~ Clytie ~ (the legacy of a lovesick girl)

Clytie



Clytie was a water-nymph & deeply in love with Apollo, who made her no
return. So she pined away, sitting all day long upon the cold
ground, with her unbound curls streaming over her shoulders.
Nine days she sat & tasted neither food nor drink, her own
tears & the chilly dew her only food. She gazed upon the sun
when he rose, & as he passed through his daily course to his
setting; -she saw no other object- her face turned constantly on
him. At last, they say, her limbs rooted in the ground, her face
became.... A Sunflower, which turns on its stem so as always to face
the sun throughout its daily course; for it retains to that
extent the feeling of the nymph from whom it sprang.

"The heart that has Truly Loved.... -never forgets-
But as truly, loves on, to-the-close
As the sunflower turns on her God when he sets
The same look-- that she turned-- when he rose."

'"Sunflower" is the name by which we know those flamboyant blossoms which follow the sun.
This is the story of Clytie, the nymph whose destruction came from a faithful, unrequited love. She was a water-nymph, a timid, gentle being who bathed where the blue dragon-flies dart across the white water-lilies in pellucid lakes. In the shade of the tall poplar trees and the silvery willows she took her midday rest.

Suddenly, into the dark pool by which she sat, Apollo the Conqueror looked down & mirrored his face in the water. At once he became the lord & master of her heart & soul. Such devotion might have touched the heart of the sun-god, but he had no wish to own a love for which he had not sought. The nymph's adoration irked him, nor did pity come as Love's pale substitute when he marked how, day by day, her face grew whiter & more white, and her lovely form wasted away. For nine days, without food or drink, she kept her shamed vigil. Only one word of love did she crave. Unexacting in the humility of her devotion, she would gratefully have nourished her hungry heart upon just one kindly glance, one utterance of appreciation. But Apollo, full of scorn & anger, for all that she represented, lashed up his fiery steeds & each day he drove past her, never once with any desire to make her his own.

Soon the nymph passed out of her human form, & took the form of a sunflower, & evermore--the emblem of constancy--does she gaze with fearless ardour on the face of her beloved. She forever remains the devout lover of a god.'

Tho' guilty Clytie thus the sun betray'd,
By too much passion she was guilty made.
Excess of love begot excess of grief,
Grief fondly bad her hence to hope relief.