is born anew
For him who takes it rightly ;
Not fresher that which Adam knew,
Not sweeter that whose moonlit dew
Dropped on Arcadia nightly.
For him who takes it rightly ;
Not fresher that which Adam knew,
Not sweeter that whose moonlit dew
Dropped on Arcadia nightly.
30.
Rightly? — that ’s simply: ’t is to see
Some substance casts these shadows
Which we call Life and History,
That aimless seem to chase and flee
Like wind-gleams over meadows.
Some substance casts these shadows
Which we call Life and History,
That aimless seem to chase and flee
Like wind-gleams over meadows.
31.
Simply ? — that ’s nobly: ’t is to know
That God may still be met with,
Nor groweth old, nor doth bestow
This sense, this heart, this brain aglow,
To grovel and forget with.
That God may still be met with,
Nor groweth old, nor doth bestow
This sense, this heart, this brain aglow,
To grovel and forget with.
32.
Beauty, Herr Doctor, trust in me,
No chemistry will win you;
Charis still rises from the sea :
If you can't find her, might it be
The trouble was within you ?
No chemistry will win you;
Charis still rises from the sea :
If you can't find her, might it be
The trouble was within you ?