LETO'S CHILD

by: Maurice Hewlett (1861-1923)

HERE between the trees

The prying Fauns and Woodmen dark

And prick-ear'd Satyrs her did mark,

How all abandon'd to her mood

Of careless lovely lassitude--

So ripe, so melting, like a rose

That dewy-hearted throbs and blows

Languorous in the wind's caresses--

She lay becurtained in loose tresses,

Not seeing what her half-dropt zone

Let of her bosom's bower be shown,

Or that soft thing abeating there,

Ungirdled treasure, warm and bare.

And as they peept and spied upon

The goodly sight she made, came One

Adventurous, whom the Woodfolk dreaded,

Great Pan the goat-foot, horny-headed,

And saw her, and began to woo her

With his fierce music to undo her,

And make her former shames go pale

Beside her latter. Here's no tale

For me who walk in Hymnia's beam,

Under her moon-wove eyes adream,

To tell you how Pan workt his will,

Or how she fended, with what skill

Garner'd within that sweeter nest

When she had laid on her Mare's breast,

And one the other comforted.

Little enough that serv'd her stead

This turn! Callisto was too tender

For the chill part: she must surrender.

Like white dawns hung in golden mist

That soon repent their wintry tryst

And go aweeping, she too soon

Gave him his hire, her body's boon;

And, all the kinder for late frost,

Was painful that he nothing lost

By tardy chaffering. So he brought her

To his tree-haunts, and lightly taught her

All of love's mystery; and this maid

For love's sake thought that well betray'd

Which had been life, had she but known it

As afterwards she had to own it.

Ah, passion of the love-denied

That ventures all for't far and wide,

That lacking sweet love falls to foul,

And feeds the flesh and starves the soul!

Her woe was working in her womb

Where that seed lay that was her doom:

Gotten by Pan, by Pan let lie

While he to other game gave eye,

Forgetful of what he had wrought

In the green forest when he taught

Callisto love, and found her apt.

• Maurice Hewlett: Bibliography - A bibliography of the works of Maurice Hewlett; includes a brief list of critical resources.
• Purchase books by Maurice Hewlett