A shepherd lover lost to the moon
Endymion
"Thou hast the lips that should be kissed!"
Poem
(For Music)
The apple trees are hung with gold,And birds are loud in Arcady,The sheep lie bleating in the fold,The wild goat runs across the wold,But yesterday his love he told,I know he will come back to me.O rising moon! O Lady moon!Be you my lover’s sentinel,You cannot choose but know him well,For he is shod with purple shoon,You cannot choose but know my love,For he a shepherd’s crook doth bear,And he is soft as any dove,And brown and curly is his hair.
The turtle now has ceased to callUpon her crimson-footed groom,The grey wolf prowls about the stall,The lily’s singing seneschalSleeps in the lily-bell, and allThe violet hills are lost in gloom.O risen moon! O holy moon!Stand on the top of Helice,And if my own true love you see,Ah! if you see the purple shoon,The hazel crook, the lad’s brown hair,The goat-skin wrapped about his arm,Tell him that I am waiting whereThe rushlight glimmers in the Farm.
The falling dew is cold and chill,And no bird sings in Arcady,The little fauns have left the hill,Even the tired daffodilHas closed its gilded doors, and stillMy lover comes not back to me.False moon! False moon! O waning moon!Where is my own true lover gone,Where are the lips vermilion,The shepherd’s crook, the purple shoon?Why spread that silver pavilion,Why wear that veil of drifting mist?Ah! thou hast young Endymion,Thou hast the lips that should be kissed!
In brief
SummaryIn Arcady at evening, the speaker waits for a shepherd lover who declared his love only yesterday. The speaker asks the rising moon to watch for him, describing his purple shoes, his crook, his gentle ways and his brown curly hair. As night deepens, the moon, now high above Helice, is asked to tell him that someone waits for him by the rushlight in the farm. By the third stanza the dew is falling and he has not come. The speaker turns on the 'False moon' and understands: the moon has taken young Endymion, and has 'the lips that should be kissed'.
Key themes
"O rising moon! O Lady moon!"
Summary
The poem, subtitled '(For Music)', is a song in three stanzas, each set at a later hour of the night. In the first, the apple trees are 'hung with gold', birds are loud in Arcady and the sheep lie in the fold. The speaker's lover told of his love 'yesterday', and the speaker is sure 'he will come back to me'. The 'rising moon', the 'Lady moon', is asked to be his sentinel, for she cannot fail to know him: 'he is shod with purple shoon', carries a shepherd's crook, is 'soft as any dove', and his hair is 'brown and curly'.
In the second stanza evening has become night. The turtle-dove has stopped calling to her mate, the grey wolf prowls about the stall, and 'The violet hills are lost in gloom'. The speaker asks the 'risen moon' to stand on the top of Helice and, if it sees the purple shoes, the hazel crook and the goatskin on his arm, to tell him that the speaker is waiting where 'The rushlight glimmers in the Farm'.
In the third the dew falls cold, no bird sings, the little fauns have left the hill, and even the daffodil has closed its 'gilded doors'. 'False moon! False moon! O waning moon!' cries the speaker, asking where the lover has gone and why the moon hides behind its 'veil of drifting mist'. The last lines give the answer: 'Ah! thou hast young Endymion, Thou hast the lips that should be kissed!'
Characters
The speaker
The one left waiting
A country lover in Arcady whose shepherd declared his love only yesterday. The speaker waits for him by the rushlight in the farm, asking the moon to find him, and as the night passes confidence turns to despair and then to jealous understanding.
Endymion
The shepherd lover
The absent lover, a young shepherd with purple shoes, a hazel crook, a goatskin wrapped about his arm and brown curly hair, 'soft as any dove'. He never appears. Only in the last lines is he named, as the moon's stolen love.
The moon
The false sentinel
Addressed first as 'Lady moon' and 'holy moon', and asked to guard and find the speaker's lover. By the third stanza she is the 'False moon', veiled in mist and waning, and the speaker realises that she has taken Endymion for herself.
Themes
Waiting and loss
Each stanza moves the night on and lowers the speaker's hope. 'I know he will come back to me' in the first becomes 'I am waiting' in the second and 'My lover comes not back to me' in the third. Small details of the countryside, the fold, the prowling wolf, the closed daffodil, mark the passing hours. The poem tells the story of one evening in which trust turns to jealousy.
The moon as rival
The speaker begins by trusting the moon: 'Be you my lover's sentinel'. By the end the 'Lady moon' has become a 'False moon' and a 'waning moon' hiding behind 'that veil of drifting mist'. The last lines reveal that the moon has taken the lover for herself. The Greek story of the moon's love for Endymion becomes a country heartbreak, told by the one left behind.
A song that tells the time
Like the Serenade before it, the poem is marked '(For Music)'. Each stanza follows the same pattern: a country scene, an address to the moon, then the list of the lover's signs, the 'purple shoon', the crook, the brown hair. The moon's names change from 'rising' to 'risen' to 'waning', so the refrain itself shows the night passing.
Quotes
Context
Endymion appears in the Wind Flowers group of Wilde's Poems (1881), directly after the Serenade, and shares its subtitle, '(For Music)'. In Greek myth Endymion was a beautiful young shepherd loved by the goddess of the moon, who visited him as he slept. The poem tells that story from the side of the country lover who loses him to her.
About this edition
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