Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1865-01-17
selni- ap4'a1fklq staahurh.
For the Standard.
NARCISS U s.
BY THEo. II. HILL.

For The Standard.
NARCISsUs.
BY THEo. H. HILL.
"Piniug with sorrow, Mica faded, died,
Like q fair aloe, in its morning pride"
1.-THE tale
Of young Narcissus, and sad Echo's bale"
[Ksst'.
PIN1NG for the beauty he
In himself alone could see,
Wan Narcissus, day by day,
Wasted wofully away;
Love-lorn Echo, all in vain,
Sought the self0Hamoured swain,
Calling on his name again
And again, until the woods,
In their widest solitudes-
Grown familiar with the strain
Syllabled the sad refrain:
ooh! Narcissus, where art thoui
Dost, in frolic hide thee now!
All! tits cruel thus to stay
From thine Echo all the day;
Ere the dreamy twilight shades
Purple all the dewy glades,
Truant shew thy radiant facet
HE thee to our trysting placel"
Sadly sang the sorrow-lsden,
Weary, wistful, wandering maiden
Swiftly sped the sparkling river
Sped the silvery Cephissus,
Drifting arrows from the culver
OF the beautiful Narcissus- ~
Needless Of he.faSrs he shed
At its far-off fountain-head
Bending, till his golden tresses
Floated with the water crosses,
He, athirst, had paused to drink
From the fountains sedgy brink
He but loitered there to lave
In the pure, pellucid wave
Forehead fairer than the sun
- Fer before had shone upon.
Hapless child of Air and Tellus!+
Thou that madest Juno jealous!
Seek no further to discover
Footprints of thy faithless loTerl
In the blue, inverted skies,
Star-like splendors greet his eyes;
Echos eye no more may please
In himself himself he sees :
When the beauteaus phantom first
On his ravished vision burst
he, mayhap, was not aware
His own face was mirrored there;
In the crystal depths alas!
He but saw, as in glass,
Lips disparted-cheeks sglow,
Flushed, for all the world, as though
Roses were about to blow,
Which had budded in the>snow.
All! Narcissus, the TRANSMISSION
Observation-Disclosures
OF those false and real glances
Thy perplexity enhances;
Even bad chance beholder,
Peeping, unseen, DER thy shoulder,
There essayed the true to sunder
From their simulaerG under
Water, flushing into wine
With each rosy blush Of thine,
He had died in the endeayor,
An idolater forever!
Who may fittingly express
Such unreal loveliness
Who with truthful touch may trace
Pictures, vocal of the grace,
Which informed the phantom theref
Sylvan Gods may never chase
Nymph or Naiad with a face
So ethereally fair
Never WOO to their embraces
Three in one-the Sister GrAces1
Fantasy forever flies
One, who fain would realize,
Undiscovered from the real,
An indefinite ideal:
Who may indicate the ending,
Or beginning of the blending.
Seven, several hues that simmer
In rainbow growing dimmerS
Who unravel opalescence
In its very evanescence?
Who dispart the tints that glimmer
In the faint illusion kindled
Ere real splendor dWindled?
Still more futile his essay,
Who would wildly portray
Scarce perceptible decline,
Where the substance and the shade,
Interfused-together fade!
Metaphor may not define
Stealth of gradual decay,
Toying with its tortured prey
Growth of shade-decrease Of shine
NsTcissus in those eyes IF thinel'
Alas! that one so young-so fair
So radiant in his golden hair
Died in selflOVe, of selfdespair !
+. Of Echo, in the reedy lake
In the tangled hazel-brake-
In the green hearts of the dells-
In the hollow ocean shells,
Only now, an echo dwells;
And where young Narcissus died,
Bending Ger the CLASSY tide,
Blooms solitary flower;
Beauty is its natal dower;t
Fair and fragile is its bloom
Faint and feeting its perfume,
And it ever leans to look
At its shadow in the brook.
Shculdst thou, like Narcissus, guess
Half of thine own loneliness,
Though his fate were surely thine,
Echo's, never would be mine!
, ShOuldst thou hal py charms discover,
Maiden, peerless as thou art,
Hope would drOOp within thy lover
Die upon his loyal heart;
Love-though mine-With hope would pc
ish,
/, with life itself would part,
Sooner than survive to cherish
Thee, as other than thou artl
Knowing all thou vert before
Self thou lesrnedst to adore
Seeing what thou then wouldst be,
/ no more could bend the knee;
Love-tAough mine-Would not retain
Fond regret for one so vain,
Longer than the fountain kept
On its bosom ripples made
By the tears NarcisSus wept
When, by SELF to self betrayed,
In the sparkling depths below,
He beheld the rosy glow
Waning on his cheeks of snow;
While from out his haggard eyes
All the light that in them lay,
liz The finfS of twilinhf Skias