s: But now I know 'twere cruel wrong I planned -


s: Taking a heart that beat with love most true,


s: Who weds for love alone, may not be wise:


s: Who weds without it, angels must despise.


s: And lack of either, sure as Fate, destroys


s: And brings regret, and gloomy discontent


s: Nay, nay!  I will not burden all your life


s: Of wedding where my heart goes not in whole.


s: I will not stain my life with such a blot.


s: Dear friend, farewell! the earth is very wide;


s: It holds some fairer woman for your bride;


s: Knows not that subtle sense of moral strength;


s: When sorely tried, we waver, but at length,


s: Rise up and turn away, not having failed.


s: The Autumn of the third year came and went;


s: When this brief message came across the sea:


s: Love, which so long the growing truth concealed,


s: Stands pale within its shadow.  Oh, my sweet!


s: This heart of mine grows fainter with each beat -


s: Dying with very weight of bliss.  Oh, come!


s: In life or death,--Yours, Helen Dangerfield."


s: This plaintive letter bore a month old date;


s: And, wild with fears lest I had come too late,


s: I bade the old world and new friends adieu,


s: And with Aunt Ruth, who long had sighed for home,


s: I turned my back on glory, art, and Rome.


s: All selfish thoughts were merged in one wild fear


s: That she for whose dear sake my heart had bled,


s: Rather than her sweet eyes should know one tear,


s: Was passing from me; that she might be dead;


s: And, dying, had been sorely grieved with me,


s: "O, ship, that sailest slowly, slowly on,


s: Make haste before a wasting life is gone!


s: Make haste that I may catch a fleeting breath!


s: And true in life, be true e'en unto death.


s: "O, ship, sail on! and bear me o'er the tide


s: To her for whom my woman's heart once died.


s: Sail, sail, O, ship! for she hath need of me,


s: And I would know what her last wish may be!


s: I have been true, so true, through all the past.


s: Sail, sail, O, ship!  I would not fail at last."


s: So prayed my heart still o'er, and ever o'er,


s: Until the weary lagging ship reached shore.


s: All sad with fears that I had come too late,


s: By that strange source whence men communicate,


s: Though miles on miles of space between them lie,


s: I spoke with Vivian:  "Does she live?  Reply."


s: The answer came.  "She lives, but hasten, friend!


s: Her journey draweth swiftly to its end."


s: Ah me! ah me! when each remembered spot,


s: My own dear home, the lane that led to his -


s: The fields, the woods, the lake, burst on my sight,


s: Oh! then, Self rose up in asserting might;


s: Oh, then, my bursting heart all else forgot,


s: But those sweet early years of lost delight,


s: Of hope, defeat, of anguish and of bliss.


s: Love, pain or passion, sorrow or despair,


s: Until it takes possession of some breast;


s: And, when at length, grown weary of unrest,


s: We rise up strong and cast it from the heart,


s: It does not die, it cannot die; but goes


s: And mingles with some restless wind that blows


s: About the region where it had its birth.


s: And though we wander over all the earth,


s: That spirit waits, and lingers, year by year,


s: And once more find safe shelter in the breast


s: It stirred of old with pleasure or unrest.


s: Some old emotion long had ceased to live;


s: That, were it called, it could not hear or come,


s: Yet, passing where it first sprang into life,


s: It seemed a living spirit, which came stealing


s: The present's pain and sorrow, crept the love


s: And strife and passion of a bygone hour,


s: Possessed of all their olden might and power.


s: 'Twas but a moment, and the spell was broken


s: By pleasant words of greeting, gently spoken,


s: And smould'ring fires leap up an hour and burn;


s: But never yet had I transgressed God's law,


s: Which she, his wife, my friend, might not have known


s: He was but little altered.  From his face


s: The nonchalant and almost haughty grace,


s: The lurking laughter waiting in his eyes,


s: The years had stolen, leaving in their place


s: A settled sadness, which was not despair,


s: Nor was it gloom, nor weariness, nor care,


s: But something like the vapour o'er the skies


s: But spoke of frosts, which had been and would be.


s: There was that in his face which cometh not,


s: Save when the soul has many a battle fought,


s: And conquered self by constant sacrifice.


s: There are two sculptors, who, with chisels fine,


s: Render the plainest features half divine.


s: All other artists strive and strive in vain,


s: Their statues only crumble at their feet,


s: Without the master touch of Faith and Pain.


s: And now his face, that perfect seemed before,


s: Chiselled by these two careful artists, wore


s: When soul has conquered, and the body lives


s: And, redolent with perfume, bright with flowers,


s: Rested the eye like one of Summer's bowers,


s: Than Death's; for on the marble of her brow


s: Was like the slender willow, when some storm


s: Has stripped it bare of foliage.  Her face,


s: Pale always, now was ghastly in its hue:


s: And, like two lamps, in some dark, hollow place,


s: Burned her large eyes, grown more intensely blue.


s: Her fragile hands displayed each cord and vein,


s: And on her mouth was that drawn look, of pain


s: Which is not uttered.  Yet an inward light


s: Shone through and made her wasted features bright


s: She turned the brilliant lustre of her eyes


s: Upon me.  She had passed beyond surprise,


s: A smile, celestial in its sweetness, wreathed


s: Her pallid features.  "Welcome home!" she breathed


s: "Dear hands! dear lips!  I touch you and rejoice."


s: Were her faint tones that thrilled upon my ear.


s: While to the aching numbness of my grief,


s: Mine eyes refused the solace of a tear, -


s: The tortured soul's most merciful relief.


s: For one sad, sacred moment.  Then she said,


s: In that low tone so like the wind's refrain,


s: "Maurine, my own! give not away to pain;


s: My soul may hear the summons and pass on.


s: Arise, sweet sister! rest a little while,


s: And when refreshed, come hither.  I grow weak


s: With every hour that passes.  I must speak


s: And make my dying wishes known to-night.


s: Which seemed to fill the room with golden light,


s: Of coming night, I entered that dim room,


s: And sat down by her.  Vivian held her hand:


s: And on the pillow at her side there smiled


s: The beauteous count'nance of a sleeping child.


s: "Maurine," spoke Helen, "for three blissful years,


s: My heart has dwelt in an enchanted land;


s: And I have drank the sweetened cup of joy,


s: And so, ere Pain embitters it with gall,


s: Or sad-eyed Sorrow fills it full of tears,


s: And bids me quaff, which is the Fate of all


s: God takes me to the realm of Endless Day,


s: Can understand such bliss as I have known.


s: I do not murmur.  God has heaped my measure,


s: In three short years, full to the brim with pleasure;


s: And, from the fulness of an earthly love,


s: With none to comfort them.  Maurine, sweet friend!


s: Be kind to them, and love them to the end,


s: A soul immortal in your charge, Maurine.


s: From this most holy, sad and sacred eve,


s: Till God shall claim her, she is yours to keep,


s: To love and shelter, to protect and guide."


s: She touched the slumb'ring cherub at her side,


s: And Vivian gently bore her, still asleep,


s: And laid the precious burden on my breast.


s: And when the sleeping infant smiled, and pressed


s: This infant, who, in that tear-blotted past,


s: Had caused my soul such travail, was my own:


s: Through all the lonely coming years to be


s: And what I mourned so hopelessly as lost


s: You yet have me, whose mortal life she cost.


s: But all that was most pure and undefiled,


s: Maurine, my husband loves me; yet I know,


s: Moving about the wide world, to and fro,


s: And through, and in the busy haunts of men,


s: Nay, Vivian, hush! my soul has passed above


s: All selfish feelings!  I would have it so.


s: While I am with the angels, blest and glad,


s: But, love!  I could not trust to any other


s: To this sweet cherub, save my own heart-friend.


s: "Teach her to love her father's name, Maurine,


s: Where'er he wanders.  Keep my memory green


s: In her young heart, and lead her in her youth,


s: To drink from th' eternal fount of Truth;


s: Ply not her mind with harsh and narrow creeds,


s: Who rules His subjects with a burning rod;


s: But teach her that each mortal simply needs


s: To grow in hate of hate and love of love,


s: "Let her be free and natural as the flowers,


s: That smile and nod throughout the summer hours.


s: Let her rejoice in all the joys of youth,


s: But first impress upon her mind this truth:


s: Save when the heart some OTHER seeks to please.


s: The cup of selfish pleasures soon is drained,


s: And full of gall and bitterness the lees.


s: Next to her God, teach her to love her land;


s: In her young bosom light the patriot's flame


s: With love and fervour at her country's name.


s: And this, my last wish, is an earnest one.


s: "Maurine, my o'er-taxed strength is waning; you


s: Have heard my wishes, and you will be true


s: In death as you have been in life, my own!


s: With him--my husband.  Dear love!  I shall rest


s: Good-night, Maurine, come to me in the morning."


s: But lo! the Bridegroom with no further warning


s: She heard His voice, and smiled, and passed away


s: To give her greeting, I found but her clay,


s: "Dear friend! my soul shall treasure thy request,


s: Like a freed bird, then I will come to thee.


s: "I will come to thee in the morning, sweet!


s: I have been true; and soul with soul shall meet


s: Before God's throne, and shall not be afraid.


s: Thou gav'st me trust, and it was not betrayed.


s: "I will come to thee in the morning, dear!


s: The night is dark.  I do not know how near


s: I can but keep my faithful watch and pray.


s: "I will come to thee in the morning, love!


s: Wait for me on the Eternal Heights above.


s: The way is troubled where my feet must climb,


s: Ere I shall tread the mountain-top sublime.


s: "I will come in the morning, O mine own;


s: Through tears and sorrow, till the Day shall dawn,


s: And I shall hear the summons, and pass on.


s: "I will come in the morning.  Rest secure!


s: My hope is certain and my faith is sure.


s: After the gloom and darkness of the night


s: I will come to thee with the morning light."


s: Three peaceful years slipped silently away.


s: We dwelt together in my childhood's home,


s: She was a fair and most exquisite child;


s: Like her dead mother's; but through her dear eyes


s: Brief, friendly letters, telling where he went


s: And what he saw, addressed to May or me.


s: And I would write and tell him how she grew -


s: And how she talked about him o'er the sea


s: She knelt and prayed the blessed Lord would bring


s: It was a warm bright morning in the Spring.


s: When Vivian came.  My eyes were full of tears,


s: As I looked back across the checkered years.


s: How many were the changes they had brought!


s: Pain, death, and sorrow! but the lesson taught


s: To my young heart had been of untold worth.


s: I had learned how to "suffer and grow strong" -


s: That knowledge which best serves us here on earth,


s: The years had been since that June morning when


s: Down that same path I turned my eyes, tear-wet,


s: And lo! the wanderer from a foreign land


s: Stood there before me!--holding out his hand


s: And smiling with those wond'rous eyes of old.


s: To hide my tears, I ran and brought his child;


s: But she was shy, and clung to me, when told


s: This was papa, for whom her prayers were said.


s: She dropped her eyes and shook her little head,


s: And would not by his coaxing be beguiled,


s: And we two sat and talked, as strangers might,


s: Of distant countries which we both had seen.


s: But once I thought I saw his large eyes light


s: With sudden passion, when there came a pause


s: We talked of you.  They seemed surprised, because


s: You were not 'mong the seekers for a name.


s: They thought your whole ambition was for fame."


s: "It might have been," I answered, "when my heart


s: Had nothing else to fill it.  Now my art


s: To love and live for, which I had not then."


s: And, leaning down, I pressed a tender kiss


s: The old light leaping to his eyes again,


s: "And yet, Maurine, they say you might have wed


s: Who laid their hearts and fortunes at your feet.


s: I bowed my head, nor dared his gaze to meet.


s: On cheek and brow I felt the red blood burn,


s: He murmured softly, "God in Heaven knows


s: When your own acts forced on me the belief


s: That I had been your plaything and your toy.


s: Yet from his lips I since have learned that Roy


s: Held no place nearer than a friend and brother.


s: Of what had been--was--might be, stirred my mind,


s: And that great love, I thought died at a blow,


s: Rose up within me, strong with hope and life.


s: Of this sweet child that slumbers on your heart,


s: Maurine, Maurine, I claim you for my wife -


s: Mine own, forever, until death shall part!"


s: Through happy mists of upward welling tears,


s: I leaned, and looked into his beauteous eyes.


s: "Dear heart," I said, "if she who dwells above


s: Looks down upon us, from yon azure skies,


s: She can but bless us, knowing all these years


s: My soul had yearned in silence for the love


s: That crowned her life, and left mine own so bleak.


s: I turned you from me for her fair, frail sake.


s: For her sweet child's, and for my own, I take


s: Just then the child upon my breast awoke


s: From her light sleep, and laid her downy cheek


s: And this unconscious action seemed to be


s: A silent blessing, which the mother spoke


s: The student's search for truth and light -


s: Through changeless Love, that leads to it.


s: Though branch by branch proves withered wood,


s: Then keep your faith and leave me mine -


s: That tinted cheek of flower-like grace."


s: "The weeds are choking out the flowers."


s: There are sometimes two straight roads to a town,


s: You are treading the safe and the well-worn way,


s: And you think me reckless and rash to-day,


s: Your path is the right one, and so is mine.


s: 'Twere a dull old world, methinks, my friend,


s: Yet our paths will meet no doubt at the end,


s: I must live my life, not yours, my friend,


s: We must follow our given paths to the end,


s: He holds her fingers and draws her down,


s: Till the loose hair drops its masses brown


s: There's a question asked, there's a swift caress,


s: She has flown like a bird from the hallway,


s: That shall brighten the world for him alway.


s: Worn threadbare in the seams, and out of date.


s: I have outgrown it.  Wherefore should I weep


s: That I must needs discard it?  I can weave


s: Where sombre shades commingle, yet the gleam


s: Of golden warp shall shoot it through and through,


s: And starred with gems made out of crystalled tears,


s: My new robe shall be richer than the old.


s: Think not some knowledge rests with thee alone;


s: Why, even God's stupendous secret, Death,


s: We one by one, with our expiring breath,


s: Do pale with wonder seize and make our own;


s: The bosomed treasures of the earth are shown,


s: Yields its mysterious marvels in despair


s: To swell the mighty store-house of things known.


s: It cannot cover from the keen world's sight


s: And so, despite thy caution or thy tears,


s: Shall drag THY secret out into the light.


s: Which makes our failures sometime seem more kind


s: Than that success which brings sure loss behind -


s: True greatness dies, when sounds the world's applause


s: Fame blights the object it would bless, because


s: Weighed down with men's expectancy, the mind


s: Can no more soar to those far heights, and find


s: We catch no more the music of the spheres,


s: Or walk with gods, and angels, but with men.


s: Till, impotent from our self-conscious fears,


s: The plaudits of the world turn into sneers.


s: Alas! alas! the woe that comes from lifting up the eyes.


s: Alas! alas! the woe that comes from clasping hand with hand.


s: Ah! love in Spring seems sweet and good,


s: Alas! alas! the woe that comes from listing lovers sighs.


s: Alas! alas! the woe that comes from kisses on the mouth.


s: Alas! alas! for breaking hearts when lovers rove away.


s: Lean down and lift me higher, Josephine!


s: From the Eternal Hills hast thou not seen


s: How I do strive for heights? but lacking wings,


s: I cannot grasp at once those better things


s: For youth and hope and health all keep me glad;


s: But too bright sunlight, sometimes, makes us blind,


s: And I do grope for heights I cannot find.


s: Oh, thou must know my one supreme desire -


s: Thou knowest how, from day to fleeting day


s: Our souls were vexed with trifles, and our feet


s: Were lured aside to by-paths which seemed sweet,


s: Thou hast gone onward to the heights serene,


s: And left me here, my loved one, Josephine;


s: For life is full of promise; but, my friend,


s: Canst thou not help me in my best desire


s: Frail as thou wert, thou hast grown strong and wise,


s: With all a full soul's needs.  It must be so,


s: Thy year with God hath made thee great, I know


s: Thou must see how I struggle and aspire -


s: Oh, warm me with a breath of heavenly fire,


s: All little aims slip from me, and I reach


s: As when a mighty forest, whose green leaves


s: Have shut it in, and made it seem a bower


s: For lovers' secrets, or for children's sports,


s: Casts all its clustering foliage to the winds,


s: So now with life that reaches out before,


s: I see the stars above me, world on world:


s: I feel the distant surging of great seas,


s: Thou Christ of mine, Thy gracious ear low bending


s: To catch the countless prayers to heaven ascending -


s: Some secret wish for fame, or gold, or power,


s: Dear, patient Christ, who listeneth hour on hour,


s: Let this young year that, silent, walks beside me,


s: To lead me up, no matter what betide me,


s: If it need be that ere I reach the Fountain


s: My feet should bleed from sharp stones on the mountain,


s: If my vain soul needs blows and bitter losses


s: Then bruise it, burn it, burden it with crosses,


s: Do what Thou wilt to mould me to Thy pleasure,


s: Heap full of anguish yet another measure


s: Send dangers--deaths! but tell me how to dare them;


s: Send trials, tears! but give me strength to bear them -


s: Sometimes at night, when I sit and write,


s: As my brain grows hot with burning thought,


s: I can hear the beat of my swift blood's feet,


s: With my soul's fine ear I listen and hear


s: As it leans on the breast of Night to rest,


s: And the darkness turns in its sleep, and yearns


s: And I hear the hiss of a scorching kiss,


s: In its hurrying race through leagues of space,


s: As it heaves and moans, and shudders and groans,


s: Oh, sweet and strange are the sounds that range


s: And the watcher who waits by the dim, dark gates


s: And feels his heart swell within him large enough


s: His great Creator's standard, though he dwells


s: Outside the pale of churches, and knows not


s: Of Scripture even.  What God wants of us


s: Is that outreaching bigness that ignores


s: All littleness of aims, or loves, or creeds,


s: And clasps all Earth and Heaven in its embrace.


s: Let the old snow be covered with the new:


s: The trampled snow, so soiled, and stained, and sodden.


s: By pure white flakes, all trackless and untrodden.


s: When Winter dies, low at the sweet Spring's feet,


s: Let him be mantled in a clean, white sheet.


s: The old past life so full of sad mistakes,


s: By deeds as white and silent as snow-flakes.


s: Ere this earth life melts in the eternal Spring


s: Let the white mantle of repentance fling


s: And wept and cried with anguished breath,


s: Last night I knelt low at my lady's feet.


s: One soft, caressing hand played with my hair,


s: And one I kissed and fondled.  Kneeling there,


s: She was so fair, so full of witching wiles -


s: And all my heaven was compassed by her smiles.


s: Her soft touch on my cheek and forehead sent,


s: Like little arrows, thrills of tenderness


s: Through all my frame.  I trembled with excess


s: Of love, and sighed the sigh of great content.


s: Reaches a stern hand forth and deals a blow.


s: Sweet through the dusk I heard my lady's voice.


s: "My love!" she sighed, "my Carlos!" even now


s: I feel the perfumed zephyr of her breath


s: Bearing to me those words of living death,


s: And starting out the cold drops on my brow.


s: That, in the supreme hour of love's delight,


s: Veiled by the shadows of the falling night,


s: She should breathe low his name, forgetting me?


s: I will not ask her! 'twere a fruitless task,


s: For, woman-like, she would make me believe


s: Some well-told tale; and sigh, and seem to grieve,


s: And call me cruel.  Nay, I will not ask.


s: Since I know he has claimed some one or all


s: He must have knelt and kissed her, in some sad


s: And tender twilight, when the day grew dim.


s: Why, reveries like these have made men mad!


s: He must have felt her soft hand on his brow.


s: If Heaven were shocked at such presumptuous wrongs,


s: And plunged him in the grave, where he belongs,


s: STILL SHE REMEMBERS, though she loves me now.


s: And if he lives, and meets me to his cost,


s: Why, what avails it?  I must hear and see


s: That curst name "Carlos" always haunting me -


s: There sat two glasses filled to the brim,


s: Said the glass of wine to his paler brother,


s: "Let us tell tales of the past to each other;


s: I can tell of a banquet, and revel, and mirth,


s: For the proudest and grandest souls on earth


s: Fell under my touch, as though struck with blight.


s: From the heads of kings I have torn the crown;


s: From the heights of fame I have hurled men down.


s: I have tempted the youth with a sip, a taste,


s: That has made his future a barren waste.


s: And the shrieks of the lost were sweet to me.


s: Fame, strength, wealth, genius before me fall;


s: "Can you boast of deeds as great as mine?"


s: Of a king dethroned, or a murdered host,


s: By my crystal drops made bright and glad;


s: Of thirsts I have quenched, and brows I have laved;


s: Of hands I have cooled, and souls I have saved.


s: I have leapt through the valley, dashed down the mountain,


s: Slept in the sunshine, and dripped from the fountain.


s: I have burst my cloud-fetters, and dropped from the sky,


s: And everywhere gladdened the prospect and eye;


s: I have eased the hot forehead of fever and pain;


s: I have made the parched meadows grow fertile with grain.


s: I can tell of the powerful wheel of the mill,


s: That ground out the flour, and turned at my will.


s: These are the tales they told each other,


s: The glass of wine and its paler brother,


s: As they sat together, filled to the brim,


s: When was it that love died?  We were so fond,


s: With leaping pulses, and blood all aglow,


s: When we should dwell together as one heart,


s: And scarce could wait that happy time to come.


s: And feel ourselves a thousand miles apart.


s: How was it that love died?  I do not know.


s: From our dull skies; but did not see it go.


s: Why should love die?  We prized it, I am sure;


s: We thought of nothing else when it was ours;


s: We cherished it in smiling, sunlit bowers:


s: It was our all; why could it not endure?


s: This dear thing died.  We only know it went,


s: And left us dull, cold, and indifferent;


s: We who found heaven once in each other's sigh.


s: That half the lovers in the world, one day,


s: Look questioning in each other's eyes this way


s: Sometimes I cannot help but think, dear heart,


s: As I look out o'er all the wide, sad earth


s: And see love's flame gone out on many a hearth,


s: That those who would keep love must dwell apart.


s: Are quick to see all beauty and all worth;


s: And by his own discreet, well-ordered life,


s: Turns in on thine own soul, be most severe.


s: From that belittling censure that springs forth


s: From common lips like weeds from marshy soil.


s: Of hopes fulfilled, ambitions gratified.


s: The eager joy felt climbing up a mountain


s: Has left me now the highest point is gained.


s: The crystal spray that fell from Fame's fair fountain


s: Was sweeter than the waters were when drained.


s: The gilded apple which the world calls pleasure,


s: And which I purchased with my youth and strength,


s: Pleased me a moment.  But the empty treasure


s: Lost all its lustre, and grew dim at length.


s: And love, all glowing with a golden glory,


s: It pleased the longest, but at last the story,


s: So oft repeated, to my heart grew stale.


s: I lived for self, and all I asked was given,


s: I have had all, and now am sick of bliss,


s: Could strike me half so forcibly as this.


s: In all the joys my selfish aims have brought,


s: Since that would give me freedom from the thought


s: Oh, blest is he who has some aim defeated;


s: Some mighty loss to balance all his gain.


s: For him there is a hope not yet completed;


s: For him hath life yet draughts of joy and pain.


s: But cursed is he who has no balked ambition,


s: No hopeless hope, no loss beyond repair,


s: But sick and sated with complete fruition,


s: That, like a restless comrade, frightened sleep,


s: And every thought that found her left a dart


s: That hurt her so, she could not even weep.


s: Her heart that once had been a cup well filled


s: With love's red wine, save for some drops of gall,


s: She knew was empty; though it had not spilled


s: Its sweets for one, but wasted them on all.


s: She stood upon the grave of her dead truth,


s: And saw her soul's bright armour red with rust,


s: And knew that all the riches of her youth


s: Were Dead Sea apples, crumbling into dust.


s: Love that had turned to bitter, biting scorn,


s: Hearthstones despoiled, and homes made desolate,


s: To loathe her beauty and to curse her fate.


s: Dear love, if you and I could sail away,


s: With snowy pennons to the winds unfurled,


s: And find some island far from all the world;


s: If we could dwell there, ever more alone,


s: By aught save native song-birds of the place;


s: And Summer's lap spilled o'er with fruits and flowers,


s: And tropic trees cast shade on every hand,


s: And twined boughs formed sleep-inviting bowers;


s: If from the fashions of the world set free,


s: And hid away from all its jealous strife,


s: Ah! then, dear love, how sweet were wedded life.


s: But since we dwell here in the crowded way,


s: Where hurrying throngs rush by to seek for gold,


s: As soon as love's young honeymoon grows old;


s: Since fashion rules and nature yields to art,


s: 'Tis best to shut such dreams down in the heart


s: And go our ways alone, love, and forget.


s: I grieve to see thy sudden pained surprise;


s: Gaze not on me with such accusing eyes -


s: I loved thee fondly yesterday.  Till then


s: I knew that heart was filled with Love's sweet wine,


s: Pressed wholly for my drinking.  And my lip


s: Grew parched with thirsting for one nectared sip


s: Of what, denied me, seemed a draught divine.


s: Last evening, in the gloaming, that cup spilled


s: Its precious contents.  Even to the lees


s: Were offered to me, saying, "Drink of these!"


s: And, when I saw it empty, Love was killed.


s: To prove to me thou wert my abject slave.


s: Ah!  Love, hadst thou been wise enough to save


s: One little drop of that sweet wine--but one -


s: I still had loved thee, longing for it then.


s: But even the cup is mine.  I look within,


s: And find it holds not one last drop to win,


s: And cast it down.--Thou art as other men.


s: Love is enough.  Let us not ask for gold.


s: Wealth breeds false aims, and pride and selfishness;


s: Men gave no thought to princely homes and dress,


s: The gods who dwelt on fair Olympia's height


s: Lived only for dear love and love's delight.


s: Love is enough.  Why should we care for fame?


s: Far from the happy haunts of peace and rest.


s: Made beautiful by love's endearing grace!


s: Love is enough.  Why should we strive for power?


s: The poor world's homage pleases but an hour,


s: The grandest lives are ofttimes desolate;


s: Let me be loved, and let who will be great.


s: Love is enough.  Why should we ask for more?


s: What greater gift have gods vouchsafed to men?


s: What better boon of all their precious store


s: Than our fond hearts that love and love again?


s: Old love may die; new love is just as sweet;


s: And life is fair and all the world complete:


s: With the sun above and the green earth under?


s: With the sun and the skies and the birds above me,


s: With the winds to follow and say they loved me -


s: Somebody said in the street this morning,


s: As I opened my window to let in the light,


s: That the darkest day of the world was dawning;


s: But I looked, and the East was a gorgeous sight


s: But I and the bees and the birds--we doubt it,


s: And the reaper Death, with his shining sickle,


s: I told the thrush, and we laughed together -


s: And he said to me, as he plumed each feather,


s: "Well, people must croak, if they cannot sing!"


s: And silenced the voices of weak complaining


s: O world of light, and O world of beauty!


s: Where are there pleasures so sweet as thine?


s: And what heart sorrows?  O no, not mine!


s: To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be,


s: Whether for lustral rite or dire portent,


s: As Day or Night may rule; and let Time see


s: Its flowering crest impearled and orient.


s: The soul,--its converse, to what Power 'tis due:--


s: Whether for tribute to the august appeals


s: Of Life, or dower in Love's high retinue,


s: It serve; or, 'mid the dark wharf's cavernous breath,


s: In Charon's palm it pay the toll to Death.


s: I marked all kindred Powers the heart finds fair:--


s: Truth, with awed lips; and Hope, with eyes upcast;


s: And Fame, whose loud wings fan the ashen Past


s: To signal-fires, Oblivion's flight to scare;


s: And Youth, with still some single golden hair


s: Unto his shoulder clinging, since the last


s: Embrace wherein two sweet arms held him fast;


s: And Life, still wreathing flowers for Death to wear.


s: Love's throne was not with these; but far above


s: All passionate wind of welcome and farewell


s: He sat in breathless bowers they dream not of;


s: Though Truth foreknow Love's heart, and Hope foretell,


s: And Youth be dear, and Life be sweet to Love.


s: As when desire, long darkling, dawns, and first


s: The mother looks upon the new-born child,


s: Even so my Lady stood at gaze and smiled


s: When her soul knew at length the Love it nursed.


s: Born with her life, creature of poignant thirst


s: And exquisite hunger, at her heart Love lay


s: Quickening in darkness, till a voice that day


s: Cried on him, and the bonds of birth were burst.


s: Now, shielded in his wings, our faces yearn


s: Together, as his fullgrown feet now range


s: The grove, and his warm hands our couch prepare:


s: Till to his song our bodiless souls in turn


s: Be born his children, when Death's nuptial change


s: Leaves us for light the halo of his hair.


s: The body and blood of Love in sacrament;


s: Whom I have neared and felt thy breath to be


s: Who without speech hast owned him, and intent


s: Upon his will, thy life with mine hast blent,


s: And murmured o'er the cup, Remember me!--


s: O what from thee the grace, for me the prize,


s: And what to Love the glory,--when the whole


s: Of the deep stair thou tread'st to the dim shoal


s: And there dost work deliverance, as thine eyes


s: When in the light the spirits of mine eyes


s: The worship of that Love through thee made known?


s: Or when in the dusk hours, (we two alone,)


s: Close-kissed and eloquent of still replies


s: Thy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies,


s: O love, my love! if I no more should see


s: Thyself, nor on the earth the shadow of thee,


s: Nor image of thine eyes in any spring,--


s: How then should sound upon Life's darkening slope


s: The ground-whirl of the perished leaves of Hope,


s: By what word's power, the key of paths untrod,


s: Shall I the difficult deeps of Love explore,


s: Till parted waves of Song yield up the shore


s: Even as that sea which Israel crossed dry-shod?


s: Thee from myself, neither our love from God.


s: Yea, in God's name, and Love's, and thine, would I


s: Draw from one loving heart such evidence


s: As to all hearts all things shall signify;


s: Tender as dawn's first hill-fire, and intense


s: In Spring's birth-hour, of other Springs gone by.


s: What smouldering senses in death's sick delay


s: This soul of wedding-raiment worn to-day?


s: For lo! even now my lady's lips did play


s: With these my lips such consonant interlude


s: As laurelled Orpheus longed for when he wooed


s: The half-drawn hungering face with that last lay.


s: When breast to breast we clung, even I and she,--


s: A spirit when her spirit looked through me,--


s: A god when all our life-breath met to fan


s: Our life-blood, till love's emulous ardours ran,


s: At length their long kiss severed, with sweet smart:


s: And as the last slow sudden drops are shed


s: From sparkling eaves when all the storm has fled,


s: So singly flagged the pulses of each heart.


s: Their bosoms sundered, with the opening start


s: Of married flowers to either side outspread


s: From the knit stem; yet still their mouths, burnt red,


s: Fawned on each other where they lay apart.


s: Sleep sank them lower than the tide of dreams,


s: And their dreams watched them sink, and slid away.


s: Slowly their souls swam up again, through gleams


s: Of watered light and dull drowned waifs of day;


s: Till from some wonder of new woods and streams


s: He woke, and wondered more: for there she lay.


s: O all the spirits of love that wander by


s: Along the love-sown fallowfield of sleep


s: Calls to the deep; and no man sees but I.


s: The bliss so long afar, at length so nigh,


s: Rests there attained. Methinks proud Love must weep


s: When Fate's control doth from his harvest reap


s: The sacred hour for which the years did sigh.


s: First touched, the hand now warm around my neck


s: Taught memory long to mock desire: and lo!


s: Across my breast the abandoned hair doth flow,


s: Where one shorn tress long stirred the longing ache:


s: And next the heart that trembled for its sake


s: Lies the queen-heart in sovereign overthrow.


s: And gold-tipped darts he hath for painless play


s: And some that listen to his lure's soft tone


s: Do love to deem the silver praise their own;


s: Some prize his blindfold sight; and there be they


s: Who kissed his wings which brought him yesterday


s: And thank his wings to-day that he is flown.


s: Therefore Love's heart, my lady, hath for thee


s: His bower of unimagined flower and tree:


s: There kneels he now, and all-anhungered of


s: Thine eyes grey-lit in shadowing hair above,


s: One flame-winged brought a white-winged harp-player


s: Saying: 'Behold, this minstrel is unknown;


s: Only my strains are to Love's dear ones, dear.'


s: Then said I: 'Through thine hautboy's rapturous tone


s: Unto my lady still this harp makes moan,


s: And still she deems the cadence deep and clear.'


s: Then said my lady: 'Thou art Passion of Love,


s: And this Love's Worship: both he plights to me.


s: Thy mastering music walks the sunlit sea:


s: But where wan water trembles in the grove


s: And the wan moon is all the light thereof,


s: This harp still makes my name its voluntary.'


s: Under my hand to praise her name, and show


s: Even of her inner self the perfect whole:


s: That he who seeks her beauty's furthest goal,


s: Beyond the light that the sweet glances throw


s: And refluent wave of the sweet smile, may know


s: Lo! it is done. Above the long lithe throat


s: The mouth's mould testifies of voice and kiss,


s: Her face is made her shrine. Let all men note


s: That in all years (O Love, thy gift is this!)


s: They that would look on her must come to me.


s: Warmed by her hand and shadowed by her hair


s: As close she leaned and poured her heart through thee,


s: The smooth black stream that makes thy whiteness fair,--


s: Sweet fluttering sheet, even of her breath aware,--


s: That soul wherewith her lips and eyes agree


s: Like married music in Love's answering air.


s: Fain had I watched her when, at some fond thought,


s: Her bosom to the writing closelier press'd,


s: And her breast's secrets peered into her breast;


s: When, through eyes raised an instant, her soul sought


s: My soul, and from the sudden confluence caught


s: The words that made her love the loveliest.


s: Sweet twining hedgeflowers wind-stirred in no wise


s: On this June day; and hand that clings in hand:--


s: Still glades; and meeting faces scarcely fann'd:--


s: An osier-odoured stream that draws the skies


s: Deep to its heart; and mirrored eyes in eyes:--


s: Fresh hourly wonder o'er the Summer land


s: Of light and cloud; and two souls softly spann'd


s: With one o'erarching heaven of smiles and sighs:--


s: Even such their path, whose bodies lean unto


s: Each other's visible sweetness amorously,--


s: Whose passionate hearts lean by Love's high decree


s: Rests on the blue line of a foamless sea.


s: 'I love you, sweet: how can you ever learn


s: How much I love you?' 'You I love even so,


s: And so I learn it.' 'Sweet, you cannot know


s: How fair you are.' 'If fair enough to earn


s: Your love, so much is all my love's concern.'


s: 'My love grows hourly, sweet.' 'Mine too doth grow,


s: Yet love seemed full so many hours ago!'


s: Thus lovers speak, till kisses claim their turn.


s: Ah! happy they to whom such words as these


s: In youth have served for speech the whole day long,


s: Hour after hour, remote from the world's throng,


s: Work, contest, fame, all life's confederate pleas,--


s: What while Love breathed in sighs and silences


s: Through two blent souls one rapturous undersong.


s: On this sweet bank your head thrice sweet and dear


s: I lay, and spread your hair on either side,


s: And see the newborn wood flowers bashful-eyed


s: Look through the golden tresses here and there.


s: On these debateable* borders of the year


s: Spring's foot half falters; scarce she yet may know


s: The leafless blackthorn-blossom from the snow;


s: And through her bowers the wind's way still is clear.


s: But April's sun strikes down the glades to-day;


s: So shut your eyes upturned, and feel my kiss


s: Creep, as the Spring now thrills through every spray,


s: Up your warm throat to your warm lips: for this


s: Is even the hour of Love's sworn suitservice,


s: With whom cold hearts are counted castaway.


s: Where two were born of a first marriage-bed,


s: How still they own their gracious bond, though fed


s: And nursed on the forgotten breast and knee?--


s: How to their father's children they shall be


s: In act and thought of one goodwill; but each


s: Shall for the other have, in silence speech,


s: Even so, when first I saw you, seemed it, love,


s: O born with me somewhere that men forget,


s: And though in years of sight and sound unmet,


s: Known for my soul's birth-partner well enough!


s: Those envied places which do know her well,


s: And are so scornful of this lonely place,


s: Even now for once are emptied of her grace:


s: Nowhere but here she is: and while Love's spell


s: From his predominant presence doth compel


s: The hours of Love fill full the echoing space


s: With sweet confederate music favourable.


s: The delicate love-lines of her mouth, till, lit


s: With quivering fire, the words take wing from it;


s: Speaking of things remembered, and so sit


s: Speechless while things forgotten call to us.


s: What dawn-pulse at the heart of heaven, or last


s: What marshalled marvels on the skirts of May,


s: Or song full-quired, sweet June's encomiast;


s: What glory of change by nature's hand amass'd


s: Can vie with all those moods of varying grace


s: Which o'er one loveliest woman's form and face


s: Within this hour, within this room, have pass'd?


s: Was each fine movement,--wonder new-begot


s: Joy to his sight who now the sadlier sighs,


s: Unborn that read these words and saw her not.


s: Beauty like hers is genius. Not the call


s: Of Homer's or of Dante's heart sublime,--


s: Not Michael's hand furrowing the zones of time,--


s: Is more with compassed mysteries musical;


s: Nay, not in Spring's or Summer's sweet footfall


s: More gathered gifts exuberant Life bequeathes*


s: Than doth this sovereign face, whose love-spell breathes


s: Even from its shadowed contour on the wall.


s: But for one sweet-strung soul the wires prolong


s: Even through all change the indomitable song;


s: So in likewise the envenomed years, whose tooth


s: Rends shallower grace with ruin void of ruth,


s: Upon this beauty's power shall wreak no wrong.


s: Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,--


s: The finger-points look through the rosy blooms:


s: Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms


s: 'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.


s: All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,


s: Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge


s: Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.


s: 'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.


s: Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly


s: Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky:


s: So this wing'd hour is dropt to us from above.


s: Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,


s: This close-companioned inarticulate hour


s: When twofold silence was the song of love.


s: Even as the moon grows queenlier in mid-space


s: When the sky darkens, and her cloud-rapt car


s: Thrills with intenser radiance from afar,--


s: So lambent, lady, beams thy sovereign grace


s: When the drear soul desires thee. Of that face


s: What shall be said,--which, like a governing star,


s: Gathers and garners from all things that are


s: O'er water-daisies and wild waifs of Spring,


s: There where the iris rears its gold-crowned sheaf


s: With flowering rush and sceptred arrow-leaf,


s: So have I marked Queen Dian, in bright ring


s: Of cloud above and wave below, take wing


s: And chase night's gloom, as thou the spirit's grief.


s: Sweet dimness of her loosened hair's downfall


s: About thy face; her sweet hands round thy head


s: Her tremulous smiles, her glances' sweet recall


s: Her mouth's culled sweetness by thy kisses shed


s: On cheeks and neck and eyelids, and so led


s: Back to her mouth which answers there for all:--


s: What sweeter than these things, except the thing


s: In lacking which all these would lose their sweet:--


s: The confident heart's still fervour: the swift beat


s: And soft subsidence of the spirit's wing,


s: Then when it feels, in cloud--girt wayfaring,


s: The breath of kindred plumes against its feet?


s: Sometimes she is a child within mine arms,


s: Cowering beneath dark wings that love must chase,--


s: With still tears showering and averted face,


s: And oft from mine own spirit's hurtling harms


s: I crave the refuge of her deep embrace,--


s: Against all ills the fortified strong place


s: And sweet reserve of sovereign counter-charms.


s: And Love, our light at night and shade at noon,


s: Lulls us to rest with songs, and turns away


s: All shafts of shelterless tumultuous day.


s: Like the moon's growth, his face gleams through his tune;


s: Our answering spirits chime one roundelay.


s: I stood where Love in brimming armfuls bore


s: Slight wanton flowers and foolish toys of fruit:


s: And round him ladies thronged in warm pursuit,


s: Fingered and lipped and proffered the strange store:


s: And from one hand the petal and the core


s: Savoured of sleep; and cluster and curled shoot


s: Seemed from another hand like shame's salute,--


s: Gifts that I felt my cheek was blushing for.


s: At last Love bade my Lady give the same:


s: And as I looked, the dew was light thereon;


s: And as I took them, at her touch they shone


s: With inmost heaven-hue of the heart of flame.


s: And then Love said: 'Lo! when the hand is hers,


s: Follies of love are love's true ministers.'


s: The dead, but little in his heart can find,


s: Since without need of thought to his clear mind


s: Their turn it is to die and his to live:


s: Even so the winged New Love smiles to receive


s: Along his eddying plumes the auroral wind,


s: Nor, forward glorying, casts one look behind


s: Where night-rack shrouds the Old Love fugitive.


s: There is a change in every hour's recall,


s: And the last cowslip in the fields we see


s: On the same day with the first corn-poppy.


s: The loves that from his hand proud Youth lets fall,


s: That wings from far his gradual way along


s: The rustling covert of my soul,--his song


s: Still loudlier trilled through leaves more deeply stirr'd:


s: But at the hour of meeting, a clear word


s: Is every note he sings, in Love's own tongue;


s: Yet, Love, thou know'st the sweet strain wrong,


s: Through our contending kisses oft unheard.


s: What of that hour at last, when for her sake


s: No wing may fly to me nor song may flow;


s: When, wandering round my life unleaved, I


s: The bloodied feathers scattered in the brake,


s: And think how she, far from me, with like eyes


s: Sees through the untuneful bough the wingless skies?


s: Whose kiss seems still the first; whose summoning eyes,


s: Even now, as for our love-world's new sunrise,


s: Shed very dawn; whose voice, attuned above


s: All modulation of the deep-bowered dove,


s: Whose hand is like a sweet voice to control


s: Those worn tired brows it hath the keeping of:--


s: What word can answer to thy word,--what gaze


s: To thine, which now absorbs within its sphere


s: My worshipping face, till I am mirrored there


s: Light-circled in a heaven of deep-drawn rays?


s: What clasp, what kiss mine inmost heart can prove,


s: Sometimes thou seem'st not as thyself alone,


s: But as the meaning of all things that are;


s: A breathless wonder, shadowing forth afar


s: Some heavenly solstice hushed and halcyon;


s: Whose unstirred lips are music's visible tone;


s: Whose eyes the sun-gate of the soul unbar,


s: The evident heart of all life sown and mown.


s: Even such Love is; and is not thy name Love?


s: Yea, by thy hand the Love-god rends apart


s: All gathering clouds of Night's ambiguous art;


s: Flings them far down, and sets thine eyes above;


s: And simply, as some gage of flower or glove,


s: Stakes with a smile the world against thy heart.


s: What other woman could be loved like you,


s: Or how of you should love possess his fill?


s: After the fulness of all rapture, still,--


s: A tender glamour of day,--there comes to view


s: Far in your eyes a yet more hungering thrill,--


s: Such fire as Love's soul-winnowing hands distil


s: Even from his inmost arc of light and dew.


s: And as the traveller triumphs with the sun,


s: Glorying in heat's mid-height, yet startide brings


s: Wonder new-born, and still fresh transport springs


s: From limpid lambent hours of day begun;--


s: Even so, through eyes and voice, your soul doth move


s: My soul with changeful light of infinite love.


s: Glorying I gaze, and yield with glad goodwill


s: To thee thy tribute; by whose sweet-spun dress


s: My Lady's absolute queendom; saying, 'Lo!


s: How high this beauty is, which yet doth show


s: But as that beauty's sovereign votaress.'


s: Lady, I saw thee with her, side by side;


s: And as, when night's fair fires their queen surround,


s: An emulous star too near the moon will ride,--


s: Even so thy rays within her luminous bound


s: Were traced no more; and by the light so drown'd,


s: Love, through your spirit and mine what summer eve


s: Now glows with glory of all things possess'd,


s: Since this day's sun of rapture filled the west


s: And the light sweetened as the fire took leave?


s: Awhile now softlier let your bosom heave,


s: As in Love's harbour, even that loving breast,


s: All care takes refuge while we sink to rest,


s: And mutual dreams the bygone bliss retrieve.


s: Many the days that Winter keeps in store,


s: Sunless throughout, or whose brief sun-glimpses


s: Scarce shed the heaped snow through the naked trees.


s: This day at least was Summer's paramour,


s: With sweet well-being of love and full heart's ease.


s: High grace, the dower of queens; and therewithal


s: Some wood-born wonder's sweet simplicity;


s: A glance like water brimming with the sky


s: Or hyacinth-light where forest-shadows fall;


s: Such thrilling pallor of cheek as doth enthral


s: The heart; a mouth whose passionate forms imply


s: Deep golden locks, her sovereign coronal;


s: A round reared neck, meet column of Love's shrine


s: To cling to when the heart takes sanctuary;


s: Hands which for ever at Love's bidding be,


s: And soft-stirred feet still answering to his sign:--


s: These are her gifts, as tongue may tell them o'er.


s: Breathe low her name, my soul; for that means more.


s: Not by one measure mayst thou mete our love;


s: For how should I be loved as I love thee?--


s: I, graceless, joyless, lacking absolutely


s: All gifts that with thy queenship best behove;--


s: Thou, throned in every heart's elect alcove,


s: And crowned with garlands culled from every tree,


s: Which for no head but thine, by Love's decree,


s: All beauties and all mysteries interwove.


s: But here thine eyes and lips yield soft rebuke:--


s: 'Then only,' (say'st thou), 'could I love thee less,


s: When thou couldst doubt my love's equality.'


s: Peace, sweet! If not to sum but worth we look,


s: Thy heart's transcendence, not my heart's excess,


s: Then more a thousandfold thou lov'st than I.


s: Could Juno's self more sovereign presence wear


s: Than thou, 'mid other ladies throned in grace?--


s: Or Pallas, when thou bend'st with soul-stilled face


s: O'er poet's page gold-shadowed in thy hair?


s: Dost thou than Venus seem less heavenly fair


s: When o'er the sea of love's tumultuous trance


s: Hovers thy smile, and mingles with thy glance


s: That sweet voice like the last wave murmuring there?


s: Awestruck I ask, which goddess here most claims


s: The prize that, howsoe'er adjudged, is thine?


s: Then Love breathes low the sweetest of thy names;


s: And Venus Victrix to my heart doth bring


s: How should I reach so far, who cannot weigh


s: Shall birth and death, and all dark names that be


s: As doors and windows bared to some loud sea,


s: Lash deaf mine ears and blind my face with spray;


s: And shall my sense pierce love,--the last relay


s: One murmuring shell he gathers from the sand,--


s: One little heart-flame sheltered in his hand.


s: Yet through thine eyes he grants me clearest call


s: Sometimes I fain would find in thee some fault,


s: That I might love thee still in spite of it:


s: Yet how should our Lord Love curtail one whit


s: Thy perfect praise whom most he would exalt?


s: Alas! he can but make my heart's low vault


s: Even in men's sight unworthier, being lit


s: By thee, who thereby show'st more exquisite


s: Yet will I nowise shrink; but at Love's shrine


s: Myself within the beams his brow doth dart


s: In that dull chamber where it deigns to shine:


s: My heart takes pride to show how poor it is.


s: But in this lady's lips and hands and eyes;


s: Through these she yields the life that vivifies


s: What else were sorrow's servant and death's thrall.


s: The waste remembrance and forlorn surmise


s: That lived but in a dead-drawn breath of sighs


s: Even so much life hath the poor tress of hair


s: Which, stored apart, is all love hath to show


s: For heart-beats and for fire-heats long ago;


s: Even so much life endures unknown, even where,


s: 'Mid change the changeless night environeth,


s: Lies all that golden hair undimmed in death.


s: 'When that dead face, bowered in the furthest years,


s: Which once was all the life years held for thee,


s: Cast on thy soul a little spray of tears,--


s: How canst thou gaze into these eyes of hers


s: Whom now thy heart delights in, and not see


s: Within each orb Love's philtred euphrasy


s: Make them of buried troth remembrancers?'


s: 'Nay, pitiful Love, nay, loving Pity! Well


s: Thou knowest that in these twain I have confess'd


s: Nay, Master, shall not Death make manifest


s: In these the culminant changes which approve


s: The love-moon that must light my soul to Love?'


s: 'Thou Ghost,' I said, 'and is thy name To-day?--


s: Yesterday's son, with such an abject brow!--


s: And can To-morrow be more pale than thou?'


s: While yet I spoke, the silence answered: 'Yea,


s: Henceforth our issue is all grieved and grey,


s: And each beforehand makes such poor avow


s: As of old leaves beneath the budding bough


s: Or night-drift that the sundawn shreds away.'


s: But therewithal the tremulous silence said:


s: 'Lo! Love yet bids thy lady greet thee once:--


s: Yea, twice,--whereby thy life is still the sun's;


s: And thrice,--whereby the shadow of death is dead.'


s: Girt in dark growths, yet glimmering with one star,


s: O night desirous as the nights of youth!


s: Why should my heart within thy spell, forsooth,


s: Now beat, as the bride's finger-pulses are


s: Quickened within the girdling golden bar?


s: What wings are these that fan my pillow smooth?


s: And why does Sleep, waved back by Joy and Ruth,


s: Tread softly round and gaze at me from far?


s: Nay, night deep-leaved! And would Love feign in thee


s: Some shadowy palpitating grove that bears


s: Rest for man's eyes and music for his ears?


s: O lonely night! art thou not known to me,


s: And watered with the wasteful warmth of tears?


s: Which, brought together, would find loving voice;


s: Two glances which together would rejoice


s: In love, now lost like stars beyond dark trees;


s: Two hands apart whose touch alone gives ease;


s: Two bosoms which, heart-shrined with mutual flame,


s: Would, meeting in one clasp, be made the same;


s: Two souls, the shores wave-mocked of sundering seas:--


s: Such are we now. Ah! may our hope forecast


s: Indeed one hour again, when on this stream


s: Of darkened love once more the light shall gleam?


s: An hour how slow to come, how quickly past,


s: Which blooms and fades, and only leaves at last,


s: Faint as shed flowers, the attenuated dream.


s: Like labour-laden moonclouds faint to flee


s: From winds that sweep the winter-bitten wold,--


s: Of night's flood-tide,--like terrors that agree


s: Of hoarse-tongued fire and inarticulate sea,--


s: Even such, within some glass dimmed by our breath,


s: Our hearts discern wild images of Death,


s: Howbeit athwart Death's imminent shade doth soar


s: One Power, than flow of stream or flight of dove


s: Sweeter to glide around, to brood above.


s: Tell me, my heart;--what angel-greeted door


s: Or threshold of wing-winnowed threshing-floor


s: Hath guest fire-fledged as thine, whose lord is Love?


s: I deemed thy garments, O my Hope, were grey,


s: So far I viewed thee. Now the space between


s: Is passed at length; and garmented in green


s: Even as in days of yore thou stand'st to-day.


s: Ah God! and but for lingering dull dismay,


s: On all that road our footsteps erst had been


s: Even thus commingled, and our shadows seen


s: Blent on the hedgerows and the water-way.


s: O Hope of mine whose eyes are living love,


s: No eyes but hers,--O Love and Hope the same!--


s: Lean close to me, for now the sinking sun


s: That warmed our feet scarce gilds our hair above.


s: O hers thy voice and very hers thy name!


s: Alas, cling round me, for the day is done!


s: Bless love and hope. Full many a withered year


s: Whirled past us, eddying to its chill doomsday;


s: And clasped together where the blown leaves lay,


s: We long have knelt and wept full many a tear.


s: Yet lo! one hour at last, the Spring's compeer,


s: Flutes softly to us from some green byeway:*


s: Those years, those tears are dead, but only they:--


s: Bless love and hope, true soul; for we are here.


s: Cling heart to heart; nor of this hour demand


s: Whether in very truth, when we are dead,


s: Our hearts shall wake to know Love's golden head


s: Or but discern, through night's unfeatured scope,


s: Scorn-fired at length the illusive eyes of Hope.


s: Love, should I fear death most for you or me?


s: Forcing the straits of change? Alas! but who


s: Shall wrest a bond from night's inveteracy,


s: Ere yet my hazardous soul put forth, to be


s: Her warrant against all her haste might rue?--


s: And if I die the first, shall death be then


s: A lampless watchtower whence I see you weep?--


s: Ne'er notes (as death's dear cup at last you drain),


s: The hour when you too learn that all is vain


s: And that Hope sows what Love shall never reap?


s: Because our talk was of the cloud-control


s: And moon-track of the journeying face of Fate,


s: Her tremulous kisses faltered at love's gate


s: And her eyes dreamed against a distant goal:


s: But soon, remembering her how brief the whole


s: Her set gaze gathered, thirstier than of late,


s: And as she kissed, her mouth became her soul.


s: Thence in what ways we wandered, and how strove


s: To build with fire-tried vows the piteous home


s: Which memory haunts and whither sleep may roam,--


s: They only know for whom the roof of Love


s: Is the still-seated secret of the grove,


s: Nor spire may rise nor bell be heard therefrom.


s: What shall be said of this embattled day


s: By all thy foes beleaguered,--now when sight


s: Nor sound denotes the loved one far away?


s: Of these thy vanquished hours what shalt thou say,--


s: As every sense to which she dealt delight


s: Now labours lonely o'er the stark noon-height


s: To reach the sunset's desolate disarray?


s: Stand still, fond fettered wretch! while Memory's art


s: Parades the Past before thy face, and lures


s: Thy spirit to her passionate portraitures:


s: Till the tempestuous tide-gates flung apart


s: Flood with wild will the hollows of thy heart,


s: And thy heart rends thee, and thy body endures.


s: The mother will not turn, who thinks she hears


s: Her nursling's speech first grow articulate;


s: That it may call her twice. 'Mid doubts and fears


s: Thus oft my soul has hearkened; till the song,


s: A central moan for days, at length found tongue,


s: And the sweet music welled and the sweet tears.


s: But now, whatever while the soul is fain


s: The speech-bound sea-shell's low importunate strain,--


s: No breath of song, thy voice alone is there,


s: That had Love's wings and bore his gonfalon:


s: Fair was the web, and nobly wrought thereon,


s: O soul-sequestered face, thy form and hue!


s: Bewildering sounds, such as Spring wakens to,


s: Shook in its folds; and through my heart its power


s: When birth's dark portal groaned and all was new.


s: But a veiled woman followed, and she caught


s: The banner round its staff, to furl and cling,--


s: Then plucked a feather from the bearer's wing,


s: And held it to his lips that stirred it not,


s: And said to me, 'Behold, there is no breath:


s: I and this Love are one, and I am Death.'


s: But touched his lute wherein was audible


s: The certain secret thing he had to tell:


s: In the low wave; and that sound came to be


s: The passionate voice I knew; and my tears fell.


s: And at their fall, his eyes beneath grew hers;


s: And with his foot and with his wing-feathers


s: He swept the spring that watered my heart's drouth.


s: Then the dark ripples spread to waving hair,


s: And as I stooped, her own lips rising there


s: Bubbled with brimming kisses at my mouth.


s: And now Love sang: but his was such a song,


s: So meshed with half-remembrance hard to free,


s: May sing when the new birthday tarries long.


s: That stood aloof, one form by every tree,


s: All mournful forms, for each was I or she,


s: The shades of those our days that had no tongue.


s: They looked on us, and knew us and were known;


s: While fast together, alive from the abyss,


s: Clung the soul-wrung implacable close kiss;


s: And pity of self through all made broken moan


s: Which said, 'For once, for once, for once alone!'


s: And still Love sang, and what he sang was this:--


s: That walk with hollow faces burning white;


s: What fathom-depth of soul-struck widowhood,


s: What long, what longer hours, one lifelong night,


s: Your last hope lost, who so in vain invite


s: Your lips to that their unforgotten food,


s: Ere ye, ere ye again shall see the light!


s: With tear-spurge wan, with blood-wort burning red:


s: Steep deep the soul in sleep till she were dead,--


s: Better all life forget her than this thing,


s: That Willowwood should hold her wandering!'


s: So sang he: and as meeting rose and rose


s: Together cling through the wind's wellaway


s: Nor change at once, yet near the end of day


s: The leaves drop loosened where the heart-stain glows,--


s: So when the song died did the kiss unclose;


s: And her face fell back drowned, and was as grey


s: Meet mine again I know not if Love knows.


s: A long draught from the water where she sank,


s: Her breath and all her tears and all her soul:


s: And as I leaned, I know I felt Love's face


s: Pressed on my neck with moan of pity and grace,


s: Till both our heads were in his aureole.


s: What of her glass without her? The blank grey


s: There where the pool is blind of the moon's face.


s: Her dress without her? The tossed empty space


s: Of cloud-rack whence the moon has passed away.


s: Her paths without her? Day's appointed sway


s: Usurped by desolate night. Her pillowed place


s: Without her? Tears, ah me! for love's good grace,


s: What of the heart without her? Nay, poor heart,


s: Of thee what word remains ere speech be still?


s: Steep ways and weary, without her thou art,


s: Where the long cloud, the long wood's counterpart,


s: Sheds doubled darkness up the labouring hill.


s: Sweet Love,--but oh! most dread Desire of Love


s: Life-thwarted. Linked in gyves I saw them stand,


s: Love shackled with Vain-longing, hand to hand:


s: And one was eyed as the blue vault above:


s: But hope tempestuous like a fire-cloud hove


s: I' the other's gaze, even as in his whose wand


s: Vainly all night with spell-wrought power has spann'd


s: The unyielding caves of some deep treasure-trove.


s: Also his lips, two writhen flakes of flame,


s: Made moan: 'Alas O Love, thus leashed with me!


s: Wing-footed thou, wing-shouldered, once born free:


s: And I, thy cowering self, in chains grown tame,


s: Bound to thy body and soul, named with thy name,


s: Life's iron heart, even Love's Fatality.'


s: The hour which might have been yet might not be,


s: Which man's and woman's heart conceived and bore


s: Yet whereof life was barren,--on what shore


s: Bides it the breaking of Time's weary sea?


s: Bondchild of all consummate joys set free,


s: It somewhere sighs and serves, and mute before


s: The house of Love, hears through the echoing door


s: But lo! what wedded souls now hand in hand


s: Together tread at last the immortal strand


s: With eyes where burning memory lights love home?


s: Lo! how the little outcast hour has turned


s: And leaped to them and in their faces yearned:--


s: 'I am your child: O parents, ye have come!'


s: To be a sweetness more desired than Spring;


s: Than the wild rose-tree's arch that crowns the fell;


s: Than wine's drained juice; a music ravishing


s: More than the passionate pulse of Philomel;--


s: To be all this 'neath one soft bosom's swell


s: That is the flower of life:--how strange a thing!


s: How strange a thing to be what Man can know


s: But as a sacred secret! Heaven's own screen


s: Hides her soul's purest depth and loveliest glow;


s: Closely withheld, as all things most unseen,--


s: The wave-bowered pearl, the heart-shaped seal of green


s: That flecks the snowdrop underneath the snow.


s: She loves him; for her infinite soul is Love,


s: A glass facing his fire, where the bright bliss


s: Is mirrored, and the heat returned. Yet move


s: That glass, a stranger's amorous flame to prove,


s: And it shall turn, by instant contraries,


s: Ice to the moon; while her pure fire to his


s: For whom it burns, clings close i' the heart's alcove.


s: Lo! they are one. With wifely breast to breast


s: And circling arms, she welcomes all command


s: Of love,--her soul to answering ardours fann'd:


s: Yet as morn springs or twilight sinks to rest,


s: Ah! who shall say she deems not loveliest


s: The hour of sisterly sweet hand-in-hand?


s: If to grow old in Heaven is to grow young,


s: (As the Seer saw and said,) then blest were he


s: With youth forevermore, whose heaven should be


s: True Woman, she whom these weak notes have sung.


s: Here and hereafter,--choir-strains of her tongue,--


s: Sky-spaces of her eyes,--sweet signs that flee


s: Were Paradise all uttermost worlds among.


s: The sunrise blooms and withers on the hill


s: Like any hillflower; and the noblest troth


s: Dies here to dust. Yet shall Heaven's promise clothe


s: Even yet those lovers who have cherished still


s: This test for love:--in every kiss sealed fast


s: To feel the first kiss and forebode the last.


s: Love to his singer held a glistening leaf,


s: And said: 'The rose-tree and the apple-tree


s: Have fruits to vaunt or flowers to lure the bee;


s: And golden shafts are in the feathered sheaf


s: Of the great harvest-marshal, the year's chief,


s: Victorious Summer; aye, and 'neath warm sea


s: Between the filtering channels of sunk reef.


s: All are my blooms; and all sweet blooms of love


s: To thee I gave while Spring and Summer sang;


s: But Autumn stops to listen, with some pang


s: From those worse things the wind is moaning of.


s: Take my last gift; thy heart hath sung my praise.'


s: In a child's features will recall to mind


s: The father's with the mother's face combin'd,--


s: Sweet interchange that memories still enhance:


s: And yet, as childhood's years and youth's advance,


s: The gradual mouldings leave one stamp behind,


s: Till in the blended likeness now we find


s: A separate man's or woman's countenance:--


s: So in the Song, the singer's Joy and Pain,


s: To bid the passion's fullgrown birth remain,


s: By Art's transfiguring essence subtly spann'd;


s: And from that song-cloud shaped as a man's hand


s: There comes the sound as of abundant rain.


s: By thine own tears thy song must tears beget,


s: Except thy manifest heart; and save thine own


s: Cisterned in Pride, verse is the feathery jet


s: Of soulless air-flung fountains; nay, more dry


s: Than the Dead Sea for throats that thirst and sigh,


s: That song o'er which no singer's lids grew wet.


s: The Song-god--He the Sun-god--is no slave


s: Of thine: thy Hunter he, who for thy soul


s: Of thy skilled hand his quivered store he gave:


s: But if thy lips' loud cry leap to his smart,


s: The inspir'd recoil shall pierce thy brother's heart.


s: Come prisoned moon in steep cloud-fastnesses,--


s: Throned queen and thralled; some dying sun whose pyre


s: Who hath not yearned and fed his heart with these?


s: Who, sleepless, hath not anguished to appease


s: Tragical shadow's realm of sound and sight


s: Lo! the soul's sphere of infinite images!


s: What sense shall count them? Whether it forecast


s: The rose-winged hours that flutter in the van


s: Of Love's unquestioning unreveale'd span,--


s: That clangs and flashes for a drowning man.


s: The changing guests, each in a different mood,


s: Is a soul's board set daily with new food.


s: What man has bent o'er his son's sleep, to brood


s: How that face shall watch his when cold it lies?--


s: Or thought, as his own mother kissed his eyes,


s: Of what her kiss was when his father wooed?


s: May not this ancient room thou sit'st in dwell


s: In separate living souls for joy or pain?


s: Nay, all its corners may be painted plain


s: Where Heaven shows pictures of some life spent well;


s: And may be stamped, a memory all in vain,


s: The cuckoo-throb, the heartbeat of the Spring;


s: The rosebud's blush that leaves it as it grows


s: Into the full-eyed fair unblushing rose;


s: With fires of sunrise and of sunsetting;


s: The furtive flickering streams to light re-born


s: 'Mid airs new-fledged and valorous lusts of morn,


s: While all the daughters of the daybreak sing:--


s: These ardour loves, and memory: and when flown


s: All joys, and through dark forest-boughs in flight


s: The wind swoops onward brandishing the light,


s: Even yet the rose-tree's verdure left alone


s: Will flush all ruddy though the rose be gone;


s: As two whose love, first foolish, widening scope,


s: Knows suddenly, with music high and soft,


s: The Holy of holies; who because they scoff'd


s: Are now amazed with shame, nor dare to cope


s: With the whole truth aloud, lest heaven should ope;


s: Yet, at their meetings, laugh not as they


s: In speech; nor speak, at length; but sitting oft


s: When Work and Will awake too late, to gaze


s: After their life sailed by, and hold their breath.


s: Ah! who shall dare to search through what sad maze


s: From child to youth; from youth to arduous man;


s: From faithful life to dream-dowered days apart;


s: From trust to doubt; from doubt to brink of ban;--


s: Thus much of change in one swift cycle ran


s: Till now. Alas, the soul!--how soon must she


s: The flesh resume its dust whence it began?


s: O Lord of work and peace! O Lord of life!


s: O Lord, the awful Lord of will! though late,


s: Even yet renew this soul with duteous breath:


s: That when the peace is garnered in from strife,


s: The work retrieved, the will regenerate,


s: This soul may see thy face, O Lord of death!


s: Was _that_ the landmark? What,--the foolish well


s: Whose wave, low down, I did not stoop to drink,


s: But sat and flung the pebbles from its brink


s: In sport to send its imaged skies pell-mell,


s: Was that my point of turning?--I had thought


s: The stations of my course should rise unsought,


s: But lo! the path is missed, I must go back,


s: And thirst to drink when next I reach the spring


s: Which once I stained, which since may have grown black.


s: Yet though no light be left nor bird now sing


s: As here I turn, I'll thank God, hastening,


s: That the same goal is still on the same track.


s: The gloom that breathes upon me with these airs


s: Is like the drops which strike the traveller's brow


s: Who knows not, darkling, if they bring him now


s: Fresh storm, or be old rain the covert bears.


s: Ah! bodes this hour some harvest of new tares,


s: Or hath but memory of the day whose plough


s: Sowed hunger once,--the night at length when thou,


s: O prayer found vain, didst fall from out my prayers?


s: How prickly were the growths which yet how smooth,


s: Along the hedgerows of this journey shed,


s: Lie by Time's grace till night and sleep may soothe!


s: Even as the thistledown from pathsides dead


s: Gleaned by a girl in autumns of her youth,


s: Which one new year makes soft her marriage-bed.


s: This sunlight shames November where he grieves


s: In dead red leaves, and will not let him shun


s: The day, though bough with bough be over-run.


s: But with a blessing every glade receives


s: High salutation; while from hillock-eaves


s: The deer gaze calling, dappled white and dun,


s: Had marked them with the shade of forest-leaves.


s: Here dawn to-day unveiled her magic glass;


s: Here noon now gives the thirst and takes the dew;


s: Till eve bring rest when other good things pass.


s: And here the lost hours the lost hours renew


s: While I still lead my shadow o'er the grass,


s: Nor know, for longing, that which I should do.


s: This feast-day of the sun, his altar there


s: In the broad west has blazed for vesper-song;


s: And I have loitered in the vale too long


s: Transfigured where the fringed horizon falls,--


s: And now that I have climbed and won this height,


s: I must tread downward through the sloping shade


s: And travel the bewildered tracks till night.


s: Yet for this hour I still may here be stayed


s: And see the gold air and the silver fade


s: And the last bird fly into the last light.


s: Eat thou and drink; to-morrow thou shalt die.


s: Surely the earth, that's wise being very old,


s: Needs not our help. Then loose me, love, and hold


s: May pour for thee this yellow wine, brim-high,


s: Till round the glass thy fingers glow like gold.


s: We'll drown all hours: thy song, while hours toil'd,


s: Shall leap, as fountains veil the changing sky.


s: Now kiss, and think that there are really those,


s: My own high-bosomed beauty, who increase


s: Vain gold, vain lore, and yet might choose our way


s: Through many days they toil; then comes a day


s: They die not,--never having lived,--but cease;


s: And round their narrow lips the mould falls close.


s: Watch thou and fear; to-morrow thou shalt die.


s: Or art thou sure thou shalt have time for death?


s: Is not the day which God's word promiseth


s: To come man knows not when? In yonder sky,


s: Now while we speak, the sun speeds forth: can I


s: Or thou assure him of his goal? God's breath


s: The air to a flame; till spirits, always nigh


s: Though screened and hid, shall walk the daylight here.


s: And dost thou prate of all that man shall do?


s: Canst thou, who hast but plagues, presume to be


s: Glad in his gladness that comes after thee?


s: Will _his_ strength slay _thy_ worm in Hell? Go to:


s: Cover thy countenance, and watch, and fear.


s: Think thou and act; to-morrow thou shalt die.


s: Outstretched in the sun's warmth upon the shore,


s: Thou say'st: 'Man's measured path is all gone o'er:


s: Up all his years, steeply, with strain and sigh,


s: Man clomb* until he touched the truth; and I,


s: Even I, am he whom it was destined for.'


s: How should this be? Art thou then so much more


s: Than they who sowed, that thou shouldst reap thereby?


s: Nay, come up hither. From this wave-washed mound


s: Unto the furthest flood-brim look with me;


s: Then reach on with thy thought till it be drown'd.


s: Miles and miles distant though the grey line be,


s: And though thy soul sail leagues and leagues beyond,--


s: Still, leagues beyond those leagues there is more sea.


s: Who first taught Art to fold her hands and pray.


s: Scarcely at once she dared to rend the mist


s: Of devious symbols: but soon having wist


s: How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day


s: She looked through these to God and was God's priest.


s: And if, past noon, her toil began to irk,


s: And she sought talismans, and turned in vain


s: To soulless self-reflections of man's skill,


s: Yet now, in this the twilight, she might still


s: Kneel in the latter grass to pray again,


s: Ere the night cometh and she may not work.


s: In youth's pride, and the painter, among men


s: At bay, where never pencil comes nor pen,


s: And shut about with his own frozen breath.


s: To others, for whom only rhyme wins faith


s: As poets,--only paint as painters,--then


s: Shrinking, 'I am not as these are,' he saith.


s: And say that this is so, what follows it?


s: For were thine eyes set backwards in thine head,


s: Such words were well; but they see on, and far.


s: Unto the lights of the great Past, new-lit


s: Fair for the Future's track, look thou instead,--


s: Say thou instead 'I am not as _these_ are.'


s: Though God, as one that is an householder,


s: Called these to labour in his vine-yard first,


s: Before the husk of darkness was well burst


s: Bidding them grope their way out and bestir,


s: (Who, questioned of their wages, answered, 'Sir,


s: Unto each man a penny:') though the worst


s: Burthen of heat was theirs and the dry thirst:


s: Though God hath since found none such as these were


s: To do their work like them:--Because of this


s: Which of ye knoweth _he_ is not that last


s: Who may be first by faith and will?--yea, his


s: And hours shall give a Future to their Past?


s: Under the arch of Life, where love and death,


s: Terror and mystery, guard her shrine, I saw


s: Beauty enthroned; and though her gaze struck awe,


s: Hers are the eyes which, over and beneath,


s: The sky and sea bend on thee,--which can draw,


s: The allotted bondman of her palm and wreath.


s: This is that Lady Beauty, in whose praise


s: Thy voice and hand shake still,--long known to thee


s: By flying hair and fluttering hem,--the beat


s: Following her daily of thy heart and feet,


s: In what fond flight, how many ways and days!


s: Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told


s: (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)


s: That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,


s: And her enchanted hair was the first gold.


s: And still she sits, young while the earth is old,


s: Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,


s: Till heart and body and life are in its hold.


s: The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where


s: Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent


s: And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?


s: Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went


s: Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent


s: And round his heart one strangling golden hair.


s: Is it this sky's vast vault or ocean's sound


s: That is Life's self and draws my life from me,


s: Holds my breath quailing on the bitter bound?


s: Nay, is it Life or Death, thus thunder-crown'd,


s: Now notes my separate wave, and to what sea


s: Its difficult eddies labour in the ground?


s: Oh! what is this that knows the road I came,


s: The flame turned cloud, the cloud returned to flame,


s: The lifted shifted steeps and all the way?--


s: That draws round me at last this wind-warm space,


s: As the child knows not if his mother's face


s: What each most is; but as of hill or stream


s: At dawn, all glimmering life surrounds his place:


s: Who yet, tow'rd noon of his half-weary race,


s: Pausing awhile beneath the high sun-beam


s: And gazing steadily back,--as through a dream,


s: In things long past new features now can trace:--


s: Even so the thought that is at length fullgrown


s: Turns back to note the sun-smit paths, all grey


s: And marvellous once, where first it walked alone;


s: And haply doubts, amid the unblenching day,


s: Which most or least impelled its onward way,--


s: Those unknown things or these things overknown.


s: What place so strange,--though unrevealed snow


s: At the earth's end,--what passion of surprise


s: Like frost-bound fire-girt scenes of long ago?


s: Lo! this is none but I this hour; and lo!


s: This is the very place which to mine eyes


s: 'Mid hurrying crowds, with what alone I know.


s: Even with one presence filled, as once of yore


s: Or mocking winds whirl round a chaff-strown floor


s: Thee and thy years and these my words and me.


s: I said: 'Nay, pluck not,--let the first fruit be:


s: Even as thou sayest, it is sweet and red,


s: But let it ripen still. The tree's bent head


s: And bides the day of fulness. Shall not we


s: At the sun's hour that day possess the shade,


s: And claim our fruit before its ripeness fade,


s: And eat it from the branch and praise the tree?'


s: I say: 'Alas! our fruit hath wooed the sun


s: Too long,--'tis fallen and floats adown the stream.


s: Lo, the last clusters! Pluck them every one,


s: And let us sup with summer; ere the gleam


s: Of autumn set the year's pent sorrow free,


s: And the woods wail like echoes from the sea.'


s: So now the changed year's turning wheel returns


s: And as a girl sails balanced in the wind,


s: Stoops as it swoops, with cheek that laughs and burns,--


s: So Spring comes merry towards me now, but earns


s: No answering smile from me, whose life is twin'd


s: With the dead boughs that winter still must bind,


s: And whom to-day the Spring no more concerns.


s: Behold, this crocus is a withering flame;


s: This snowdrop, snow; this apple-blossom's part


s: To breed the fruit that breeds the serpent's art.


s: Nay, for these Spring-flowers, turn thy face from them,


s: Nor gaze till on the year's last lily-stem


s: The white cup shrivels round the golden heart.


s: Sweet stream-fed glen, why say 'farewell' to thee


s: Who far'st so well and find'st for ever smooth


s: The brow of Time where man may read no ruth?


s: Nay, do thou rather say 'farewell' to me,


s: Than erst was mine where other shade might soothe


s: By other streams, what while in fragrant youth


s: And yet, farewell! For better shalt thou fare


s: When children bathe sweet faces in thy flow


s: And happy lovers blend sweet shadows there


s: Thine echoes had but one man's sighs to bear


s: And thy trees whispered what he feared to know.


s: What is the sorriest thing that enters Hell?


s: None of the sins,--but this and that fair deed


s: Which a soul's sin at length could supersede.


s: These yet are virgins, whom death's timely knell


s: Might once have sainted; whom the fiends compel


s: Together now, in snake-bound shuddering sheaves


s: Of anguish, while the scorching bridegroom leaves


s: Night sucks them down, the garbage of the pit,


s: Whose names, half entered in the book of Life,


s: Were God's desire at noon. And as their hair


s: And eyes sink last, the Torturer deigns no whit


s: To gaze, but, yearning, waits his worthier wife,


s: The Sin still blithe on earth that sent them there.


s: What were they, could I see them on the street


s: Lie as they fell? Would they be ears of wheat


s: Sown once for food but trodden into clay?


s: Or golden coins squandered and still to pay?


s: Or drops of blood dabbling the guilty feet?


s: Or such spilt water as in dreams must cheat


s: The throats of men in Hell, who thirst alway?


s: Each one a murdered self, with low last breath.


s: 'I am thyself,--what hast thou done to me?'


s: 'And I--and I--thyself,' (lo! each one saith,)


s: When first that horse, within whose populous womb


s: The birth was death, o'ershadowed Troy with fate,


s: Her elders, dubious of its Grecian freight,


s: Brought Helen there to sing the songs of home:


s: She whispered, 'Friends, I am alone; come, come!'


s: Then, crouched within, Ulysses waxed afraid,


s: And on his comrades' quivering mouths he laid


s: The same was he who, lashed to his own mast,


s: There where the sea-flowers screen the charnel-caves,


s: Beside the sirens' singing island pass'd,


s: Till sweetness failed along the inveterate waves...


s: Say, soul,--are songs of Death no heaven to thee,


s: Nor shames her lip the cheek of Victory?


s: That lamp thou fill'st in Eros name to-night,


s: To-morrow, and for drowned Leander's sake


s: To Anteros its fireless lip shall plight.


s: Aye, waft the unspoken vow: yet dawn's first light


s: On ebbing storm and life twice ebb'd must break;


s: While 'neath no sunrise, by the Avernian Lake,


s: Lo where Love walks, Death's pallid neophyte.


s: That lamp within Anteros' shadowy shrine


s: Shall stand unlit (for so the gods decree)


s: Of a life's love, and bid its flame to shine:


s: Which still may rest unfir'd; for, theirs or thine,


s: O brother, what brought love to them or thee?


s: Ye who have passed Death's haggard hills; and ye


s: Whom trees that knew your sires shall cease to know


s: And still stand silent:--is it all a show,


s: A wisp that laughs upon the wall?--decree


s: Which ever, as man strains his blind surmise


s: From depth to ominous depth, looks past his eyes,


s: Nay, rather question the Earth's self. Invoke


s: The storm-felled forest-trees moss-grown to-day


s: Whose roots are hillocks where the children play;


s: Or ask the silver sapling 'neath what yoke


s: Those stars, his spray-crown's clustering gems, shall wage


s: Their journey still when his boughs shrink with age.


s: Get thee behind me. Even as, heavy-curled,


s: Is snatched from out his chariot by the hair,


s: So shall Time be; and as the void car, hurled


s: Abroad by reinless steeds, even so the world:


s: It shall be sought and not found anywhere.


s: Get thee behind me, Satan. Oft unfurled,


s: Thy perilous wings can beat and break like lath


s: Much mightiness of men to win thee praise.


s: Leave these weak feet to tread in narrow ways.


s: Thou still, upon the broad vine-sheltered path,


s: Mayst wait the turning of the phials of wrath


s: For certain years, for certain months and days.


s: As when two men have loved a woman well,


s: Each hating each, through Love's and Death's deceit;


s: Since not for either this stark marriage-sheet


s: And the long pauses of this wedding bell;


s: Yet o'er her grave the night and day dispel


s: At last their feud forlorn, with cold and heat;


s: Nor other than dear friends to death may fleet


s: The two lives left that most of her can tell:--


s: So separate hopes, which in a soul had wooed


s: The one same Peace, strove with each other long,


s: And Peace before their faces perished since:


s: So through that soul, in restless brotherhood,


s: Its bye-streets, knocking at the dusty inns.


s: Beholding youth and hope in mockery caught


s: From life; and mocking pulses that remain


s: When the soul's death of bodily death is fain;


s: Honour unknown, and honour known unsought;


s: And penury's sedulous self-torturing thought


s: On gold, whose master therewith buys his bane;


s: And longed-for woman longing all in vain


s: For lonely man with love's desire distraught;


s: And wealth, and strength, and power, and pleasantness,


s: Given unto bodies of whose souls men say,


s: None poor and weak, slavish and foul, as they:--


s: Beholding these things, I behold no less


s: The blushing morn and blushing eve confess


s: The shame that loads the intolerable day.


s: As some true chief of men, bowed down with stress


s: Of life's disastrous eld, on blossoming youth


s: May gaze, and murmur with self-pity and ruth,


s: 'Might I thy fruitless treasure but possess,


s: Such blessing of mine all coming years should bless;'--


s: Then sends one sigh forth to the unknown goal,


s: And bitterly feels breathe against his soul


s: The hour swift-winged of nearer nothingness:--


s: Even so the World's grey Soul to the green World


s: Perchance one hour must cry: 'Woe's me, for whom


s: Whose heart's old fire in shadow of shame is furl'd:


s: While thou even as of yore art journeying,


s: All soulless now, yet merry with the Spring!'


s: Great Michelangelo, with age grown bleak


s: And uttermost labours, having once o'ersaid


s: All grievous memories on his long life shed,


s: This worst regret to one true heart could speak:--


s: That when, with sorrowing love and reverence meek,


s: He stooped o'er sweet Colonna's dying bed,


s: Her hand he kissed, but not her brow or cheek.


s: O Buonarruoti,--good at Art's fire-wheels


s: To urge her chariot!--even thus the Soul,


s: Touching at length some sorely-chastened goal,


s: Earns oftenest but a little: her appeals


s: Were deep and mute,--lowly her claim. Let be:


s: What holds for her Death's garner? And for thee?


s: Around the vase of Life at your slow pace


s: He has not crept, but turned it with his hands,


s: There, girt, one breathes alert for some great race;


s: Whose road runs far by sands and fruitful space;


s: Who laughs, yet through the jolly throng has pass'd;


s: Who weeps, nor stays for weeping; who at last,


s: A youth, stands somewhere crowned, with silent face.


s: And he has filled this vase with wine for blood,


s: With blood for tears, with spice for burning vow,


s: With watered flowers for buried love most fit;


s: And would have cast it shattered to the flood,


s: Yet in Fate's name has kept it whole; which now


s: As thy friend's face, with shadow of soul o'erspread,


s: Somewhile unto thy sight perchance hath been


s: Ghastly and strange, yet never so is seen


s: In thought, but to all fortunate favour wed;


s: As thy love's death-bound features never dead


s: To memory's glass return, but contravene


s: Frail fugitive days, and always keep, I ween


s: Than all new life a livelier lovelihead:--


s: So Life herself, thy spirit's friend and love,


s: Even still as Spring's authentic harbinger


s: Glows with fresh hours for hope to glorify;


s: Though pale she lay when in the winter grove


s: Her funeral flowers were snow-flakes shed on her


s: And the red wings of frost-fire rent the sky.


s: Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been;


s: I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell;


s: Unto thine ear I hold the dead-sea shell


s: Cast up thy Life's foam-fretted feet between;


s: Unto thine eyes the glass where that is seen


s: Which had Life's form and Love's, but by my spell


s: Of ultimate things unuttered the frail screen.


s: Mark me, how still I am! But should there dart


s: One moment through thy soul the soft surprise


s: Of that winged Peace which lulls the breath of sighs,


s: Then shalt thou see me smile, and turn apart


s: Whence came his feet into my field, and why?


s: The name his bitter silence knows it by?


s: This was the little fold of separate sky


s: Whose pasturing clouds in the soul's atmosphere


s: Drew living light from one continual year:


s: How should he find it lifeless? He, or I?


s: Lo! this new Self now wanders round my field,


s: With plaints for every flower, and for each tree


s: And o'er sweet waters of my life, that yield


s: Unto his lips no draught but tears unseal'd,


s: Even in my place he weeps.  Even I, not he.


s: To-day Death seems to me an infant child


s: Has set to grow my friend and play with me;


s: How long, O Death? And shall thy feet depart


s: Still a young child's with mine, or wilt thou stand


s: Fullgrown the helpful daughter of my heart,


s: What time with thee indeed I reach the strand


s: Of the pale wave which knows thee what thou art,


s: And thou, O Life, the lady of all bliss,


s: With whom, when our first heart beat full and fast,


s: I wandered till the haunts of men were pass'd,


s: And in fair places found all bowers amiss


s: Till only woods and waves might hear our kiss,


s: While to the winds all thought of Death we cast:


s: Ah, Life! and must I have from thee at last


s: No smile to greet me and no babe but this?


s: Lo! Love, the child once ours; and Song, whose hair


s: Blew like a flame and blossomed like a wreath;


s: And Art, whose eyes were worlds by God found fair;


s: These o'er the book of Nature mixed their breath


s: With neck-twined arms, as oft we watched them there:


s: And did these die that thou mightst bear me Death?


s: Go hand in hand to death, and all is vain,


s: Shall Peace be still a sunk stream long unmet,--


s: Or may the soul at once in a green plain


s: Stoop through the spray of some sweet life-fountain


s: And cull the dew-drenched flowering amulet?


s: Ah! when the wan soul in that golden air


s: Between the scriptured petals softly blown


s: Peers breathless for the gift of grace unknown,


s: But only the one Hope's one name be there,--


s: Not less nor more, but even that word alone.


s: Songs light as these may sound, though deep and strong


s: The heart spake through them, scarce should hope to please


s: Ears tuned to strains of loftier thoughts than throng


s: Yet grace may set their sometime doubt at ease,


s: Nor need their too rash reverence fear to wrong


s: The shrine it serves at and the hope it sees.


s: For childlike loves and laughters thence prolong


s: Notes that bid enter, fearless as the breeze,


s: Even to the shrine of holiest-hearted song,


s: Goodnight and goodbye to the life whose signs denote us


s: As mourners clothed with regret for the life gone by;


s: To the waters of gloom whence winds of the dayspring float us


s: A time is for mourning, a season for grief to sigh;


s: But were we not fools and blind, by day to devote us


s: As thralls to the darkness, unseen of the sundawn's eye?


s: We have drunken of Lethe at length, we have eaten of lotus;


s: What hurts it us here that sorrows are born and die?


s: Outside of the port ye are moored in, lying


s: Close from the wind and at ease from the tide,


s: What sounds come swelling, what notes fall dying


s: They will not cease, they will not abide:


s: Ye see not, but hear ye not wild wings flying


s: To the future that wakes from the past that died?


s: Is grief still sleeping, is joy not sighing


s: Waves that whiten on wrecks that wallow,


s: Life and love, till the strong night swallow


s: Had I wist, when life was like a warm wind playing


s: Light and loud through sundawn and the dew's bright trust,


s: How the time should come for hearts to sigh in saying


s: Surely not the roses, laughing as they kissed,


s: Not the lovelier laugh of seas in sunshine swaying,


s: Should have lured my soul to look thereon and list.


s: Now the wind is like a soul cast out and praying


s: Vainly, prayers that pierce not ears when hearts resist:


s: Now mine own soul sighs, adrift as wind and straying,


s: Years upon years, as a course of clouds that thicken


s: Thronging the ways of the wind that shifts and veers,


s: Pass, and the flames of remembered fires requicken


s: Surely the thought in a man's heart hopes or fears


s: Now that forgetfulness needs must here have stricken


s: Anguish, and sweetened the sealed-up springs of tears.


s: Ah, but the strength of regrets that strain and sicken,


s: Yearning for love that the veil of death endears,


s: Slackens not wing for the wings of years that quicken -


s: Years upon years, and the flame of love's high altar


s: Trembles and sinks, and the sense of listening ears


s: Heeds not the sound that it heard of love's blithe psalter


s: Only the sense of a heart that hearkens hears,


s: Louder than dreams that assail and doubts that palter,


s: Sorrow that slept and that wakes ere sundawn peers.


s: Wakes, that the heart may behold, and yet not falter,


s: Faces of children as stars unknown of, spheres


s: Seen but of love, that endures though all things alter,


s: Years upon years, as a watch by night that passes,


s: Pass, and the light of their eyes is fire that sears


s: Slowly the hopes of the fruit that life amasses


s: Pale as the glimmer of stars on moorland meres


s: Lighten the shadows reverberate from the glasses


s: Held in their hands as they pass among their peers.


s: Lights that are shadows, as ghosts on graveyard grasses,


s: Moving on paths that the moon of memory cheers,


s: Shew but as mists over cloudy mountain passes


s: Time, thy name is sorrow, says the stricken


s: Heart of life, laid waste with wasting flame


s: Ere the change of things and thoughts requicken,


s: Ghosts of things that smite and thoughts that sicken


s: Hunt and hound thee down to death and shame.


s: Eyes of hours whose paces halt or quicken


s: Read in bloodred lines of loss and blame,


s: Writ where cloud and darkness round it thicken,


s: Nay, but rest is born of me for healing,


s: - So might haply time, with voice represt,


s: Speak:  is grief the last gift of my dealing?


s: All the world is wearied, east and west,


s: Tired with toil to watch the slow sun wheeling,


s: Twelve loud hours of life's laborious quest.


s: Eyes forspent with vigil, faint and reeling,


s: Not with rapturous light of life's revealing -


s: Death, if thou wilt, fain would I plead with thee:


s: Canst thou not spare, of all our hopes have built,


s: One shelter where our spirits fain would be,


s: No dome with suns and dews impearled and gilt,


s: Imperial:  but some roof of wildwood tree,


s: Too mean for sceptre's heft or swordblade's hilt.


s: Some low sweet roof where love might live, set free


s: From change and fear and dreams of grief or guilt;


s: Canst thou not leave life even thus much to see,


s: Man, what art thou to speak and plead with me?


s: What knowest thou of my workings, where and how


s: What things I fashion?  Nay, behold and see,


s: Thy fruits of life, and blossoms of thy bough,


s: What are they but my seedlings?  Earth and sea


s: Bear nought but when I breathe on it must bow.


s: Bow thou too down before me:  though thou be


s: Great, all the pride shall fade from off thy brow,


s: When Time and strong Oblivion ask of thee,


s: Death, if thou be or be not, as was said,


s: Survive:  thy power is made but of our dread,


s: Thy might is made out of our fear of thee:


s: Who fears thee not, hath plucked from off thine head


s: The crown of cloud that darkens earth and sea.


s: Earth, sea, and sky, as rain or vapour shed,


s: Shall vanish; all the shows of them shall flee:


s: Then shall we know full surely, quick or dead,


s: Far beyond the sunrise and the sunset rises


s: Heaven, with worlds on worlds that lighten and respond:


s: Thought can see not thence the goal of hope's surmises


s: Night and day have made an everlasting bond


s: Each with each to hide in yet more deep disguises


s: Truth, till souls of men that thirst for truth despond.


s: All that man in pride of spirit slights or prizes,


s: All the dreams that make him fearful, fain, or fond,


s: Fade at forethought's touch of life's unknown surprises


s: Dead and gone, the days we had together,


s: Shadow-stricken all the lights that shone


s: Round them, flown as flies the blown foam's feather,


s: Where we went, we twain, in time foregone,


s: Forth by land and sea, and cared not whether,


s: Thee perchance death leads enfranchised on,


s: Far from deathlike life and changeful weather,


s: Above the sea and sea-washed town we dwelt,


s: We twain together, two brief summers, free


s: From heed of hours as light as clouds that melt


s: Free from all heed of aught at all were we,


s: Save chance of change that clouds or sunbeams dealt


s: And gleam of heaven to windward or to lee.


s: The Norman downs with bright grey waves for belt


s: Were more for us than inland ways might be;


s: A clearer sense of nearer heaven was felt


s: Cliffs and downs and headlands which the forward-hasting